Carroll Electric restores power after outage affected 15,000 members - KHBS

Carroll Electric says a widespread outage affecting approximately 15,000 members in Benton County has been restored.

The outage was caused by a failed lightning arrester inside a distribution substation, according to Carroll Electric spokesperson Cory Smith. Restoration required coordination with the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation, which contributed to the extended restoration time.

Earlier Saturday, the Electric Cooperative of Arkansas outage map showed 15,192 outages across Benton County.

The outage affected OZ Trails Bike Park in Bella Vista and its chairlift.

Tyler Castrop, who was at the bike park when the power went out, said multiple groups were on the lift at the time.

“We were sitting up there waiting for a pizza to be made and everything just shut down,” Castrop said. “A few lights flickered. They had a handful of lights on in the building just to keep it from going pitch black, but everything else was shut off.”

Castrop said there were multiple groups on the chairlift when the power went out

“They were all stuck,” Castrop said. “They were sitting there and probably sat for ten minutes. There was somebody on every chair going up.”

Katie Parsons, a spokesperson for OZ Trails Bike Park, said guests were on the lift only briefly before they used auxiliary power to safely bring everyone down.

“The chairlift is equipped with auxiliary power, which allowed us to fully offload all guests from the lift quickly,” she said.

“We appreciate everyone’s patience while crews worked to safely restore service,” Smith said.