Beebe declares state disaster following snow storm

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe has declared a statewide disaster following Tuesday’s winter snow storm that left more than 150,000 without power.

Most of the power outages were in central Arkansas. The storm packed wind gusts up to 40 mph, and up to 10 inches of snow, with the highest snow totals in central and south Arkansas.

The declaration helps the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management work “as efficiently as possible with other state agencies when providing assistance,” noted the statement from Beebe’s office.

Specifically, the declaration suspends rules associated with “procedures for conduct of the State Office of Purchasing, the Arkansas Building Authority, the State Office of Personnel Management, and all other state departments and agencies to render maximum assistance to the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management relative to any potential impediment to the rapid and orderly rendering of assistance to political subdivisions.”

Beebe also made declarations that ease federal rules that oversee the transport of utility crews and supplies, and the movement of poultry and poultry supplies.