Rain lingers; cold moves east

Ice on roads led to dozens of crashes, 3 fatalities in state

 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL --1/9/14-- Ice covers the trees Thursday morning as rain continues to fall at the Old Mill in North Little Rock.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL --1/9/14-- Ice covers the trees Thursday morning as rain continues to fall at the Old Mill in North Little Rock.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Temperatures are expected to rise well above 32 degrees today as a system that produced freezing rain across the state moves eastward, but authorities cautioned motorists to watch for icy spots on roadways.

The state Highway and Transportation Department treated roads with salt and chemicals Thursday night and planned to again this morning while monitoring for any slick spots, spokesman Danny Straessle said.

“It’s a continuous cycle,” he said of crews working since freezing rain and sleet began pelting the state Tuesday evening. “We’re just staying with it and keeping up.”

Three people died in weather-related accidents Wednesday evening, police said.

James Nichols, 58, of Flippin died when another vehicle went out of control on an icy bridge on Arkansas 46 near Leola and hit his car, Arkansas State Police said. Thomas Coats, 55, of Hattiesville died in Conway County, and James Franklin Conway, 80, of Bradford died in White County, each when he lost control of his vehicle on ice-slickened roads.

“We’re urging motorists to be careful,” Straessle said. “Even if the sun is shining, it will take time for ice to melt.”

Gov. Mike Beebe put the state’s inclement weather policy into effect, letting state employees in Little Rock report to work two hours later than usual Thursday. Schools in all three Pulaski County districts opened an hourlate, and many others across north and northwest Arkansas closed altogether.

Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery said his deputies responded to more than 30 accidents Thursday morning.

“Our deputies are running ragged from answering calls of accidents and people stuck and in the ditch,” Montgomery wrote on the sheriff ’s Facebook page.

Lawrence County Sheriff Jody Dotson spent Thursday morning driving around his county checking on road conditions. Most were clear by noon, he said, but icy patches lingered on some secondary roads.

“The roads are a whole lot better, but people still need to be careful if they’re getting out,” Dotson said.

A vehicle slid off U.S. 63 in Black Rock and struck a utility pole Wednesday evening, knocking power out to a portion of the Lawrence County town, Dotson said. Electrical service was restored overnight, he said.

Entergy Arkansas reported more than 3,000 homes and businesses without service early Thursday because of the icy conditions. More than 1,200 customers lost power in Pope County when ice-laden lines snapped, a message on the website of the state’s largest electric utility said. Power was expected to be restored by early evening, the message said.

Southwestern Electric Power Co., which had more than 2,000 customers in Washington County without power Wednesday night, had restored service Thursday.

In Crawford County, roads were so treacherous Wednesday afternoon that the Alma School District decided not to put its buses out on some rural, secondary roads after school let out.

At first, the district suggested letting about 15 students spend the night in the school because their parents and guardians could not pick them up. However, Crawford County Sheriff Ron Brown and one of his captains drove the students home instead. Both have four-wheel-drive sport utility vehicles.

“The roads were terrible,” Brown said. “They were covered in thick ice. But the kids all got to sleep at home in their own beds last night.”

Brown said it took about four hours to get all of the students home.

“We had to wait for the Highway Department to sand some of the hills because they were so bad,” Brown said.“We didn’t want to risk it with kids in the cars with us.”

After a few days of record-setting cold in the state, rain began falling in western Arkansas early Wednesday and quickly froze as it hit.

“The ground was so much more vulnerable,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Tabitha Clarke of North Little Rock.

On Thursday morning, temperatures hovered around freezing across much of the state, making for widely varying road conditions.

“It really made a difference on what side of 32 degrees you were on,” Clarke said.

The National Weather Service issued winter weather advisories for all but four southwestern counties Wednesday. By noon Thursday, those advisories were lifted, but many roads remained slippery.

“The challenge was folks were driving on the interstates at ‘interstate speeds’ and found patches of ‘black ice,’” Straessle said, referring to ice that forms on roadways but is difficult to see.

“The hardest-hit area was the Interstate 40 corridor from Oklahoma to Morrilton,” he said. “We focused our work on that area.”

Straessle said an eastbound tractor-trailer jackknifed on I-40 near Ozark on Wednesday morning. It took workers until 10 p.m. Wednesday to clear the highway, and it was after midnight before traffic flowed smoothly again, he said.

The weekend weather - expected to be clearing and not as cold - won’t halt plans to scout for eagles at Petit Jean State Park, park interpreter Rachel Englebrecht said. The state park will lead a tour Saturday to the Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge near Dardanelle to look for the birds.

“The [recent] cold, cloudy weather may give us a better chance of seeing the eagles,” she said. “They may be hunkered down in trees instead of flying.”

The recent cold isn’t expected to hurt this year’s crop of mosquitoes or other pests, said John Hopkins, an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” he said of a reduced spring mosquito population.

Also, Hopkins said fire ants can survive up to two weeks in 10-degree weather.

“We saw a noticeable reduction in some areas in 2000 after the ice storm,” Hopkins said. “But they gradually came back.”

Mosquitoes “winter out” in hollow logs, barns, outbuildings and other shelters, he said.

“They’ve been around for a long, long time. They can survive,” Hopkins said.

Clarke said most of Arkansas will see rain throughout today, and temperatures will likely reach the 60s in the south and the 50s in the rest of the state. Clouds should clear by Saturday.

“We’ll see the sun again,” Clarke said.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/10/2014