In the early morning hours of Feb. 15, a winter storm moved into the area bringing just enough ice and snow over the next 36 hours to shut down much of White County and the surrounding area.
The storm, which began with freezing rain that coated the area with between 0.10 and 0.25 inches of ice and then later covered the ice with snow, caused power outages through areas of the county. While the outages were widespread, the majority of the problems came in the north end area as well as the western portion of the county.
According to Jason Cloyd, Caney Fork Electric had an estimated 5,100 customers lose service because of icy conditions.
“As of now, we have everyone back up,” Cloyd said at 11:30 a.m., on Feb. 16, but said that it took approximately 18 hours to get to that point. “Our guys worked nonstop. We didn’t leave here until after 12:30 a.m. and then were back between 5 and 6 this morning. The problem was that when we would get service restored, within an hour most of them would be back out again.”
While power has been restored throughout White County, Cloyd said more outages can occur as things begin to thaw.
“Even after the storm has passed, there could be more problems,” he said. “When limbs start going back up after the ice melts, they will hit lines, and as trees that broke begin to fall when they thaw, they fall on lines.”
Calls to Caney Fork Electric’s McMinnville office, which services Van Buren County, had reports of 2,600 customers in that area still without power at 9 a.m., Feb. 16, but a total number of outages for the duration of the storm was not available as customer services representatives were still fielding calls at 11:45 a.m., and lineman were working on restoration.
Belva Bess, manager with Sparta Electric, said the city of Sparta did not have any weather-related outages as of 12:30 p.m., Feb. 16. However, later that evening, there were reports of customers without service. A call to Sparta Electric early Wednesday morning verified the outages, but the source was unknown at that time.
“All of our electrical crews did a great job getting power back up throughout the county. We are very fortunate considering many in Putnam County still do not have power,” White County’s EMA director, Stanley Neal said. “Yesterday, the YMCA acted as a warming shelter if anyone needed to warm up, but by mid-morning all power was back on in the county “
White County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson echoed Neal’s appreciation for the electric crews that worked long hours to get service restored to White County residents.
“They worked in the cold, ice, and snow so that we could stay warm. Thank you, Caney Fork Electric, Sparta Electric, and Volunteer Electric for all you do,” Robinson said.
While power was the big topic, many roadways were iced over creating dangerous driving conditions on most of the county’s back roads. Extremely low temperatures made salt ineffective at times, and many roads had not thawed as of Wednesday morning.
While roads were treacherous and White County Sheriff Steve Page urged residents to stay home on Feb. 15 and Feb. 16, no accidents with serious injuries were reported.
While Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning brought some thawing of roadways and some relief to residents needing to travel throughout the county, another storm is scheduled to bring more ice and snow on Wednesday night and Thursday.
“We will be monitoring the next storm closely,” Neal said. “We will have updates on our Facebook page, White County EMA.”
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here