Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Winter Storm Hits; More Expected

Winter paid the area an early visit Wednesday, Dec. 13, dropping about two inches of wintry mix in Gurdon.

The biggest problem from the mixture of freezing rain, sleet and snow was the loss of electricity for about three hours Wednesday morning.

However, Entergy crews responded quickly and had the electricity back on for the biggest part of Gurdon by 10:30 a.m., after a transformer blew around 7:35 in the morning.

Randy Jerry, with Entergy, said about 1,800 customers were without power in Gurdon and Sparkman because of the weather, but the southern part of the state was hit even worse.

Jerry said Magnolia had no power at all, and, as of Friday morning, parts of southern Nevada County remained without electricity or water.

Gurdon City Marshal David Childres said there were no accidents as a result of the weather, even though there was no electricity anywhere in Gurdon.

Officers with the Gurdon Police Department communicated using their hand held radios as well as the radios in their vehicles, as the base unit at City Hall was down for lack of power.

Schools in the Gurdon district shut down Wednesday, remaining closed Thursday because of the continued possibility the electricity would go out again because of ice on trees. However, classes resumed Friday morning.

Superintendent Bobby Smithson said semester tests, originally scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, with Friday being the make-up day, will be rescheduled until after the holiday break.

Some residents had made plans to leave for Christmas after school closed Friday, and some of the students wouldn't have been available for the tests.

To make up for the lost days, Smithson said, the district had planned some long weekends. These may be canceled to ensure the district has its full compliment of school days at the end of the year.

Or, depending on the rest of the winter, the days could be made up at the end of the academic year.

Clark County Judge Floyd "Buddy" Manning said the biggest problem the county had was trees being across the road, and limbs on power lines.

Crews were out all Wednesday and Thursday cutting limbs and clearing trees from county roads, making sure at least one lane was open on all of them so traffic could come and go in a reasonable manner.

In fact, Manning doubled the road and bridge crews for the task, sending out chain saws, loaders and graders to remove the debris.

Additionally, the Clark County Courthouse was closed Wednesday, as Manning wanted to avoid the possibility of the employees being in an accident coming to work.

In Gurdon, street crews were out early moving the slush to the curbs so the main streets would be clear for traffic.

The major streets were the first to be cleared, with the secondary ones being the last worked on by the street crews.

Jim Burns, Clark County Office of Emergency Services coordinator, said the county's road crews were prepared for the weather as they had plenty of warning.

The crews put salt out to make sure the roads didn't ice up and create and even greater traffic hazzard.

The power situation, he said was the most critical, with temperature being the key.

However, the temperature didn't fall much below freezing Wednesday night, which allowed for some thawing Thursday.

Still, Friday saw ice remaining on trees and in piles on the side of roads where it had been pushed by road crews.

Prior to the winter storm Gurdon residents stocked up on staples, such as milk and bread, so they could make it through, till the weather conditions warmed up.