Update 10:15pm May 22, 2024 – City Water and Light crews have made much progress in the work to restore power to customers who lost service during the storms earlier today. As of 10:15pm the CWL outage map showed roughly 630 customers still without power. Craighead Electric showed no outages on its outage map. Entergy reported 643 customers without service in Mississippi County.
Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – May 22, 2024 – A severe thunderstorm packing a triple punch of heavy rain, large hail, and damaging winds moved into Jonesboro and Craighead County as the lunch hour ended Wednesday. Meteorologist Todd Beale with the National Weather Service said the Automated Weather Observation Station (AWOS) at the Jonesboro Municipal Airport recorded a peak wind gust of 61 knots (70 miles an hour) during the storm. There were reports of hail as large as golf balls. Heavy rain caused flooding in many areas prone to flooding during heavy rainfall.
City Water and Light Outage Map – 1:30pm
City Water and Light’s website outage map indicated over 7,500 outages as of 2pm. Craighead Electric showed about 300 outages across its system. Entergy’s outage map showed isolated outages.
“We’re working to isolate areas to get people back on,” said CWL spokesman Slade Mitchell. He said downed poles and trees over lines were the main problems.
Jonesboro Police Department radio traffic was busy reporting traffic light outages, flooding, power lines and trees down throughout the city. As of about 1:30pm, police had received 53 calls about damage, according to Sally Smith, JPD information specialist. There was a report of a wall caved-in at a house on Harrisburg Road.
Once the storms moved East of Jonesboro, they continued to support Severe Thunderstorm Warnings across Eastern Craighead County as well as other counties across Northeast Arkansas and the Missouri Bootheel.
While the storms packed a punch, there was no indication of a tornado. “We saw rotation in the storm for about two sweeps of the radar when the storm was approaching Jonesboro from the West,” said Trey Stafford, Jonesboro Radio Group’s President/General Manager and severe weather lead. “Once the rotation vanished, the storm developed the tall hail core.”
Craighead County Emergency Manager Anthony Coy said he had received no reports of injuries. “Lots of trees and power lines down,” Coy said. “The flash flooding downtown has receded.”
