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HEAVY DAMAGE — Big, thick limbs and trees on the Hopkins County Courthouse square and the Veteran's Memorial area buckled under the weight of ice. The area was cleared Friday, but many areas in and around the city and throughout the county we having falling trees removed. The city will open the spring clean up site Feb. 4-11 from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. for city residents to get rid of tree limbs and trunks. -
LEFT PHOTO Tree limbs are cut away from highline wire by crews Wednesday on Brinker Street in Sulphur Springs. Workers were busy all over the county removing limbs, and fallen trees during the ice storm, which dumped freezing rain and sleet on the area. Staff photo by Don Wallace
Schools closed, power outages result from wet, frigid weather in county
The past week is one Hopkins County and North Texas will remember for years to come, thanks to the frigid temperatures made even colder by loss of power for more than a third of electric customers. Some customers lost power on Tuesday as the sleet, snow and rain began accumulating on vegetation and freezing on eaves as they fell.
City and county government offices, and all local school districts were closed Wednesday. The county tax office remained open during the storm so that property owners could get their tax payments in by the deadline. All county offices were closed on Thursday. The City of Sulphur Springs opened a little later than usual, as did many businesses, on Thursday to allow property owners who weren’t able to come in earlier in the week to make tax payments on Thursday without penalty. Schools remained closed through Thursday. Most school districts, except Sulphur Springs ISD, reopened Friday with a delayed start time to allow for potential of ice on roads and due to continued power outages.
The ice storm seemed to catch many off guard, coming in earlier and worse than anticipated. Students arrived at school the first day of the storm only to be sent home from all seven school districts in Hopkins County and in Yantis by 1 p.m. due to the rapid decline in weather conditions. Many businesses, city and county governments and financial institutions also opted to close early, to give employees time to get home before the temperatures dropped even more after sundown.
Initially, the worst of the storm was projected to be over Wednesday. Precipitation continued to fall off and on throughout the day on Thursday. As the storm worsened, so too did conditions, initially turning this part of the state into what appeared to be a frozen wonderland.
Texas Department of Transportation and city crews did manage to get out ahead of the storm and continued working putting down sand, rock and salt mixtures on highly trafficked roadways into the wee hours for several days to make them as safe as possible for motorists. Even so, as early as Tuesday morning motorists began sliding off Interstate 30 and state highways through Hopkins County, especially in low areas and around bridges and overpasses. Authorities responded to a number of crashes and calls for motorist assists on and around the Bill Bradford Road overpass, even with dedicated TxDOT trucks frequently treating the bridge.
With multiple days of freezing temperatures, the icicles coating tree limbs and power lines lengthened. By Wednesday morning, several tree limbs had buckled under the weight of the frozen limbs, often falling onto roadways, power lines, fencing and in some cases onto residences. The weight of ice on power lines also caused many to snap or fall. As the frigid temperatures and precipitation continued, icicles grew, increasing the weight and pressure on tree limbs, eaves and utility lines. Although temperatures improved overnight Wednesday and Thursday had melted most of the ice, that too caused issues, adding weight to overloaded vegetation and lines, causing additional power and utility outages. Some trees pulled wires loose from homes and others took down blocks and neighborhoods of electric wires, rendering those areas without power for extended periods.
The local emergency management team consisting of police, sheriff ’s office, city and fire department officials encouraged everyone who was able to remain home as much as possible and off roads beginning Tuesday night through Thursday morning. For those left without heat for extended periods of time, the emergency management team opened Hopkins County Civic Center Tuesday evening through Thursday morning as a warming station. While no food or bedding was available, a few people each day took advantage of the facility to warm up, although most either stayed home and bundled up, used other means of heat than electric units or found other places to go. The warming center was closed Thursday morning after a period with no one using the facility; local officials said residents without power, however, are welcome to visit the lobbies of the police station and sheriff ’s office to warm up at any time.
Neighbors took in their friends and families hosted relatives whose homes were damaged or who were without power and heat for extended periods of time. Others got out and helped chop trees, some that split from the trunk, others hemorrhaging large branches and some that appeared to have been partially uprooted by the weight of the ice on them.
Emergency responders, city and county crews, and utility workers have worked around the clock responding to calls of downed lines, blocked roads, vehicles skidding off roads, and trying to get electric and other utility services restored as quickly and safely as possible in the wet frigid conditions. On Wednesday, more than 6,000 of the more than 22,500 electric customers in Hopkins County were without power. On Thursday morning, more than 33% of Hopkins County utility customers without power, according to poweroutage. us, which gathers reports from the power companies across the company. In Hopkins County, Farmers Electric Cooperative, Oncor, Southwestern Electric Power Co and Wood County Electric Cooperative are responsible for the power lines.
On Thursday, Oncor reported more than 1,000 additional people had been brought in to assist in vegetation management, damage assessment and power restoration efforts. On Friday, Oncor reported almost 2,000 workers from other Texas utilities and neighboring states had been called in to assist their personnel and contractors in these efforts.
Late Friday morning, most of Hopkins County had thawed out, with temperatures in town reaching 44 by 11:20 a.m. Feb. 3. While some utilty crews continued to work to restore power, only 5.71% of county electric customers were reported to be without power shortly before noon Friday – 16 FEC customers and 1,273 Oncor customers.
Electric providers encourage anyone who observes a downed power line to stay away and keep pets and others away from it, and to call it in immediately, so someone can be assigned to address the issue. Driving through Hopkins County Friday, one would think there’d been rain and either a tornado or other natural disaster due to the damage caused to trees and structures, and yards and ditches look much like lakes Friday morning.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott encourages those who experienced damages due to the ice storm to go online to Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM)’s January Winter Storm 2023 webpage, https://tdem.texas.gov/disasters/ january-2023-winter- storm for local, individual and family resources for assistance, and to report damages.