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Home > Talk of East Texas > Archives > 2008 > September > 14 > Entry

Storm debris closes several Longview parks: 8:09 a.m.

By Juan Elizondo | Sunday, September 14, 2008, 08:50 AM

8:09 a.m. The city of Longview’s buildings, parks and cemeteries did not suffer significant damamge during Saturday’s storm, according to a Longview Police Department press release. The city is closing several parks due to downed trees and storm debris.

Closed parks:

— Kidsview Playground at Lear Park (numerous trees down damaging the structural integrity of the playground.) This area may be closed for several weeks.

— Julieanna Trail (trees down)

— Paul Boorman Trail (trees down)

— Cargill Trail from Fourth Street to LeDuke (trees down)

— Timpson ballfields (trees down)

The majority of the City’s park system and cemeteries do have storm debris and the Parks and Recreation Department will be working throughout the week to clean up these areas, according to the release.

7:40 a.m. Stop lights are still out around Longview and surrounding areas. There are several school districts in the area not having classes.

Those not having classes are:

— Longview ISD — Hallsville ISD — West Rusk ISD — Henderson ISD

Spring Hill ISD will begin at 9 a.m. today. Spring Hill ISD buses will begin running at about 8 a.m. and classes will begin, officials said.

Districts intending to have classes today include:

— Pine Tree ISD — Kilgore ISD — White Oak ISD — Gilmer ISD — Tatum ISD — Carthage ISD

5:25 p.m. Longview Independent School District will not have classes Monday. Six of the district’s campuses do not have electricity, said Brian Bowman, district spokesman. The district has been advised by Southwestern Electric Power Company that power may not be restored until Friday. The maintenance and operations staff, as well as the central office staff will report to work, Bowman said. The district will announce plans for classes on a day-by-day basis.

4:15 p.m. More than 6,000 people remain without service in the Upshur Rural Electric Cooperative’s service area. More than 4,000 are Harrison County residents. Crews and contractors are working to restore service, and all areas are expected to have power within 48 hours. All lines and substations at the Upshur Rural Electric Cooperative are in service. Four feeders in Gethsemane, Jefferson, Nesbitt and Hallsville remain out, according to a news release Sunday. Upshur Rural Electric services 42,642 meters in 10 counties. At the peak of the storm more than 27,000 customers were affected.

4:05 p.m. The Longview Independent School District will announce a decision at 5 p.m. today on whether to have classes Monday. Bramlette Elementary School was without power Sunday, district spokesman Brian Bowman said. Crews were sent to all of the district’s campuses around 1 p.m. to assess damages. “We have a lot of displaced families who have had to find other accommodations because they don’t have electricity,” Bowman said. “The school district is looking at that, too, and trying to decide whether to have classes tomorrow.”

3:45 p.m. Power has been restored to the city of Jefferson, according to officials.

3 p.m. An emergency-use only notice has been lifted by Lonestar officials. Residents are still encouraged to conserve water, Mayor Pro Tem Dinah Rushing said. The Northeast Texas water distributors who supply Lonestar with water were without power earlier today. Power has been restored to the water plant, Rushing said. Numerous power lines were also reported down, and Rushing urges Lonestar residents to stay away from the downed lines.

2:45 p.m. According to staff reports, there is only one location in Marshall with electricity to sell gasoline.

2:20 p.m. The storm is over and some East Texans had damage to their property. Farmers Insurance Group of Companies encourages everyone to file their insurance claims immediately, Michelle Levy, media relations manager, said Sunday. More than 11,000 property and automobile claims have been filed so far with Farmers Insurance, Levy said. “Although we have no way of predicting how many total claims we will receive, if early numbers are any indicators, this will be one of the worst storms in Texas history,” she said. Farmers Insurance has more than 1,000 claims people ready to help customers and an additional 300 people staffed at the 24-hour call center, HelpPoint, to accommodate the increased call volume, Levy said.

2 p.m. At least one Longview school does not have electricity, and the district has not determined whether to have classes Monday, said Brian Bowman, district spokesman. Bramlette Elementary School is without power, Bowman said. Crews were sent to all of the district’s campuses around 1 p.m. to assess damages. “We have a lot of displaced families who have had to find other accommodations because they don’t have electricity,” Bowman said. “The school district is looking at that, too, and trying to decide whether to have classes tomorrow.”

