Bring on winter weather and the historic 300-hr. GFS snowstorms.
I was digging around today and found this article in our local newspaper from the Feb. 3-4, 1998 snowstorm. This one didn't show up on the GFS or any other model. It was totally unexpected. As I recall, local mets were forecasting the usual cold-rain-possibly-mixing-with-snow-towards-the-end scenario. Apparently this one hit the Plateau much harder than other areas. This is one of 3 monster storms I remember in the '90s (the Blizzard of '93, a big ice/snow storm in '94 followed by subzero temps, and this one). This without a doubt the most impressive winter storm of my lifetime. The thing I remember most about this storm was having to literally cut our way out . . . and then cut our way back in because trees were still falling under the weight of the storm. Between this storm and the pine beetle infestation a couple years later, it's still difficult to walk in the forests up here where a lot of yellow pines used to grow because of all the falldowns. We were without power for almost 2 weeks, and school was out for over a week. We went to check on my grandparents (phones were out, too), who live about a quarter mile off the main road, and had to cut through nearly 100 trees to get to their house. The Marine Corps and the National Guard were mobilized to assist with rescue efforts. I remember standing outside in the stillness that always follows a snowstorm and hearing hundreds of sounds like gunshots in the woods as trees snapped under the weight of the snow.
COUNTY STILL DIGGING OUTFeb. 12, 1998 -- Oneida Independent HeraldIt will likely go down as the worst snowstorm in the county's history.
Fourteen to 18 inches of heavy, wet snow fell on Scott and surrounding counties last Tuesday night and throughout the day on Wednesday (Feb. 3-4), downing trees and power lines, stranding motorists, trapping people in their homes and creating a logistics nightmare for emergency workers.
And it's not over yet, as efforts are currently underway to have Scott County declared a disaster area and thereby qualify it for federal disaster relief assistance.
One weather-related death has been reported, as Earl Barton Owens, 72, of Oneida apparently suffered a fatal heart attack last Wednesday afternoon after shoveling snow. Among weather-related injuries reported, was Plateau Electric Cooperative employee Anthony Overton, who suffered a broken arm when a pole and transformer fell on him as a crew was attempting to restore power.
A full week after the snowstorm some people are still digging out, still without electrical service and still needing assistance from weary emergency personnel who have had little rest.
It came as a surprise to most people. Even as the snow began falling around sunset last Tuesday (Feb. 3) Knoxville meteorologists were not predicting a major winter snowstorm. Rain was in the forecast for the Upper Cumberland region. But the rain turned to snow and it didn't stop until the county -- and the region -- were virtually paralyzed.
By the time the snow had begun accumulating on Scott County's streets and highways Tuesday night, however, local emergency personnel were in action, establishing command centers at fire stations and municipal buildings and responding to calls from people who needed their assistance.
Those types of calls would continue throughout the night, throughout the day on Wednesday and for days to follow.
By the time several inches of the white stuff had accumulated early Thursday night, power outages were already being experienced and Plateau Electric Cooperative crews were in action -- first trying to rstore electrical service to the most vital areas, and then venturing out onto almost impassible roads in an attempt to restore power to other areas. On Friday, the third day after the storm had struck, as many as 50% of the system's 4,400 customers in the Scott County area were still without power. By Tuesday, that amount had been reduced to 444 without electrical service as PEC crews were being assisted by other electrical companies throughout the region as well as private contractors.
Early on during the devasting snowstorm as PEC crews, law enforcement officers, emergency service providers and volunteers cut their way into a particular area, they found they would also have to cut their way back out, as snow-laden trees continued to topple across roads.
Even major arteries through the county such as U.S. 27 and State Highways 63 and 297 were blocked, sometimes for hours and in at least one instance (Hwy. 297 through Paint Rock) for days. As of Monday, Hwy. 297 was closed to through traffic so that workmen could cut and remove fall trees and other debris.
On Wednesday and Thursday, State Department of Transportation road scrapers and the Oneida street crews had their hands full just trying to plow snow off the highways, but were continually hampered by fallen trees. When those would be cut away, others would fall beneath the weight of the snow.
