Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Ice Cripples Area: Some Services Restored

Dreams for a white Christmas were answered with a devastating winter storm, less than two weeks after a similar storm hit parts of Nevada County.

Freezing rain and sleet blanketed the area starting around 9 p.m. Christmas Eve and continued for the next two days.

The end result was a lack of electricity for Prescott and most of Nevada County for almost a week, with crews working to restore power. (Power was restored to downtown Prescott and to most residential areas just before 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 28.)

Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor, Friday morning, said, 75 percent of the people had electricity in town.

Crews, he said, worked nine and 10 hours a day during the disaster, and were given Sunday off to get some needed rest.

One of the city's biggest headaches was three utility poles being broken around the Martin Apartment Complex.

The water situation, he said, is different, with all customers being under a boil order until further notice.

Samples can't be sent to the Arkansas Department of Health for testing until Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2001, then, Taylor said, it will take two more days before the results will be known.

"I'm thankful there have been no injuries or fatalities from this," Taylor said. "We have a safety talk with the city workers every morning before they go out.

"Most of them are seasoned and have been through this before. They're aware of the dangers and know what to do."

To make matters worse residents in Hope, Texarkana and other towns in south Arkansas were also without power. Gurdon, at least Tuesday and Wednesday, had electricity at times.

While it was devastating in this area, stores that normally have after- Christmas sales were closed for lack of power. While this meant people couldn't leave town to get items they needed to buy, it also meant sales plans had to be changed. One thing it did Tuesday, Prescott Big Star lowered prices by one-half on items that were perishable, such as meats, frozen foods and dairy products. Management only permitted a few people in at a time and escorted customers with flashlights to areas. Check-out was with a hand-held calculator as people also stocked up on bread, other essential items groceries in general.

Temperatures warmed up considerably Wednesday night and Thursday and ice began to melt off power lines and trees. Some merchants were able to obtain generators and had opened by noon Thursday. With the power back on Thursday afternoon it was assumed that things would begin to turn back to normal Fridayexcept for the clean-up.

While Gurdon had power Wednesday Prescott and Nevada County residents flocked to the south Clark County town to fill their gas tanks and to buy groceries. Gurdon's Red-E Mart was soon out of regular gasoline and was selling the more expensive kind. Others lined up at Calley's Fina Station, some with extra containers to take back home.

When Gurdon lost power at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday Calley's managed to obtain a generator and to keep pumping gasoline, which helped those from neighboring Nevada County.

Nevada County Sheriff Steve Otwell summed up the situation inside Prescott and out by calling it a war zone. County Judge James Roy Brown said there are 800 miles of road in the county and all 800 miles were blocked by trees.

Still, for the most part, people pulled together during the disaster, lending neighbors a hand, and working with the city and county when they could. The county has a lot of volunteers and they can all be commended.

Brown said there is no way the county would be doing as well as it is without the help of these volunteers. "There's no way I can ever tell them how much they're appreciated," he said.

Fortunately, there was no serious accidents in the county. However, a residence near Willisville was destroyed by fire Christmas night when power lines began to fall. No one was injured in the blaze.

Otwell said his deputies had worked some minor accidents, mostly with people sliding off the road into ditches, but only one wreck required an ambulance being called; it happened on Interstate 30.The Army National Guard drove back and forth between Prescott and Rosston, filling a tanker with potable water so people in Prescott would have water to drink and to cook with. At least those who had access to natural gas or propane could cook.

Most residents wound up losing all their food from refrigerators and some lost part or all of the food from their freezers, because of the lack of electricity.

The Nevada County Picayune had to suspend publication of the Dec. 27 edition as no cities around had electricity for newspapers to run their presses.

Publisher Ricky Ragsdale called around to other newspapers, but no towns had power. Thursday he was still trying to find a newspaper with power to print this week's edition. The Hope Star, which normally prints the Picayune, regained power Thursday afternoon, but a spokesman said she was unsure when this issue could get printed.

