Published: January 29, 2009 09:26 am      

‘We dodged a bullet’

Ice blamed for numerous wrecks, but only minor damage

By Janet Jacobs

Daily Sun



The Arctic blast that swept icy conditions through Navarro County Tuesday night had moved east by Wednesday afternoon, leaving only slight damage in its wake.

Other than traffic accidents, none of which were fatal, the county missed most of the storm’s effects which caused major heartburn in the Metroplex. One power outage was reported in Frost, which left about 1,430 customers without power for less than an hour, according to Willie Leos with Oncor.

The problem occurred when a line broke lose and got on the cross arm, making a transmission line lock out, Leos said. The company had crews standing by all night in case of problems, and they were able to respond quickly and get the problem fixed.

“We had no problems to speak of. We missed almost everything,” Leos said. “We just got lucky.”

Closures varied around the county, including the county offices, and all seven of the public school districts. The closures were a precautionary measure, according to officials.

The Navarro County Courthouse closed because of the number of wrecks on the roads, and the possibility of accidents at the courthouse itself, explained County Judge H.M. Davenport Jr.

“With the courthouse being elevated as it is, and the only way to get into through steps,” he said. “I felt like sanding would be an on-going process and we’d still have someone slip and fall. If there’s ice out there, someone’s going to find it.”

Navarro College’s main Corsicana campus was open all day, although the other campuses had varied closures. The Midlothian campus opened at noon, but the Waxahachie campus was closed all day because of power outages in Ellis County.

The City of Corsicana was open Wednesday, but there wasn’t too much clean-up from the storm, according to Ron Lynch, public works director.

“We had some bridges we sanded (Tuesday) night, like Hardy overpass,” Lynch said. Crews also sanded the bridges in the city limits over Post Oak Creek, he said.

Parks department workers prepared for the storm by taking down the large U.S. flag at Bunert Park, which is susceptible in major storms.

Overall, city crews only had minimal reports of damage on Wednesday.

“We only had one call of a limb down, which may have been due to ice,” he said. “I think we dodged a bullet. You know, it doesn’t take much ice buildup to bring down limbs.”

The worst conditions seemed to be on highways, where bridges and overpasses developed layers of ice.

The Corsicana office of the Texas Department of Public Safety handled at least 10 crashes between Tuesday night and Wednesday mid-morning, said Sgt. Ken Authier with the DPS.

“It really didn’t start until after 3 a.m.,” he said. “It was much better than Dec. 16, when we had 35 crashes.”

The most significant wreck was around 9 a.m. Wednesday when an car overturned on Interstate 45 at the Business 45 merge ramp. The driver was taken by air ambulance to a Dallas hospital. His condition was unclear Wednesday afternoon.

Authier added that drivers can be ticketed for driving at an unsafe level of speed for the conditions.

“Ice conditions require people to have an expert level of driving,” Authier warned. “If they’re not up to it, don’t do it.”

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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com