Ice Storm Wreaks Havoc on County

RISON - Cleveland County experienced its worst ice storm since 2000 last Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 1-2, when about a half inch of ice accumulation toppled trees, caused widespread power outages due to massive damage to the electrical infrastructure, and left several state and county roads blocked with debris. Most of the power outages started last Wednesday night and continued through the pre-dawn hours of Thursday morning, leaving both the cities of Kings-land and Rison without power as well as nearly the entire county. Based on media reports, 99 percent of the customers in Cleveland County were without power last Thursday, which was the highest percentage any county in the state impacted by the storm. "It was a county-wide ice storm," Cleveland County Judge Jimmy Cummings told the quorum court Monday night. "Not one was spared." The judge reported that road crews were spread thin due to the widespread damage. He said they had five calls to clear trees off one road in the county. Cummings praised the efforts of citizens and volunteers who cleared fallen trees and limbs from the roadways. "If it wasn't for volunteers, there would probably still be people trapped behind trees." Cummings did not that there was a period in which both land line telephone service and cellular telephone service was down during the storm, significantly restricting communication. The storm also caused a natural gas line to burst at Kingsland when an uprooted tree along Log Cabin Road near Hwy. 79 busted a pipeline. Cummings thanked the Kingsland Volunteer Fire Department for conducting an evacuation of those residents living around the broken gas line. Cummings said he made a disaster declaration for the county after the storm, and noted that the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management was in the county on Monday to survey damage. He said a total of $5.3 million in damages across seven counties impacted by the s...