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January 28, 2009

Winter weather spares Pulaski from its worst

By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus The Commonwealth Journal Wed Jan 28, 2009, 07:17 PM EST

Apparently the worst is over, but not without a scare.

A blinding burst of snow late yesterday morning threatened to strangle an area just freeing itself from an ice storm. More than 36 hours of steady rain suddenly changed to snow shortly after 10 a.m. It was serious snow; large, quarter-size drops covering the landscape in minutes. Low-hanging clouds generated semi-darkness and spewed out swirling white curtains.

But the heavy snow didn’t last long. It stopped almost as quickly as it started. Then, the sun, a stranger in these parts, momentarily peeked through the clouds. Pulaski countians had dodged the bullet once again.

Somerset and most of Pulaski County missed the fury from one of the worst winter storms in several years. Areas of Kentucky north of here are still paralyzed with ice and snow. A fax from Andrew Melnykovych, director of communications for the Kentucky Public Service Commission, said as of noon yesterday 473,000 customers in the state were without electrical power from the crippling ice storm earlier this week. Gov. Steve Beshear has declared a state of emergency.

A contact person in the Pleasure Ridge Park section of southern Louisville said that area received more than 7 inches of new snow yesterday atop an existing layer of ice and snow. Power is out and fallen trees block streets, she said. Communities as close as Danville are in states of emergency.

Cliff Feltham, media relations manager for Kentucky Utilities Company, said 175,000 customers served by KU were without power as of noon yesterday. However, his report showed no outages in Pulaski County. Most of the ice from Tuesday’s storm has vanished around here and practically everybody has electrical power restored.

Joy Bullock, spokesperson for South Kentucky RECC, said crews got 7,500 of its members out of service in its 13-county service area back on line by 8 o’clock last night, A few exceptions were places where high water blocked access. An unofficial rain gauge south of the Somerset city limits collected nearly 4 inches of water from 2 a.m. Tuesday until 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Bullock said South Kentucky RECC is sending two four-man crews to assist Inter-County Energy, a neighboring cooperative severely damaged by the ice storm.

It’s still late January and cold weather is normal, but the bout of severe weather seems over. There is a slight chance of snow tomorrow and Friday and then a brief warm-up to maybe 50 degrees on Sunday. After that, more snow is in the forecast for late Sunday into Monday.

Hopefully, the groundhog won’t see his shadow on February 2.

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Big Bang Theory
Pulaski County is not at war. The booming you may hear at dusk is mock cannon fire to scare away birds.
Stuart Spillman, environmental director for the Lake Cumberland Health Department, said at least three cannons are on loan from the department to residents who want to scare away swarms of starlings and blackbirds settling in to roost.
He said a cannon is being used by a resident on Laura Lane off Ky. 39; another is in the Oak Hill Road area and a third is on Ashurst Street in the eastern part of Somerset.
Spillman said a timer on each cannon allows it to “fire” at whatever frequency is desired. The cannons must be used as the birds circle before going to roost. “After they settle in, nothing will chase them out,” Spillman said.
The Health Department doesn’t operate the cannons unless there is a specific complaint in an area where there are lots of birds, Spillman noted. He said so far this year the birds are not as bad as in the past.

February 2, 2012
Boil water advisory is lifted countywide
The water controversy that Pulaski County has been boiling over — so to speak — for the last week is finally over.
At 10 minutes after noon Wednesday, the “boil water” advisory for the Western Pulaski Water District was lifted — almost a full week after the problems began around 1 p.m. last Thursday.
Prior to that, the Somerset Water Service — along with the other water providers in its system, including Science Hill Water, Southeastern Water, and Eubank Water — lifted their advisories, with Somerset on Saturday afternoon and the last, Southeastern, by Monday morning. Western Pulaski was the last in the system to complete sample testing for potential contaminants, due to not being able to access its Pikeville-based testing lab until Monday.
Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler thanked the public for its patience and understanding during the duration of the boil water advisory — put in place to keep citizens from drinking water that could have been contaminated after an accident last Thursday at the water plant site — and also thanked all the city employees for their hard work during this time.
“The boil water advisory went about as well as would be expected,” said Girdler.

February 2, 2012
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