The Herald-News - News Story

Friday's uncharacteristically heavy snowfall sent most Rhea Countians scurrying home after work to escape the slippery roads and downed power lines. But for a small number of people, the work was just beginning.

Electric and road crews put in over 30 straight hours of work to make roadways less dangerous and restore power to peoples' homes. Thousands reported power outages over the weekend, and as of press-time on Tuesday, crews were still working on Dayton Mountain to restore power to the last 5 to 10 houses still without electricity.

Most parts of Rhea County received around 4 inches of snow, though several areas hardest hit reported significantly more. More destructive than the snow, however, was the accumulating ice that resulted later in the weekend, felling trees and large branches that wreaked havoc on nearby power lines.

"It was a classic ice storm example," said Electric Power Board (EPB) Corporate
Communications spokesperson Lacie Newton. "When you have a storm like that, the ice freezes and weighs heavy on the tree limbs and the trees themselves. We had lots of trees falling Saturday and Sundy and people were constantly getting outages."

EPB, which services customers in 600 square miles around the Chattanooga area, provides electricity for Graysville, which had 80 cases of lost power throughout the ordeal.

Contract crews were called in to help with the restoration effort, said Newton, who remarked that the area hadn't seen an ice storm like this in several years.

EPB workers were thankful for the generally positive attitude of power-less customers as they waited for their electricity to return, according to Newton.

"It hasn't been easy for anybody, but they've been patient and understanding," Newton said.
Volunteer Energy Cooperative, which takes care of the northern end of Rhea County, reported over 400 customers who experienced power loss from the storm.

VEC's Communications Coordinator Robert McCarty said extra crews joined VEC employees as they battled downed power lines, downed trees and lack of sleep.

"We're all back up now," McCarty said.

Crews worked in shifts nonstop, according to McCarty, who said working with 2-inch layers of ice and slippery roadways slowed the process.

"It's been a long time since we've had a winter storm like this, but we've had some thunderstorms where we suffered more outages than this ice storm," he said. "Conditions just made it a little harder to get to the problems."

McCarty said that many of the power outages occurred because homeowners had allowed branches to grow too close to power lines, and the electric company is not allowed to trim trees on private property.

Dayton City Electric faced similar problems, though Dayton Mayor Bob Vincent complimented the skill and dedication of the tireless work crews.

"The machine was well-oiled," said Vincent at the Dayton city Council meeting on Monday.

According to City Manager Frank Welch, at one point 55-60 percent of DCE's customers were without electricity, and crews are still working to return power to the more than 300 customers on Dayton Mountain.

Electric crews worked all weekend, assisted by men and machinery from Cleveland, Rockwood, Athens and Etowah.

"It was bad," said Welch's administrative assistant Tammy Colvin, who was in the office answering phones for 14 hours on Sunday. "Everything was going fine until it started icing Friday night. There were trees down, lines down, poles broken... you name it, we got it."

Welch also attributed many of the outages to untrimmed tree branches, calling it 75 percent of the problem.

Crews from the Rhea County Highway Department, working in conjunction with the county sheriff's department ran nonstop as well to improve the treacherous roads and make sure people were safe.

"We started work at 2 p.m. on Friday, worked 30 hours straight, went home and slept a while, and then we worked several hours on Sunday," said Rhea County Road Supervisor Tommy Snyder.

According to Snyder, the road crews started by plowing snow and spreading salt around the time that everyone was leaving work to go home. Later on that night, the crews focused more on cutting trees and clearing ways for vehicles to get past difficult roads.

"We've got two weeks of picking up to do now," Snyder said. "It wasn't part of the plan, but I told the guys it's going to be like two paydays when they get their checks because they've worked 50-60 hours of overtime. They did good."

According to Sheriff Mike Neal, some of the worst areas were on Dayton Mountain and around the Oak Hill Road area.

"There were a lot of people trying to come up the mountain on Highway 30 and couldn't," said Rhea County man Ed Stobart, who lives on Dayton Mountain. "There were cars everywhere."

Highway 30 going up Dayton Mountain had to be closed for an hour on Friday as drivers waited for snow plows to clear the road.

Neal said that everything worked well, considering that the winter weather hit at about the same as rush hour.

The sheriff's department stayed busy giving stranded motorists rides home and checking on elderly individuals in the area.

Rhea County 911 Center Director Shane Clark said the phones rang nonstop, with 2563 phone calls coming in from noon on Friday until midnight on Sunday.

"It was an extremely busy weekend," said Clark. "I was in and out all weekend long, but that's just what you do. Once every few years you end up with a situation like this, but it all works out."

Elisabeth Hollingsworth can be reached at elisabeth.hollingsworth@rheaheraldnews.com.