Power still off for 165,000 in state

Digging out begins; more ice forecast

Truckers Michael Wells (left) and C’rone Hill try to dig snow and ice from underneath the wheels of their tractor-trailer Thursday morning after sliding off Kanis Road in Little Rock.
Truckers Michael Wells (left) and C’rone Hill try to dig snow and ice from underneath the wheels of their tractor-trailer Thursday morning after sliding off Kanis Road in Little Rock.

— Utility crews restored power to about 100,000 of the nearly 265,000 customers who lost service during a Christmas night snowstorm, but falling limbs, melting ice and snapping electrical lines hindered workers Thursday.

Meanwhile, National Weather Service forecasters said there was a chance of freezing rain and light snow overnight north of a line from Mena to Pine Bluff. The outlook for the northern two-thirds of the state today has utility officials concerned about more power disruptions yet to come.

“That’s another factor we’ll have to deal with,” Entergy Arkansas spokesman Julie Munsell said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Tabitha Clarke in North Little Rock said, “It won’t be as bad as earlier this week,” referring to the storm system that dumped up to 15 inches of snow and ice on the state Tuesday and early Wednesday.

“But temperatures are cold, and any light amount of frozen precipitation could cause problems,” she said.

The weather contributed to the deaths of at least three people in the state. Two children were killed in an accident on icy roads in Faulkner County on Christmas night, and a Benton man died Wednesday when an iceladen tree smashed through the bedroom of a home on Bass Lane, police said.

Also, forecasters say there’s a slight chance of more snow early next week.

“I’m waiting for summer,” said Rob Roedel, a spokesman for the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas.

His utility company reported 20,000 customers still without power Thursday, down from the 70,000 at the peak of the storm.

Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas workers were in “standby” mode Thursday afternoon, waiting for Entergy crews to repair transmission lines leading to substations owned by the electric cooperative, Roedel said.

He said most of his utility’s customers still without power Thursday live in Saline and Lonoke counties.

“We’ve done what we can,” he said. “Now we’re waiting.”

Entergy President Hugh McDonald re-emphasized that it could take a week or more before all power is restored.

Entergy reported Thursday morning that it had restored service to about 160,000 customers, but by 9:30 a.m. an additional 7,000 had lost electricity.

Munsell blamed that loss of power on utility lines “rebounding,” or snapping back into place after ice on them melted. She said tree limbs and chunks of melting ice and snow also were falling onto lines.

“We anticipated this,” she said of the increase in power disruption. “But we’re working through that.”

By Thursday evening, Entergy reported that 131,000 homes and businesses in its service area remained without power.

DIGGING IN ON DIGGING OUT

With power loss in central Arkansas still widespread Thursday afternoon, residents around Pulaski County struggled to get back to normal.

Libraries, museums, state offices and many businesses remained closed Thursday. But as the roads began to thaw, Central Arkansas Transit Authority buses ran routes, city offices opened, and a few coffee shops, stores and restaurants welcomed customers looking for heat and places to charge up their electronics.

Employees of state offices were expected to return to work today but two hours later than normal because of the freezing-rain forecast, said Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe.

Little Rock and North Little Rock City Halls opened about noon Thursday, and trash trucks in both cities rattled and hummed their way along routes missed earlier this week.

In North Little Rock, about 700 North Little Rock Electric Department customers remained without power in pockets late Thursday afternoon, Mayor Patrick Hays said.

“Those are the ones that are going to go slow” to restore, Hays said. “We hope to get most of those by [Thursday], but we don’t know. There may be a few carryovers. We’re trying to work as hard as we can.”

There are trees down “all over” the city, Hays said. “That will be a major cleanup.”

He said the city’s major thoroughfares are mostly passable, and the City Council planned to meet at 7 p.m. as scheduled Thursday.

In Little Rock, Public Works Department crews were working in 12-hour shifts. All available trucks were out in the midafternoon, spreading salt and sand, and working to break up ice.

“We have about 50 employees running all of our equipment, and we beefed up our stock of salt earlier today,” said Mark Jacobi, Public Works operations coordinator.

“Basically we’re still in 24/7 mode until we get everything opened up. We’re focusing on the main thoroughfares still, getting those cleared of debris and making sure they stay passable. But we have some trucks that have ventured into neighborhoods, and we’re working to get everything open.”

Jacobi said the city has placed a priority on neighborhoods with hospitals, fire stations and other emergency services.

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said several city buildings, including fire stations, were running on generators.

Public Works Operations Manager Eric Petty said crews were dealing with about 83 fallen trees that were partially or fully blocking streets early Thursday, and he expected that number to grow by afternoon.

