LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — On Tuesday, Little Rock experienced a power outage for the second time in a week, causing significant slowdowns.
The most recent outage occured in west Little Rock due to a broken utility pole. It knocked out street lights in a busy intersection on Financial Parkway, leading to a rush hour free-for-all for everyone stuck in it.
Since then, viewers have asked how the city responds when traffic lights go out.
Tuesday's power outage marked the second in a week, as downtown Little Rock saw an outage on Aug. 14 due to an underground electrical fire.
Although we were told the incidents were unrelated, the City of Little Rock has things in place to ensure vital operations can remain.
When traffic lights are disrupted, or the power goes out, the city has generators to keep them going. Some of the newer lights even have built-in batteries to give them another power source.
Little Rock's Public Works Director John Honeywell said the city prioritizes restoring traffic lights on streets with the highest traffic volumes.
We reached out to Entergy to see if they could give us more information on the outages that occurred recently, and they gave us the following statement:
"There are a number of reasons that outages can occur – storms, animals, public-inflicted damage, vegetation, lightning and equipment failure.
We routinely monitor our facilities throughout the grid to proactively identify and address where improvements need to be made.
Reliability work is a dynamic and ongoing process, with the scope and type of work required for each project varying based on specific circumstances.
Entergy Arkansas has a dedicated team who works diligently to keep the lights on 24/7.
As for the upcoming winter season, we do not anticipate any problems with the grid. As in winters past, in addition to our internal resources, we work closely with MISO to ensure there is ample power and we do not anticipate any issues with the power supply and the grid during winter weather. We are well-prepared to provide reliable, affordable and sustainable power to our customers now and this winter."