Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Snow Follows Dec. Ice Storm; Work Continues Countywide

Students got more of a holiday vacation than they bargained for as schools in the county were delayed because of the ice and snow storms.

Nevada schools were out all week last week because of icy road conditions, while Prescott and Emmet schools missed two days each.

Schools weren't the only entities affected by the storms, as city and county employees wound up working through the holiday season to clear roads and get electricity and water restored.

Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown said at one time all 800 miles of county roads were blocked by fallen trees, and, as of Friday, Jan. 5, all but 50 miles have been opened.

This, he said, doesn't mean they've been cleared of trees and debris, but they have at least one lane open to allow traffic to pass.

The problem, though, he said, is the damage done to the roads because of the ice and trees. The full extent of the storm's damage won't be known for months.

However, Brown has been working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), providing it preliminary data on the damage.

FEMA, he said, will give the county 75 percent of the money required to do the work needed, while the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) will kick in another 12.5 percent. The county will be responsible for the other 12.5 percent.

Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor said the city is still assessing its inventory, seeing where it's short then ordering replacement materials for what was used during the storm.

Two four-inch water mains broke during the storm, causing extensive street damage and the city is still replacing utility poles broken from the ice.

As of Friday Taylor said the city had replaced about 20 poles, but had no idea how much line had been strung after having been snapped.

"What helped us while the power was off," he said, "is we were able to do major repairs without danger. We worked on this for two days, then on the main system."

For a while, Prescott was under a boil order because the pumping station was inoperative for lack of electricity. Now, though, Taylor said the water situation is fine.

State Sen. Percy Malone spent the week in Little Rock successfully pushing to get a resolution adopted asking FEMA to pick up 100 percent of the clean up costs.

"The tornado (March 1, 1997) was worse because lives were lost," Malone said, "but this affected everybody."

The disaster will have a big price tag to get the damage cleaned up, he said, but there are no estimates as to the overall costs as yet.

Now, Malone said, the idea is to get money flowing as soon as possible to help pay for the cleanup.

Rosston Mayor Lewis Jackson said his city was hit hard by the storm, and had no idea how much the cleanup effort would cost.

Friday, the roads were still iced over, with a lot of trees down. But, he said, the city was able to keep water going to the citizens as the generator had been repaired and was operational.

The Arkansas National Guard ferried water from Rosston to Prescott on a regular basis to make sure those in Prescott had some potable water available.

Jackson asked FEMA for $20,000 to help with street repair, but said this won't be enough to properly fix the roads.

He said the city needs to get crushed rock down now, but this can't be done until the ground has thawed out.

Cale Mayor Davis Benton said residents of his town were handling things pretty well.

There were some trees down on streets, but not many, and this has been taken care of.

Utility workers responded and worked to get the power lines repaired, he said, adding the full extent of the damage isn't known at this time.

Benton, who provides weather information for the south part of the county, said he talked with the National Weather Service in Shreveport, La., and Little Rock about the storm.

"This one's going down as a biggee," he said. "Unofficially, this is considered a 100-year ice storm. We got about four inches of precipitation (rain and sleet) not counting the snow."Benton said this was one of the best forecast ice storms he's ever seen. Meteorologists predicted the storm about a week in advance, giving people plenty of time to prepare for it.

John Teeter, who also provides weather information to the Picayune, said this wasn't the worst ice storm ever, even though it was a bad one.

The worst, he said, occurred in 1955 when the ground was covered in ice and snow for the entire month of February.

On the school situation, Prescott Superintendent Ron Wright said students missed one day during the first ice storm and one during the second one.

However, the ceiling in the administration building collapsed, with tiles falling on a computer in the front office.

Damage also occurred at the fifth and sixth grade building at McRae Middle School.

On the positive side, Wright said attendance has been "wonderfully high" with more than 90 percent of the students attending class.

Shade Gilbert, Emmet High School Principal, said students missed Tuesday through Thursday, with classes resuming at 9 a.m. Friday.

The Emmet School Board will have to decide how the missed days will be made up, he said.

Emmet suffered no structural damage because of the storm, but did lose some milk which went out of date, along with some food items which spoiled for lack of electricity to the coolers.

Rick McAfee, Nevada superintendent, had more problems as the district couldn't run buses because of icy road conditions.

"Some areas look like a battle zone," he said Friday.

The facility at Nevada suffered some roof damage because of the ice, as a leak was found. An insurance adjuster will examine the damage.

"We couldn't have been hit at a better time," he said, as the storm occurred while students were home during the Christmas holidays.

The school didn't lose any food, he said, as the freezer doors were never opened and were able to keep everything inside from spoiling.

However, McAfee had a bone to pick with the Red Cross.

Nevada School, he said, is an emergency center and should be used in emergency situations. This, though, can't be done as the school has no generator to provide electricity when the power had been knocked out.

McAfee has tried to get some sort of response from the Red Cross to help with a generator, but has had no luck. He said emergency workers had to stay in a dark, cold gym on the Southern Arkansas University campus because of this.

He's also working to get a grant to purchase a generator for the school.