Arkansas Slammed by Winter Weather
Thursday, December 28, 2000 HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — The thermal springs that give this city its name had become the only source of water. Hundreds of mangled trees littered roadways. Tens of thousands of homes remained in the dark.

Danny Johnston/AP Wednesday: The second ice storm in two weeks knocked out electric power to a Little Rock, Ark., neighborhood.

Hot Springs and other southwestern Arkansas cities were ground-zero for the recent nasty weather, bearing the brunt of an ice storm that has left about 550,000 customers without power, caused 14 deaths and made travel virtually impossible.

"On a scale from one to 10, this is a 12," Gov. Mike Huckabee said Wednesday, assessing the damage. "This storm has not been kind to us."

Hot Springs was among many towns that lost their water treatment plants when the lights went out. About 40,000 homes and businesses were without power early Thursday in the Hot Springs area. Hot Spring's population is about 33,000.

A falling tree knocked down a 2-inch power cable Wednesday morning, leaving the city's springs as the only running water in town. After water service was restored to about half the city late Wednesday, residents were warned to boil their water before drinking or cooking.

Public spring-water taps downtown attracted bottle- and jug-carrying residents.

Kevin Byrd said he used a chain saw to cut his way to the taps because so many trees were scattered on the road. "It looked like a tornado had been through," he said.

Danny Johnston/AP Wednesday: An Arkansas National Guard Humvee ambulance makes its way past downed trees on an icy Little Rock, Ark., street.

Around 275,000 Arkansas power customers were without service because of the storm, which wound to full strength Christmas Day and Tuesday. Also affected were 120,000 homes and businesses in Oklahoma, 106,000 in Texas and 50,000 in northern Louisiana.

Police attributed 14 deaths to the storm — nine in Texas, four in New Mexico and one in Missouri.

The ice storm was Arkansas' second of the month. A storm Dec. 12-13 knocked out power to nearly 250,000 customers, some of whom went without electricity for 10 days.

Ice was expected to return briefly to Arkansas overnight.

"It won't make things much worse than they are right now," said John MacLeod III, a weather service forecaster at North Little Rock.

In Texarkana, mayors on both the Arkansas and Texas sides of the city imposed a curfew to discourage looting. Texarkana, Ark., required contractors to register with the city and imposed a price-gouging ban covering everything from bread to home repairs.

"This will help us know that no fly-by-night companies are coming in here and charging a high amount for putting a plastic bag over a hole in the roof," police spokesman Shawn Vaughn said.

In Little Rock, Terry Hill put chicken on an outdoor grill to cook it before it spoiled in the refrigerator.

"People are going to think we're the Clampetts," Hill said, hickory-scented smoke billowing past him.

Renee Puskas, the manager of a Hot Springs convenience store, said the store couldn't use its electric pumps to fill customers' gas tanks. But the store did brisk business in cigarettes and canned goods.

"I came south to get away from this," she said. "I told my kids I lived in Ohio all my life and I've never seen anything like this."

The Little Rock airport reopened Wednesday afternoon after being shut down since Monday.

In the Texas Panhandle, a foot of snow atop icy roads stranded thousands of travelers. Hundreds of flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

Huckabee, who shut down the state government Wednesday, extending a state holiday, asked workers to try to make it to work Thursday morning.

While ice usually falls each year across the southern Plains, it rarely falls this heavily or this often.

"I can't think of any time where we had storms like this so close together," said MacLeod, co-author of a book on Arkansas' weather history.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2000

Answers

The Link to the story here

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2000

Not to pick a point, but if that was a 12, Floyd was a 25.

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2000

Lots of residents south of OH haven't the foggest idea how to cope with even minor amounts of snow or ice. I remember being stationed in KY one time during an ice storm. I drove into town, did my business, and returned with nary a scratch on my vehicle. My buddy, a former Tampa resident, managed to turn over his jeep. He should of accepted my offer of a ride.

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2000

anotherbrick,

Ah, yeah, Yankees and Northerners love to pick on Southerners who don't know how to drive in ice and snow. We just don't get that much practice.

Do keep in mind, though, that we don't have the equipment to make the roads safer, either. Where a Michigan or upstate NY might have hundreds of salt and sand spreading-plows, we don't. We have to make do with what we have.

But OUR revenge comes in the summer when the temperature goes well over 100 degrees (with 80% relative humidity) for a several days at a time. The Northerners who've moved down here will be sequestered in their houses, air conditioners running at full blast.

Then WE get to drive by THEM, pointing and chuckling. :)

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2000