It was reported that some residents at Beverly Health and Rehab in Prescott were transferred to the one in Arkadelphia, as Arkadelphia had power when Prescott didn't.

One of the biggest problems for motorists trying to return home from spending the holidays with friends or family was the lack of gasoline available in this area due to the lack of electricity. Some were stranded in Prescott; others at various other points.

With no electric service gas stations and convenience stores were unable to pump gasoline. Besides Calley's in Gurdon the truck stop at Caddo Valley was pumping fuel. When night set in Wednesday it was reported that no station between the Arkansas-Texas state line to Little Rock was open.

There was one instance of breaking and entering in Prescott during the bad weather. Sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning Green Acres on West First North was broken into with 10 saws stolen, according to city officials.

The perpetrator gained entry by going through the back of the building.

Congressman-elect Mike Ross spent three days on the phone trying to get help for the south half of Arkansas, he said.

He said Gov. Mike Huckabee had declared the region a disaster area and was working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to get generators to affected areas.

The generators would first be used to get hospitals up and running, Ross said, followed by law enforcement and emergency services agencies. Next on the list to get generators would be grocery stores, pharmacies and service stations.

Ross said this disaster has been far reaching and is unlike other natural disasters.

When a tornado hits, he said, usually only one area is affected, but this one has basically hit the entire southern part of Arkansas. This means emergency crews are working all over the place instead of one spot.

These crews are finding plenty to be repaired, too. Ross said there are areas where power lines are broken every 50 feet.

State Senator-elect Percy Malone has also been working to help the area.

"This is horrible," he said. "I don't know the extent of the disaster, but I'm working with the Office of Emergency Services to find out where we stand."

Malone said hospitals and government entities, such as emergency services and law enforcement need electricity first.

Entergy had 180,000 customers without power in Arkansas, but other estimates from all over south Arkansas were put at 315,000.

Prescott's residential areas looked like it had been hit by an F-5 tornado. Trees and limbs were down on every street, with many homes and automobiles damaged from fallen limbs and trees.

The situation was the same across the county as the rain froze on trees, and the weight caused branches and trees to fall.

Everyone agreed this has been the worst weather situation in memory. The last time anything came close was in 1985, but that ice storm didn't do near the damage this one has so far.

The downed trees and limbs meant no Christmas break for county and city workers.

Brown had the road and bridge crews out Christmas Day working to clear at least one lane of all county roads. He said they will keep working through New Year's to make sure the job is done.

"We need to see what FEMA does," he said. "We need some of their money," he said in reference to recovering some expenses.

Brown hired some outside employees to help run chainsaws and clear roads. He said someone is working in all parts of the county at all times.Green Acres opened Tuesday and Wednesday to aid those who needed parts or repairs for their chainsaws or those who were looking to buy new ones.

It is impossible to estimate the costs of the clean-up in the city of Prescott at this time. A natural disaster of this magnitude has never been experienced in recent years. It will take city crews weeks to clean up the debris on every street. One can only imagine how much it will cost the county for this clean-up and the one 12 days earlier.

The timber industry is especially hard hit by the disaster with pine trees across the southern part of the state heavily damaged, some of it going from timber to chips practically overnight.

One report was the entire crop has been lost, but this has not been substantiated and is doubtful.

Meanwhile, all law enforcement officers are on full alert and the local branch of the National Guard remains at the ready.

As of Thursday afternoon it wasn't known whether any of the county's schools would open as scheduled on Jan. 2, 2001.

There were reports the power could be out until Jan. 4 in some areas, but that is supposition.

However, weather reports were calling for more snow or freezing rain over the weekend before New Year's Day.

Otwell and Prescott Police Chief Sam Reeder offered residents some advice  stay off the roads unless it's an emergency situation.

Taylor said when city crews can get around to it they will be chipping limbs and branches.

In the meantime, though, Billy Hines said those who want to haul their limbs, branches and tree trunks out to Hines Trucking can do so as there is a chipper there and they have a place to put the chips.