A major winter storm nailed Marion and Crittenden County late Monday and early Tuesday morning, paralyzing the community and causing havoc for rescue personnel.
Power was out all across the county and even in town. Because The Press office was without juice, I spent the day at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The following is a blow-by-blow account of the news gathered there:
Crittenden County Judge-Executive Fred Brown and Disaster Emergency Management Deputy Director David Travis declared a state of emergency early Tuesday morning at 7:30 and notified the governor's office which mobilized the Kentucky National Guard. Travis was the acting director of DEM most of the day as Director Greg Rushing was out of the county until about 4 p.m., attending required training in Paducah. The Marion Police Department was set up as the county emergency operations center (EOC) early Tuesday. It was operating on backup generator power most of the day. Members of Marion's Bravo Company Kentucky National Guard unit arrived at 10:39 with four guardsmen and two Humvees. Sgt. Frank Murphey was in charge of the relief effort which worked tirelessly all day evacuating people, directing traffic for work crews and assisting local authorities at a variety of emergency situations. "This is the worst damage to trees and power lines that I have seen since I started in law enforcement," said Crittenden County Sheriff Wayne Agent. Volunteer firefighters and rescue squad members were mobilized early Tuesday morning to help clear roadways and evacuate people in rural areas who needed to get to emergency shelters. Few were willing to go to the shelter until about dark Tuesday when it became apparent that many would go another night without power. Most homes in the county lost electricity between 2-3 a.m., Tuesday. U.S. 60 closed at Dyer Hill curve due to falling trees at midday Tuesday. One tree fell on a rescue vehicle at the scene. Red Cross, with local director Geraldine Shouse and crew, arrived in Marion at 11 a.m., to assist the county in providing shelter and aid to those in need. The Red Cross set up its headquarters at Crittenden Elementary School. Marion Baptist and Marion United Methodist churches were ready to open their doors and provide emergency shelter for those in need; however, power was not restored to either building thereby eliminating their use as emergency centers. Smoke in the Crittenden Hospital Emergency Room at 12:03 p.m., sent city firemen in a rush to the scene. As it turned out, the source of the smoke was a heat and air unit that overheated. It caused no major problems. The hospital, clinic and jail were all operating on backup power systems Tuesday. All surgeries at the hospital and appointments at Family Practice Clinic were cancelled. A handful of small fires broke out at homes, but none turned out to be serious fires. Schools in Crittenden County were called off for Wednesday and may be out more days this week. Sandy Heady, who works in the office at Kenergy in Marion, said phone calls were coming in constantly, but she had very little information for customers without power. They were advised to call 1-800-844-4832. Lisa Owen, a spokesperson for Kenergy, said 2,400 Crittenden County residences were without power Tuesday morning. She said Crittenden was one of several areas in Kenergy's 14-county service area that suffered severely from the ice storm. About 10,000 Kenergy customers were without power in the region, including many in McLean, Daviess, Hopkins and Webster counties.
"Crittenden was the hardest hit," Owen said.
Every available employee was working on lines for Kenergy and Kentucky Utilities Tuesday and Wednesday. The electricity companies called in additional crewmen from Warren Rural Electric Cooperative in Bowling Green and other private contractors to help restore power. David Travis, the DEM deputy director, said he was advised that a major service line from Big Rivers Power had been severed, creating many of the problems in the Crittenden County area.
"Anyone in Crittenden County who is without power should make arrangements for long-term outages," Owen told The Press Tuesday. "It could be one day, two or maybe three before everything is back up." District Court in Crittenden County was cancelled Wednesday. National Guard troops went door to door Tuesday searching for anyone in need of emergency service or shelter.
Judge Brown said getting the word out was difficult because the local radio station, WMJL, was down Tuesday and most people had no electricity to get messages from WPSD-TV. Marion policemen started going door to door at Creekside and Bellville Manor apartments about 4 p.m., Tuesday looking for people who might need assistance. Everyone who did was taken to the Red Cross shelter at CCES. The National Guard's efforts were hindered by a lack of communications equipment. Their vehicles are not equipped with radios that allow them to communicate with one another and they do not have hand-held devices. To alleviate the problem, county rescue squad members were called to the EOC and asked to give up their spare hand-held radios to the guardsmen operating in the county. Most were reluctant to do so because they were also on duty due to the disaster. There was a serious accident about 4:20 p.m., two miles south of Marion in U.S. 641 One of the vehicles caught fire. As temperatures dropped at sundown, road conditions worsened dramatically. Roads were completely covered with black ice, according to law enforcement officials, then it began snowing shortly after 5 p.m. Conrad's Food Store and Food Giant were both open early Tuesday, but by late afternoon only Conrad's on the south side of town was operating. The deli was especially busy as people without electricity flocked to town all day seeking a hot meal. Lori Holeman at the deli said they served more than 1,000 meals Tuesday. Getting fuel was another problem for most residents as power outages kept most of the city's gas stations from being able to pump fuel. Liberty Fuels on the south side of town was able to stay open most of the day.