CATA buses — which didn’t run Wednesday — were back on their routes by about 7 a.m. Thursday, Executive Director Betty Wineland said. But the freezing precipitation expected today may affect today’s bus schedules.

City residents were hard at work Thursday digging out.

Keith McMickel, 50, who lives near McKinley and West Markham streets, was among them, chipping away at his ice-covered driveway.

“I’m trying to get my driveway shoveled because I’ve got a little bit of cabin fever,” he said. “We’ve been stuck in since Christmas night. I didn’t even try [to shovel] it yesterday. I just waited until it started breaking up and thawed out.”

McMickel, the men’s department manager at a Dillard’s store in Hot Springs, hoped to return to work today.

On South University Avenue, five people shoveled the path to a McDonald’s drive-through window and the restaurant’s entrance just a few hours after the eatery opened Thursday for the first time since it lost power on Christmas Day. Employees salted the parking lot, which had 4 inches of ice on it.

Owner Eliecer Palacios said he and other employees rounded up enough help to open the business about 11 a.m.

“It’s certainly had a financial impact,” he said. “We’re monitoring the condition of the food, and we’ve lost over $1,000 in food that we’ve already disposed of.”

Meanwhile, for those in need of a place to stay, Little Rock opened two warming shelters for residents without electricity Thursday — one at the Southwest Community Center on Base Line Road and the other at the Dunbar Community Center on West 16th Street.

The Southwest Community Center was open during the daytime, the city said. The central Arkansas chapter of the American Red Cross partnered with the city to keep the Dunbar Center open overnight, providing food and cots for up to 100 people.

North Little Rock also opened a warming center at its community center on Willow Street in conjunction with the Red Cross.

GUARD TROOPS PITCH IN

Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department spokesman Randy Ort said road crews were busy Thursday, removing tree limbs and other debris from roadways. He said drivers should remain on the lookout for icy patches.

“The roads may look clear, but we ended up with a pretty significant amount of ice before the snow set in,” he said. “People need to be careful.”

The Arkansas National Guard pitched in Thursday with a few missions supporting city and county services.

Six Guard airmen with the 189th Airlift Wing Rapid Activation Team continued clearing trees from Garland County roadways.

In Pulaski and Faulkner counties, the Guard’s 213th Area Support Medical Company of the 87th Troop Command and 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Brigade also continued missions Thursday, providing seven fourwheel-drive ambulances and 14 soldiers to Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services in Conway, Little Rock and Jacksonville.

The 39th also has supplied two generators to Pulaski County, and the 77th Aviation Brigade is supporting Hempstead County with generators.

Tow-truck operators pulled vehicles from ditches, although the pace slowed a bit Thursday, said Mandy Sikes of Tanner’s Towing in Malvern.

The work stretched “from Christmas evening through Wednesday,” she said. “There is no shift work in this type of weather. We just work until it’s done, and then we crash.

“I think we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now.”

Farther north, in Walnut Ridge, roads were clearing after being covered with 14 inches of snow Wednesday.

“I had to steal my son’s four-wheel [drive] Jeep just to get out of my road,” Lawrence County Sheriff Jody Dotson said. “There are still little patches of ice, and it’s still snowed up pretty bad.”

Dotson said deputies used the department’s recently purchased military Humvees to help stranded motorists Christmas night.

AIR-TRAVEL WOES

At Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock, more than two dozen flights were canceled Thursday, half of them departures. Airport officials continued to urge passengers to check with airlines for the status of flights before traveling to the airport.

Freezing fog at the state’s largest airport forced two flights — US Airways from Charlotte, N.C., and American Airlines from Chicago — to be diverted to Memphis until Little Rock’s weather improved, said Shane Carter, a Little Rock airport spokesman.

Carter referred inquiries about flight cancellations to the airlines. US Airways and United Airlines flights made up most of Thursday’s cancellations.

A US Airways spokesman blamed the weather for the cancellation of a flight to Washington, D.C. A flight to Charlotte was canceled because of operational issues, he said.

A United Airlines spokesman didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Although the Little Rock airport remained open through the Christmas Day storm and its aftermath with at least one commercial service runway open throughout, the facility became a port in the storm for some passengers.

For the second night in a row, some passengers stayed overnight Wednesday at the airport. Many of them were from rural parts of the state and had arrived early, fearing that icy roads would cause them to miss their flights, Carter said. Also, area hotels filled up with residents seeking a warm place in light of widespread power failures, so passengers had little choice but to spend the night in the airport, he said.

Meanwhile, the airport braced for more freezing precipitation Thursday night and this morning, Carter said.

“We will be working again tonight to clear the runway of any additional freezing rain.”

Information for this article was contributed by Amy Schlesing, John Worthen, Jake Sandlin and Aziza Musa of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/28/2012

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