LITTLE ROCK — Freezing rain pelted Northwest Arkansas on Tuesday, and the weight of thick ice pulled down trees and power lines, knocking out electricity to thousands of homes and businesses.
Today's weather isn't expected to be any better.
While the precipitation is expected to end overnight, temperatures should remain below 20 degrees, changing sloppy, crunchy and wet streets into frozen ones, said Mike Teague, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
There is the possibility of additional precipitation today for the Fort Smith area.
Thursday's high temperatures should reach the upper 30s, but melting of thicker ice should stretch into Friday, Teague said.
The Rogers Police Department set up a warming shelter and an overnight emergency shelter being established at the city's adult wellness center.
The Northwest Arkansas chapter of the American Red Cross established overnight emergency shelters in several cities, including Fayetteville, Siloam Springs and Mountain Home, said Ruthanne Hill, the organization's director.
More shelters will be added if necessary, she said.
Other shelter providers were doing what they could despite difficult circumstances.
"We're open, but we're sort of closed because the electricity is out," said Max Hook, the director of Soul's Harbor, an eightbed homeless center in Rogers, at 12:30 p.m. "I tell people they can come and we can take you, but it's going to get mighty cold tonight."
The Electric Cooperative of Arkansas, consisting of 17 electric providers statewide, estimated one of every two customers in Northwest Arkansas was without power. About 100,000 of the cooperative's 480,000 statewide customers were without power, said Doug White, the organization's vice president.
"It looks like it's going to get worse rather than better," White said Tuesday afternoon. "Temperatures are dropping and trees are getting heavier."
Power companies were seeing more and more failures in their service areas.
"It's growing hourly," said Penny Storms, a spokesman for Ozarks Electric Cooperative in Fayetteville. "As more trees fall, more power goes out.
"It could be several days without power in some rural areas depending on how bad it gets."
POWER FAILURES
By Tuesday afternoon, most of the Arkansas cooperatives' power failures were caused by tree limbs and other debris falling onto power lines, White said. The failures will reach crisis level if power poles begin breaking. White didn't expect the situation to get that bad.
"The good news is that unlike a tornado or severe wind storm or ice storm, no substation outages have been reported, and no entire substations have gone out," he said. "I think we can make significant progress if temperatures are doing what forecasters say they're going to do."
Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. listed 6,432 customers without power. They were in Fort Smith, Van Buren, Mountainburg, Alma, Altus and Paris, according to the company's Web site.
Spokesman Brian Alford said repair crews converged on the Fort Smith area where most failures occurred.
Arkansas Valley Electric Cooperative spokesman Greg Davis said 4,000 customers lost power in Crawford, Sebastian, Franklin, Logan and Scott counties.
A hundred contracted electric workers arrived from Ohio on Tuesday and checked into the Sleep Inn and Clarion Inn, both in Bentonville, said Carrie Maemori, guest service manager at Sleep Inn.
"I just think they are amazing," Maemori said. "I can't express how grateful I am to them.
"It feels good to provide a place where they can come home, relax and eat. They are away from their own homes to help customers here."
She didn't know which electric company they'd be assisting.
SHELTERS OPEN,
SCHOOLS CLOSE
By mid-afternoon, no one had arrived at the adult wellness center, but the expectation was people could arrive after dark. There was room for 100 people.
Rogers Mayor Steve Womack, who lost power at his home, contemplated staying at the shelter after spending much of the day clearing roads by cutting tree limbs with his chainsaw.
"It's like a war zone," Womack said of the downed trees.
Northwest Arkansas schools wasted little time deciding to close today. Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, Bentonville and Siloam Springs schools worked together Tuesday in deciding to cancel classes today.
"No brainer, I think, is the term of the day," said Gary Compton, Bentonville's school superintendent.
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville used its new RazALERT emergency notification system to signal to the UA community that classes were canceled Tuesday. The message reached 91 percent of the system's registered users.
It was the 19th time UA has canceled a full day of classes in the last 100 years, UA spokesman Steve Voorhies said.
The university has grown more sensitive to its students' and employees' safety in recent years, Voorhies said.
"A lot of time in the past, if the weather was bad, professors would just cancel classes," Voorhies said. "I'm saying this from my past - as a student in the '70s."
The UA student newspaper, The Arkansas Traveler , canceled today's print edition. An online version is on the Internet at www.thetraveleronline.com.
Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville was closed Tuesday.
WORST IN MADISON COUNTY
The National Weather Service on Tuesday said the heaviest ice accumulated in Madison County.
Most Madison County roads were impassable and many households were in the dark.
"Trees are down everywhere," said Madison County Sheriff's Office dispatcher Pam Montoya. "Power lines are down everywhere."
The roads that were passable were described as dangerous on Tuesday by Montoya. A rash of accidents occurred Monday night, but had dwindled through Tuesday as fewer people ventured onto the roads.
City and county personnel, operating on emergency power, were setting up shelters at the Madison County Courthouse and the Huntsville District Court building.
In Franklin County, power failures were reported in Altus and across northern parts of the county. Downed trees made many roads impassable, while downed power lines forced the sheriff's office to use an electric generator for the radio system, said Fred Mullen, the county's emergency management coordinator.