1:50 p.m. Due to the high winds of Hurricane Ike and uprooted trees, Rusk County Electric Cooperative had approximately 20,000 meters out of service. Both transmission and distribution facilities suffered damage. At one time, more than 90 percent of the system was without power. Local and contract crews began working to restore power as soon as permitted. Additional crews have been requested to assist in service restoration, along with contractors already on hand. All available utility crews have been called in to assist in service restoration. Work will continue around the clock until all services have been restored.

1:35 p.m. An emergency-use only notice has been issued by Lonestar officials. According to Mayor Pro Tem Dinah Rushing, the town only has enough water to last a day-and-a-half, if residents are conservative with water usage.

1:30 p.m. Henderson ISD will not have school Monday, according to officials. However, Kilgore, Carthage and Pine Tree ISDs will have classes Monday. West Rusk ISD will make a decision at 3:30 p.m. about school hours.

1:20 p.m. Panola County Judge David L. Anderson said residents can send their storm debris and brush to the Carthage Transfer Station located on the Northwest Loop near U.S. Highway 59 in Carthage. Anderson also added the county has lifted its burn ban, and rural residents are allowed to burn their brush and storm debris.

1 p.m. If you’ve been out cleaning, you know it is cloudy outside with a slight breeze. Not much has changed there. One of our photographers has just come in with additional photos from around the area. Those will be posted shortly at LNJ storm photos

You can still post your own photos at Seeya

12:45 p.m. Overton issues water boil alert

Power is still out at the Overton water pump station and that’s lead to a water boil alert. Overton Police Capt. Clayton Taylor said the notice will remain in place until further notice.

Meanwhile, school will be in at most surrounding districts. Henderson Independent School District has not determined whether to hold classes Monday, Superintendent Bobby Brown said Sunday. Brown reported no major damage to the school buildings and did not state a reason for why school might not be held. Rusk County officials report that a majority of the county does not have electricity. According to Southwestern Electric Power Company, 7,184 Henderson residents remained without power at 11 a.m. Sunday. Kilgore Superintendent Jody Clements said the district plans to have classes at this time. However, the district is waiting until later to make that official. “We have a large number of people in the community that do not have power still. A large amount of those live in Rusk County,” he said. The school district has power at all of its campuses, Clements said. Other area school districts, including Pine Tree, White Oak, Gilmer, Tatum and Carthage, reported no major damage. Those districts intend to have classes Monday.

12:30 p.m. This is a bit late on our part, but SWEPCO is still out there working. As of 11 a.m., there were just more than 27,000 Longview customers without power. The other numbers were: 6,100 in Carthage 830 in Gilmer 3,150 in Gladewater about 7,000 in Henderson 6,600 in Kilgore 16,390 in Marshall

12:15 p.m. Shelter opened for local residents with special needs.

The city just announced that the Paula Martin Jones Recreation Center at 1230 S. High Street is open for residents who have special medical needs and no access to power. The special needs mention were oxygen generators and asthma machines.

The city also announced that debris can be set at curb side for pickup this week. There’s no charge, but the sanitation department has to be called for at (903) 237-1250. Meanwhile, the compost site will be open for the week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For south Texas evacuees, the city is working with FEMA to come up with temporary housing. South Texans are urged to check first with their local officials before attempting to return home. The state says all areas south of Interstate 10 remain closed.

12 p.m. The owners of a fairly new restaurant in Diana are promising to rebuild after a tree fell into their building, destroying the kitchen. The Crackerjack’s Cafe, at U.S. 259 and Dogwood Road, opened in April. Owner Brenda Cecil on Sunday said, “Everything has been lost. The building’s completely destroyed.” A neighbor’s tree fell into the business around 5:15 p.m. Saturday, Cecil said. She discovered it around 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Volunteer firefighters went out Saturday and began clearing the tree, she said. “We’ve been out all morning just sawing the tree, trying to get it out of the way,” Cecil said. Photos from the restaurant are being loaded now at LNJ storm photos

You can post your own photos at Seeya

11:30 a.m. Folks at Johnson Creek Marina on the north shore of Lake O’ the Pines say there’s more damage there than they recall seeing in the past. Some houseboats are pushed up to shores. Meanwhile, people who rode out the storm on other houseboats had to be shuttle from their boats to shore because docks were washed away. The marina itself was bounced around for a few hours, leaving shelfs and products strewn all over the place. Hard plastic docks, meanwhile, are on shore, and a more than $150,000 house boat is partially submerged. We’ll have pictures as quickly as possible.

