Storm & power outage in town forced school to amend plans
Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/tnebc/News/4424/
Elementary school students spent the first couple of hours Friday at the high school. It wasn’t advanced learning, but a power outage that precipitated the move.
With power out at the school, principal Keith Martin sent the elementary school children to the gym at the high school.
All businesses, the emergency services building, City Hall and the elementary school were without electricity until after 8 a. m. due to a tree falling into and snapping a utility pole and knocking down a transformer which supplied electricity to town.
Storms with high winds, rain and lightning raged through town about 4: 30 Friday morning leaving all SWEPCO customers without electricity and trees down across town.
The repeater tower for the ambulance service was inoperative for a brief time until connected to a generator. A separate generator kept the EMS building, which houses the police, fire and ambulance departments, supplied with power.
By mid-morning, residents around town were out with chain saws and trailers, cutting and loading trees and limbs and cleaning up their yards. Several large trees were simply blown over, laying with their roots exposed. Other trees were split, broken several feet above the ground. Others were topped, with high limbs broken off.
Firefighters were called to Ryan Road north of Shepherd Street to clear the roadway of two downed trees.
SWEPCO service technicians arrived on the scene at 443 S. Curtis Ave. around 8 a. m., cut tree limbs off the downed power lines and restored service to most city customers. Customers in the immediate area, including the Emergency Services Building, did not have service restored until mid-afternoon because a pole had to be replaced before lines could be restrung and power re-energized.
By 10: 30 a. m. elementaryaged children were back at the elementary school in their classrooms.
One resident, Crystal Todd on Hayes Street, awoke to a bang and discovered her metal carport roof upside down on top of her house.
Another city resident said he awoke to find a pile of insulation scattered “ in a circular path” as much as a quarter mile from his residence.
Tree limbs down at the Methodist Church created a mess and additional work for congregants.
There were no injuries reported, according to Police Chief Tim Ledbetter.