By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus
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.