As streets and highways were slowly being cleared of fallen trees and snow, few people were able to venture out without four-wheel-drive vehicles. And when they did manage to get out, they found power outages were so widespread that many stores and gas stations in the county were unable to open for business.
From the onset, police officers, Sheriff's Department deputies, members of the Scott County Rescue Squad and other volunteer organizations were kept busy running errands -- some of them emergency errands -- as stranded residents called in for oxygen, medicine, transportation to the hospital, etc. There were also calls for food, for fuel, and for transportation to emergency shelters which had been established at the Oneida Municipal Building, the Higher Life Assembly of God church in Helenwood and at fire halls in other communities throughout the county.
Many emergency personnel worked around the clock from late Tuesday evening to Thursday. By mid-day on Thursday, as the crisis began to ease somewhat, many of the emergency personnel were able to get a few hours rest, only to be called back into action later that evening.
It was on Thursday, after the threat to human life had been stabilized, that emergency personnel began looking at the physical damage left in the wake of the snowstorm -- trees across homes, businesses and outbuildings, store-front awnings which had collapsed under the weight of the snow and miles of downed utility lines, to name but a few. The physical damage of the snowstorm is still being assessed. It could run into the millions of dollars. The economic effect of the storm -- the extent of which may not be known for weeks -- could easily equal that of the physical damage, as countless businesses and industries throughout the county were hard hit.
In a meeting called by Scott County Emergency Management Coordinator and Civil Defense Director Wayne Shoemaker at the County Courthouse in Huntsville Saturday evening, the devasting impact of the snowstorm began to unfold, as one spokesman after another took the floor to tell their stories.
Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) representative Bill Worth stated that the emergency is still in the "response phase" and may be days away from the "recovery phase." Worth, who has been in Scott County since the second day of the emergency situation, said that he makes regular reports to his supervisor, who in turn briefs Gov. Don Sundquist daily on the situation in Scott County. "The Governor is very interested," Worth said.
Oneida Mayor Jack E. Lay told the group that 47 people had sought emergency shelter at the Oneida Municipal Building in the wake of the storm, and city employees have worked around the clock to assist whoever, whenever and wherever they could.
"There were no city limits when we went to work," Mayor Lay said, adding that Oneida Police Department responded to calls in several other areas of the county, while street crews and other volunteers worked almost non-stop during daylight hours clearing down trees and manning snowplows. He expressed his appreciation not only to city employees but to volunteers from a wide area who came in to provide labor, donate food, sleeping bags and equipment.
Delmer Keeton of Plateau Electric said the snowstorm "was one of the worst times ever experienced by our system." As of Saturday afternoon, Keeton said, some 1,280 residents in Scott County and another 1,200 in northern Morgan County were still without electrical service.
"It's going to take a long time to get some of them back up," Keeton said. "We will have about 150 workers out tomorrow trying to get the rest of them on."
Keeton said PEC crews, linemen from other utility companies and private contractors called in to assist them have been working 16- to 18-hour shifts, "living on five or six hours sleep." He called the linemen "heroes" and posed the rhetorical question: "Where do people gain this type of energy at a time like this?"
Sheriff Jim Carson said his department had utilized four-wheel-drive vehicles to haul medicine, oxygen, food and fuel to people in need, and to act as an ambulance service in several instances.
"Where we couldn't go in our four-wheel-drives, we walked," Sheriff Carson said. "We were two days just trying to get caught up on calls and we're still delivering food and kerosene."
Cecil Strunk of LifeCare Medical Transport said he dispatched an ambulance into the Winfield area almost as soon as the snowstorm struck. He said LifeCare had received assistance from law enforcement officers and "everybody else" throughout the emergency situation. He said his service has worked in cooperation with the Scott County Ambulance Service throughout the crisis and that all calls were answered.
"It sometimes took hours," Strunk said, noting a call to the Paint Rock area which took six hours to get to and another in the Smith Creek section that took a full 12 hours to respond as emergency workers had to "try two or three times to get to that patient."