Show us your pictures at a href=”http://seeya.news-journal.com/”>Seeya

11 a.m. It’s partly sunny out there with a light wind blowing around the News-Journal building. The national weather service says we can expect a little wind and clouds for the day, but no rain in the immediate area. What’s left of Ike, now a tropical depression, is hovering around Missouri. It’s expected to merge with a front and continue moving northeast.

At this point, there are no storm systems expected to threaten the United States in the immediate future.

We’re still looking for your photos at Seeya and would appreciate hearing from you with a comment here.

10:30 a.m. With power out all around town, lines are deep for ice. We have reporters out talking to folks to hear their stories. Share your story with a comment here and show us some photos at Seeya

9:45 a.m. Damage isn’t limited to the city of Longview. Longtime Lake O’ The Pines fishing guide Bubba Romine says there are big-dollar boats sunk at Johnson Creek Marina. He also says half of the marina is gone. We’ve got a reporter headed that way with a camera.

Clean-up efforts, meanwhile, are ongoing all around East Texas. Panola County Judge David Anderson said county officials began assessing damages this morning. There are a lot of trees down and a lot of debris in the county, he said. Crews worked during the morning to lift trees off of powerlines and to clear highways, Anderson said. The only report of any major damage was that a tree fell on an 18-wheeler truck during the night, Anderson said. No one was injured, he said. The city of Jefferson was without power Sunday morning, City Manager Jim Gibson said. The city sustained no major damages, he said. A few limbs fell in the roadway, but Gibson said there were no reports of trees that had fallen on houses or in the road. Upshur County’s Road and Bridge employees worked with the Texas Department of Transportation through the night to clear county roads of trees that had fallen, said Paul Steelman, emergency management coordinator. All roads were cleared, he said around 9 a.m. Sunday. Power had been restored to some areas of the county, Steelman said. Local volunteer fire department crews were assessing other damage, he said. Steelman said he had received a report that a building in Diana was destroyed after a tree fell on it. No further information was available. Rusk County crews began assessing damages Sunday morning, and nothing major was reported, said Trina Freeman, Henderson finance director. Power was out in some areas, but crews were working to restore it, she said. Titus County was lightly hit by the storm, said Bill Luck, emergency operations coordinator. There were a few trees that fell, but all roads had been cleared Sunday morning, he said. Power was out in the southeast area of Titus County, but was quickly restored, he said. No one reported any injuries or fatalities.

Longview emergency responders, meanwhile, are being called all around the city for calls ranging from a house fire to roads that need to be blocked because of downed power lines and trees.

The city reminded residents and customers that a short mandatory water rationing order was lifted late Saturday after power was restored to water treatment facilities.

Check out our staff photographers’ storm photo gallery at LNJ storm photos

And post your own storm and damage photos at Seeya

9:10 a.m. Days. That’s how long SWEPCO says it will take to get all of its East Texas customers reconnected.

There are 170,000 East Texans without power this morning, said Scott McCloud, spokesperson for Southwester Electric Power. More than 1,600 SWEPCO workers are in East Texas trying to repair 37 circuits that locked up over the night, he said. The company’s priority is repairing those circuits, he said. “We have to get those circuits hot before we can start going into neighborhoods,” he said. The primary reason for circuits going out is due to high winds throwing objects, such as tree limbs, into the circuit, McCloud said. Longview had the highest wind gusts in SWEPCO’s service area with winds reaching up to 75 mph, he said. The peak of power outages occurred at 2 a.m. Sunday when there were 187,000 people without electricity, McCloud said. He compared the damage to that of Hurricane Rita when it took workers almost four days to restore power to everyone. SWEPCO employees from across the country, including Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky and Oklahoma, are in East Texas working, McCloud said.

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