Snowfall snags travel around state

LITTLE ROCK — A storm dumped up to 6 inches of snow on parts of Arkansas on Sunday, causing numerous accidents and creating road conditions that were expected to make driving treacherous in much of the state today.

The storm moved in from the southwest Sunday morning, initially bringing sleet and freezing rain to parts of southern Arkansas. That precipitation turned to snow as the system continued moving northeast across the state.

The storm was part of a system that raked the South from east Texas to the Carolinas.

By 4 p.m. Sunday in Arkansas, more than two dozen crashes had been reported on highways in Pulaski, Saline, Faulkner and Lonoke counties, Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said.

Troopers from state police Troop E, covering Arkansas, Desha, Jefferson and Lincoln counties, had worked 25 accidents by about 6:30 p.m., Sgt. David Sims said. None of the accidents involved serious injury, he said.

The highways were “snow packed and covered with ice also,” Sims said. “It’s a mess.”

On Sunday night, Gov. Mike Beebe activated the Arkansas National Guard to help fetch motorists from stranded cars along Interstate 30.

Guard spokesman Chris Heathscott said soldiers from the 39th Infantry Brigade would use 10 humvees to transport motorists from wrecks along the highway from Little Rock to Malvern. The unit’s armory in Benton was to be opened to provide a shelter to stranded motorists, he said.

“We won’t be doing any type of vehicle extraction, but we will be assisting in bringing those motorists to shelter,” Heathscott said. He said the guard had just received the request for assistance and was still preparing to send out the soldiers at 10 p.m.

The storm caught up to Pine Bluff around 12:30 p.m. Within half an hour of snowfall, the tops of homes, storefronts and cars were wrapped in white as the flakes fell with a steadiness more common to Jefferson County, Iowa, than Jefferson County, Ark.

“It’s been falling pretty hard,” said Shannon Carruthers, owner of Shannon’s 24/7 Restaurant in Pine Bluff, as she looked out the restaurant windows. “People around here kind of freak out when they see this.”

Marty Trexler, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Little Rock, said the largest accumulations - 5 to 6 inches - had been recorded in Hempstead and Nevada counties in southwest Arkansas. Malvern, Benton and Pine Buff had received 2-3 inches as of about 6 p.m.

The Little Rock area, where the snow began falling Sunday afternoon, had received 1 to 2 inches. That was expected to increase by about an inch as the snow continued falling Sunday night.

The snow was expected to taper off this morning. With temperatures remaining below freezing, however, state Highway and Transportation Department spokesman Randy Ort said it could be a few days before the highways are clear.

While speaking on a cell phone while driving on Interstate 30 in Pulaski County late Sunday afternoon, Ort twice commented on cars that he saw slide sideways, including one that bounced off a median barrier, then kept going.

“This guy behind me, he was doing 360s a minute ago- not on purpose, I’m sure,” Ort said.

In Little Rock at 6:25 p.m., about 30 accidents had been reported but not yet investigated because police were busy working other wrecks, a dispatcher said. The city closed several roads, including Reservoir Road, Mara Lynn Road, John Barrow Road from Kanis Road to Interstate 630 and a portion of Shackleford Road near I-630 and I-430.

North Little Rock closed Scenic and Valley View drives near Pershing Boulevard and Fairway Avenue at Avondale Road. Among the numerous vehicles involved in accidents in the city was one of the city’s own dump trucks, which slid into a ditch, North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Hays said.

Winter weather also caused the cancellation of 25 flights at Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, spokesman Tijuana Williams said.

Entergy Arkansas reported 3,402 customers without power, most of them in Pulaski County, as of 8:06 p.m.

The utility company began preparing for the storm several days in advance, spokesman Dan Daugherty said.

“We just make sure everything is gassed up. We make sure we have all the equipment we need on the trucks,” Daugherty said. “We have chains ready to put on the tires if need be. There’s a deicer in a spray bottle we use.”

Several school districts, including Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special, canceled classes, as did the University of Central Arkansas.

Little Rock and Pulaski County government offices will also be closed, but North Little Rock’s will be open.

“We’re making arrangements to get some essential personnel there if the weather is challenging, which it appears it’s going to be,” Hays said.

Gov. Mike Beebe ordered only essential personnel to report to work, meaning that most state operations in Little Rock will be closed, spokesman Matt DeCample said. The Legislature is still scheduled to convene at noon today.

Ort, the Highway Department spokesman, said road crews in southern Arkansas began preparing for the snow as early as 4 a.m. Crews will be working in 12-hour shifts to clear the roads, he said.

Little Rock road crews, which are also working 12-hour shifts, began their preparations at 8 a.m., City Manager Bruce Moore said. When the snow hit Sunday afternoon, he said, “we were on top of it.”

At Brookshire’s grocery store in Pine Bluff, hundreds of people prepared for the storm by stocking up on supplies.

Manager Ben Poss, 28, said his store had to bring in extra workers to help control the overflow. The registers were humming with beeps as the store’s seven checkout lines backed up to the frozen foods sections. Outside, motorists circled the store’s already-full lot, looking for somewhere to park.

Poss said he hadn’t seen so many shoppers stock up for severe weather since an ice storm hit Pine Bluff in 2001 and left many without power.

“It’s gotten extremely busy here,” Poss said. “People are coming in for milk, bread, eggs, the staple items, but we’re seeing a big run on bottled water, in case pipes freeze.”

Lt. David Beers, of the Pine Bluff Arsenal Fire Department, was loading up, too. But he wasn’t going for the staple perishables. He was there for meat. The Conway resident said he expects to spend the next three days at the station. If he wasn’t going to make it home, he certainly wasn’t going to go hungry, piling pounds and pounds of beef chuck, tenderloin and bags of potatoes into his cart.

Beers said he wasn’t worried about handling a 40-ton truck on slick roads. He was more worried about everyone else driving around him.

“Really, this snow ain’t nothing,” Beers said. “I know how to drive in this, but some people here … some people are just stupid when they see snow.” Information for this article was contributed by Aprille Hanson, Spencer Willems and Sarah D. Wire of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.