JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - Thousands of people across Northeast and North Central Arkansas awoke Wednesday morning to cold, dark homes.

As of 9 p.m., Jan. 25, the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas reported 40,339 customers were without power following a winter storm that swept through Tuesday night.

The North Arkansas Electric Cooperative (NAEC) was the hardest hit, reporting 40,339 members without electricity as of 9 p.m. In Baxter County alone, 12,325 customers were without power.

The AEC reported customers in the following counties in Northeast Arkansas were without power:

• Baxter: 12,325
• Craighead: 52
• Fulton: 4,604
• Izard: 4,777
• Lawrence 64
• Sharp: 4,102
• Stone: 265

Mel Coleman, chief executive officer of NAEC, said Wednesday morning it could take days before power is fully restored.

Coleman says this storm packed quite the punch. He told our reporter, Hayden Savage, the weight of the snow had damaged poles, lines, and other infrastructure.

“It’s as bad as I’ve seen it since the 2009 ice storm,” he said. “This snow is the heaviest I’ve seen. The damage that we’re seeing is cross arms, and lines down, fortunately, we’ve only had one broken pole. That’s good. At the height of the outages, we had 30,000 out of power.”

The storm will end up costing the co-op a lot of money.

“If I was going to wager a guess, this is going to end up in the millions of dollars,” Coleman added. “This will not compare anywhere near what the ice storm of 2009 caused, but this will be in the millions of dollars.”

Nick Manatt with the Clay County Electric Cooperative said crews worked throughout the night to restore power.

As of 9 p.m. Wednesday, Manatt said several thousand customers were still without power in Randolph County.

Entergy Arkansas also reported 21,131 customers were without power at 9 p.m. Wednesday. The hardest hit counties included:

• Baxter: 678
• Independence: 1,323
• Izard: 1,073
• Sharp: 537
• Stone: 8,229

To report power outages:

Clay County Electric Cooperative:

• 1-800-521-2450
• Report via text message by clicking here

Craighead Electric Cooperative:

• 1-888-771-7772
• Register for text messaging services, click here
• · Outage map

Entergy Arkansas:

• 1-800-968-8243 (1-800-9OUTAGE)
• Sign up for text message alerts, click here

Farmers Electric Cooperative:

• 870-523-3691

Jonesboro City Water & Light:

• (870) 930-3300
• Outage map

Mississippi County Electric Cooperative:

• 1-800-439-4563

North Arkansas Electric Cooperative:

• Baxter County - 870-425-2141
• Fulton County - 870-895-3221
• Izard County - 870-670-5600
• Sharp County - 870-994-2191
• Report an outage from the NAEC mobile app, download it here.

Osceola Municipal Light & Power

• (870) 563-5245

Paragould Light Water and Cable

• (870) 239-7700

Piggott Municipal Light Water and Sewer

• (870) 598-3208

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