A late-season storm dropped up to 11 inches of snow in northeast Arkansas, and pelted central and southern parts of the state with hours of sleet and snow overnight Wednesday, closing scores of schools and businesses, knocking out power to some and rendering many roads impassable.
Entergy Arkansas reported that as many as 5,425 customers were without electrical service at one point during the storm, spokesman Sally Graham said. The majority of power disruptions were reported in Hot Spring and Crittenden counties.
Graham said the precipitation and wind knocked down 23 spans of utility wire in Marion and Helena-West Helena, and toppled six utility poles in that area.
Bono in northwest Craighead County received 11 inches of snow and sleet -- the most in the state, National Weather Service officials said. Blytheville and Pocahontas each reported 9 inches of snow and sleet, Little Rock had 6 inches, West Memphis received 5 inches of snow and sleet, and Fayetteville reported 2.5 inches.
Accumulations would have been more if the sleet had changed more quickly to snow Wednesday night, said National Weather Service meteorologist Marty Trexler in North Little Rock.
"The sleet hung on longer than we expected," Trexler said. "Central and southern Arkansas had sleet for six hours. Had we had less sleet, we would have seen a lot more snow."
The sleet made for treacherous driving on the state's interstates Wednesday night, Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department spokesman Danny Straessle said.
Several tractor-trailer rigs jackknifed on Interstate 40, causing the Arkansas State Police to shut down the eastbound lane between Carlisle and the Prairie County line at midnight. Traffic was still moving at a crawl on the interstate Thursday, Straessle said.
"It's quite a mess," he said.
Dump trucks plowing snow off highways in Northwest Arkansas were involved in two accidents Wednesday evening.
About 5 p.m., a truck pulling the Highway Department's only tow plow ran off into the median of Interstate 49 near Chester in Crawford County.
The truck was northbound in the inside lane when the plow, which extended from the passenger side across the outside lane, hit something, said Chad Adams, district engineer for the department's District 4, which is based in Fort Smith.
"When it catches on something, it sort of lifts the front wheels off the ground a little bit, and basically you can't steer."
While the truck carrying 4 tons of salt was stuck in the median, the plow remained extended across the "fast lane" of the interstate, Adams said.
"It just got over there in the soft dirt," he said of the truck. "With it being slick and wet, it couldn't move."
Adams said the truck was soon towed back onto the interstate and put back into service. He said the driver wasn't injured.
A second snowplow accident occurred about 8 p.m. Wednesday, when an eastbound tractor-trailer rig jackknifed into the path of the snowplow traveling west up a hill on U.S. 412 near the community of Gobbler in Carroll County.
"The 18-wheeler was jackknifing, and the trailer swung into the path of our oncoming plow," Straessle said. "The plow knocked the truck, trailer and rear axles into the opposite ditch. In other words, it batted it back across the road there."
The truck driver was uninjured. Straessle said the plow driver was taken to North Arkansas Medical Center at Harrison. He was treated and released Wednesday night.
"He was just banged up," Straessle said.
Wednesday's precipitation started as heavy rain. Temperatures fell during the afternoon and evening, changing the rain to sleet and snow. Rather than pretreat roadways and have the rain wash off the chemicals, highway crews waited until the temperatures fell below freezing Wednesday night to tackle roadways, he said.
"This was a statewide event," Straessle said of the storm. "There was not a county in the state that wasn't impacted.
"The snow and sleet came down as fast as we could plow it off. Our goal was to stay ahead of the curve of the snowfall."
It was the most snowfall in the state since a Dec. 25, 2012, storm dumped 10 inches of snow and sleet on central Arkansas, Trexler said.
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 100 soldiers and airmen with the Arkansas National Guard had responded to 23 vehicle accidents and 80 stranded-motorist calls across the state, about 24 hours after Gov. Asa Hutchinson called the guardsmen into active duty.
The 124 guardsmen and 62 Humvees were dispatched to 12 state police headquarters. The same number remained on active duty late Thursday and were likely to continue assisting state police through today, Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Joel Lynch said.
"They've been out all night," Lynch said Thursday. "We're expecting the mission to go through tomorrow, as long as the roads are like they are now."
Calls for help began "pouring in" Wednesday when drivers slid off roads on their way home from work, Guard spokesman Lt. Col Keith Moore said.
The first 12-hour shift of guardsmen patrolled more than 1,400 miles of slick roadways. Ten accidents were reported on U.S. 67 near Newport and 14 motorists were stranded in that area.
Lt. John Carter, a state trooper in Newport, said guardsmen also helped free an ambulance that was transporting a patient when it became stuck in the snow.
Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field, the state's largest airport, remained open Thursday, but 29 morning flights were canceled because several airlines decided to delay operations until later in the day.
"Our main runway and taxiways have been cleared," Shane Carter, a spokesman for the Little Rock airport, said in an email. "Airfield crews used plows and brooms, on a continuous basis, overnight to clear surfaces as snow fell."
Carter said Delta Airlines didn't resume its flight schedule until 8:30 a.m. Thursday, United Airlines delayed beginning its flights until 10:30 a.m., and Southwest Airlines waited until 11 a.m.
Carter urged airline passengers to check the airport's website at clintonairport.com or air carriers' websites before traveling to the airport.
Central Arkansas Transit Authority didn't run its bus service Thursday, not even on snow routes, which normally service major arteries. The authority announced that morning that it would monitor road conditions throughout the day to determine when it would be safe for buses to run, but it decided shortly before 1 p.m. to order a rare service cancellation.
"As there has not been sufficient clearing of CATA routes, and for the safety of our employees and customers, all CATA services will not run today," a statement posted on the agency's website and Facebook page said Thursday.
The authority said it would check routes early today and determine by 4:30 a.m. whether service would resume.
Snow and ice didn't stop the Southeastern Conference Women's Basketball Tournament, which began Wednesday at Verizon Arena in downtown North Little Rock, but the weather did affect fans' travel to and from the games.
Downtown hotels were full Wednesday night, and ice was still problematic Thursday.
North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith said city crews worked to assist the tournament's players, fans and officials by clearing streets and sidewalks near the arena.
"We had our people come down early this morning and had some additional employees working downtown so people can get to the arena and restaurants," Smith said after Thursday's first game tipped off at noon. "We encouraged [restaurants] to stay open. We told them we would do everything we could downtown to encourage foot traffic for all our visitors."
Elsewhere, many communities were ice-covered ghost towns Thursday as people who were off work chose to stay indoors.
In El Dorado, few people ventured into the normally bustling downtown square, and many businesses closed for the day.
Rita Collins of Camden traveled icy roads to get to work near downtown El Dorado. She said the trip, which is normally a 30-minute drive, took more than an hour and a half Thursday.
"You just have to drive really slow," Collins said. "You can make it if you are smart about it. But I sure would not have been out if I didn't have to be."
In Pine Bluff, officials said streets were mostly empty Thursday, though some convenience stores and gas stations reported brisk business.
A clerk at the Shell station on Dollarway Road said most customers were filling gasoline tanks and buying lottery tickets.
In Mountain View, customers straggled in to the West 66 Food Mart to buy gasoline, cigarettes and snacks.
"We're getting lots of sunshine today," manager Tim Gammill said. "We've got lines of asphalt showing on both lanes of the highway. Traffic is moving around, but very slowly.
"We did get a lot of snow in a short amount of time," he said.
Some Bearden residents took to the icy streets in all-terrain vehicles to survey the slick landscape. Trudy Johnston said she rode her four-wheeler all the way from Thornton, about 9 miles, "just to get here and have some fun."
In Bono, people ventured out to buy milk, eggs and other food at Kelley's IGA on College Street. Store manager Leesa Hudson said her car was stuck in a snowdrift in her driveway, but she made it to the store anyway.
"If not for my husband's four-wheeler, I'd not have been able to come in," she said.
A cashier at the Kum & Go on U.S. 63B in Bono said she had to walk to work after her car became stuck.
"We pushed it off the road, and I walked the rest of the way," said the cashier, who didn't want to give her name.
For some creatures, the snow was no problem at all and was even relished. Although the Memphis Zoo was closed Thursday after 4 inches of snow and sleet fell there, Payton the polar bear took full advantage of the change in weather. A video that the zoo posted on its Facebook page shows Payton rolling around and frolicking in the snow.
Thursday's sunshine did a lot of melting on roadways, but officials warned drivers not to be fooled. Although roads cleared in some areas, they didn't in others. Temperatures in northern Arkansas remained below freezing Thursday. And, Trexler said temperatures in the state were expected to dip into the single digits overnight.
Warming will gradually occur over the weekend, and temperatures could reach 60 degrees or higher by Wednesday.
"It may be safe to say we saw that last big snow of the winter," said National Weather Service meteorologist Tabitha Clarke of North Little Rock.
"That's not to say we won't still see flurries associated with another cold front, but I don't think we'll see anything like this one for a while."
Information for this article was contributed by Noel Oman, Jake Sandlin, Nikki Wentling, John Worthen and Bill Bowden of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
State Desk on 03/06/2015