The courthouses in both Ozark and Charleston were closed, and as with other counties, non-essential personnel were given the day off.
Carroll County reported widespread power failures and many downed trees.
Jasper and other areas of Newton County were also without power.
As in Madison and northern Franklin counties, downed trees knocked out power and made roads treacherous or impassable.
"There's very little traffic on the road, and most of the roads are blocked by trees," said Peter DeChant, the county's emergency management coordinator.
Much of the county was without electricity by early Tuesday morning. Jasper lost power around noon, DeChant said. Residents were prepared for the storm.
"We've had few calls for service," DeChant said.
In Benton and Washington counties, Tuesday's early morning traffic was light on a slick section of Interstate 540 when Jethro resident David DeVille jackknifed his tractor trailer just after 6 a.m. as he headed north. The weather wasn't bad when DeVille left Clarksville at 10 p.m. Monday, and he'd had little trouble as he headed north to carry groceries to Wal-Mart stores in Berryville and Rogers.
DeVille said he was going just 35 mph when his truck started sliding. It had no damage.
"I wasn't going that fast and I wasn't loaded any more," said DeVille, 59, who hadn't jackknifed a semitrailer in his 15 years as a driver. "You just hang on. You draw up and you hold on and hope you don't roll over, and I didn't."
The Arkansas State Poilce on Tuesday released the name of the woman who died in a onevehicle crash.
Terry Rae Kelly, 56, Eagle Rock, Mo., was killed at 2:35 p.m. Monday when her 2006 Suzuki sport utility vehicle crashed and rolled twice on U.S. 62, just east of Arkansas 72 in Pea Ridge.
HOSPITAL FAILURE
Fayetteville City Hospital had a short power failure, but it didn't interrupt service, said Jane Ledbetter, hospital administrator.
"It's business as usual," Ledbetter said.
Ledbetter said the hospital has a natural gas powered generator that kicks in the event of any interruption. The generator was used Tuesday for about 45 minutes, she said.
People who choose to work in a long-term care facility know they are making a commitment to be at work regardless of the weather, she said.
Ledbetter said a few rooms were set a side for employees who lived far from the hospital, others had to drive.
"If all else fails, I'll go get 'em," she said.
Emergency service and health care employees aren't the only ones that ice doesn't guarantee a day off. Workers were expected to spend most of the day serving food at the Texas Land and Cattle Co., a restaurant at the Pinnacle Hills Promenade in Rogers. The nearby Taco Bell was open, as were other restaurants in Bentonville.
It wasn't just the food workers who came in, either.
"We get four holidays off a year and this isn't one of them," said Brad Wilson, general manager of America's Car-Mart in Fayetteville.
Wilson said he had about half of his staff on duty and had to pick up three and bring them to work. Employees were scraping ice off the 50 cars in the lot just in case there were prospective buyers.
The day's first customer bought a 2005 Chevrolet Impala because she wrecked her vehicle on the ice Monday night, Wilson said. Other customers came for replacement keys after breaking theirs in frozen door locks, he said.
John Humphreys, who lives at The Cliffs apartment complex in Fayetteville, kept the blinds open, saving candles for dark. He bundled up his 3-year-old daughter Carys and was reading to her in their powerless apartment.
"I think the worst thing is we can't cook," Humphreys said.
Trucks of area power providers and Cox Cable were on Fayetteville streets, breaking through branches weighted down with ice.
EMERGENCY DECLARATIONS
The Federal Emergency Management Agency had several tractor trailer-loads of 50 generators and other emergency equipment that pulled into Fayetteville and McAlester, Okla., on Tuesday, according to a FEMA news release. They are not intended for home use but are needed for hospitals, police stations and pumping stations. Four of the trucks arrived Tuesday in Fayetteville, FEMA spokesman Earl Armstrong said.
A red-flag warning in Washington County banning outdoor burning was replaced Monday night with an emergency declaration, said County Judge Marilyn Edwards. Newton County officials also talked on Tuesday of asking that the county be declared a disaster area.
Calls to Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, asking which counties were seeking declarations, were unreturned.
Washington County workers stayed busy responding to calls, but Edwards stayed home, fretting about the extent of damage the county faced.
"I don't know how long will the storm last," Edwards said.
Edwards said he had confidence in John Luther, Washington County director of emergency management, who is coordinating the county's emergency efforts.
Workers across Washington County were swamped with calls seeking assistance, Luther said.
There are trees down everywhere and thousands of people without power, he said.
"It's going to get progressively worse as this thing goes," Luther said.
Luther said the county's emergency operations center hasn't been opened. He said the system can be operated from the field.
Emergency agencies had difficulties with radio communications as some towers were damaged, Luther said. There hasn't been a disruption in services, he said, as the towers did not affect 911 call centers.
Luther said radio communications have been threatened, but enough towers have been restored to ensure communication. He said 75 percent of the towers are working, but all agencies are communicating effectively.
Information for this report was contributed by Evie Blad, Tracie Dungan, Dave Hughes, Richard Massey, Amanda O'Toole and Adam Wallworth of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.