FARMINGTON — Snow and multiple days of single digit and subzero temperatures in western Washington County and across Northwest Arkansas caused power shortages, water shortages and closed school buildings and city offices last week.
Joe Sellers, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tulsa, Okla., on Friday said information shows that Farmington received a total of eight inches over the two snow events since Feb. 14. The area had nine consecutive days of freezing temperatures, from Feb. 10-18.
Other reports, Sellers said, show that on Feb. 15, the high in Fayetteville was 4 degrees and the low was -8 degrees. The next day the high temperature was 20 degrees, with a low of -20 degrees, a 40-degree swing for the day, Sellers said.
The weather forecast showed a warming trend for Northwest Arkansas, but Sellers said it would be premature to say there would not be any more snow or wintry weather during the next couple of months.
Water Alerts Issued
Washington Water Authority issued two alerts, one on Thursday and one Sunday, asking customers, particularly those south of Farmington and Fayetteville, to immediately conserve water.
The second alert notified customers south of Morrow and to Evansville that they would be out of water until WWA could refill its storage tank in the area.
A third notice, a “boil order” was issued Monday by the water authority for areas around Morrow and Evansville. See article on Page 2A for more information about the boil order.
“The WWA storage tank (which holds 235,000 gallons of water) has been drained due to customer plumbing breaks in the area,” the second alert said Sunday. “Customers in this area that currently have pressure will experience a continued drop until the storage tank is refilled.”
Josh Moore, WWA general manager, on Monday said the authority was “progressing” in restoring water service to the Morrow and Evansville areas. Moore said many customers had their faucets dripping so their pipes would not freeze and that was a big use on the water system. In addition, he said the subzero temperatures, such as -17 and -15, really put a strain on the system.
“A lot more people’s plumbing froze up with the sub zero temperatures,” Moore said. “We’re checking every meter we can and adding more people as quickly as we can.”
The first alert on Thursday noted that usage was up from 67% to 150% compared to the previous week for the areas south of Farmington and Fayetteville.
“The water system in the south part of Washington County is struggling to keep up with everyone’s water demand,” the alert said.
As temperatures increased, the authority asked customers to turn off dripping faucets and conserve water to reduce demand.
The city of Prairie Grove issued its own water conservation alert last week.
Prairie Grove’s water usage increased by 40% last week, compared to the previous week, or about 250,000 to 300,000 gallons of water, according to Chuck Wiley, public works manager.
Wiley said dripping faucets could have contributed to the increase but the fear is that people left their homes to stay with family and would not find out about any leaks until they returned.
Public works crews are checking all 3,100 meters in the city to see if any meters were damaged by subzero temperatures, Wiley said.
“If there is not an issue with the meter but we see it is running, then we’ll contact the customer to see about any leaks,” Wiley said. “As temperatures rise, I have a feeling we’ll find more as things start back up.”
Rhonda Hulse, Lincoln’s city business manager, on Friday said Lincoln had not had any problems with water usage on its system.
“As of right now, we’re OK,” Hulse said Friday.
Schools Go All Virtual
Farmington, Prairie Grove and Lincoln school districts did not have on-site classes last week because of the weather and moved to virtual instruction. Farmington School District was already closed Monday, Feb. 15, for President’s Day.
All three districts returned to their normal schedules Monday.
Lincoln moved to virtual instruction for seven out of eight days because of winter conditions, according to Mary Ann Spears, superintendent of schools.
Spears did give students a chance to “unplug” on Tuesday, Feb. 16, if they wanted. In a letter to the district, Spears noted that the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas were asking people to conserve energy. To comply with that request, Spears said the district would “stop all computer use” for Feb. 16.
“Unplug it. Don’t charge it. Stay off of it,” Spears wrote. “Instead, go outside, sled, throw snowballs, make a snow angel. Talk to relatives about past weather conditions and how they handled it. Help your neighbors. But most importantly, stay warm!”
Lincoln did not provide any meals to its students last week because of road conditions but Spears said the school sent home extra meals with students on Friday, Feb. 12, before the first winter storm hit two days later.
City Services
Farmington, Prairie Grove and Lincoln city offices were closed Feb. 15 for President’s Day and then closed other days during the week because of inclement weather.
Police, fire and public works employees continued to work throughout the week in all three communities, clearing roads and responding to calls. In Prairie Grove, crews were out in the frigid temperatures repairing water breaks that occurred during the week.
Ozarks Electric and SWEPCO asked its customers last week to conserve energy as demand for power increased because of the extreme cold. On Feb. 15, SWEPCO issued an announcement that it was implementing temporary emergency controlled outages because of the extreme cold temperatures. The news release said outages would be scheduled so customers would not be without power for more than a few hours when possible.
The temporary outages ended Feb. 16, according to a SWEPCO news release.
Ozarks Electric asked its customers to be “mindful” of their energy and continue conservation efforts by keeping their thermostats at a lower setting and limiting use of large appliances.
Farmington Fire Department last week asked anyone who needed a place to go to stay warm to contact the office for assistance.
Fire Chief Bill Hellard said he reached out to several churches for assistance to provide a short-term place for residents to go after SWEPCO announced it was implementing rolling blackouts.
“That’s why we wanted warming centers in place,” Hellard said. “We wanted to be on the front end of being proactive if power was out for an extended period of time.”
No one contacted the fire department for assistance, Hellard said.