Snow Day - 2010
With classes canceled, businesses closed Friday, Grand Prairie residents got out and enjoyed playing in the record 12 inch snowfall.
Large groups of adults, teenagers and children with sleds fashioned from a variety of materials gathered on slopes throughout the city to slide down the hills, while others surveyed the damage caused by the heavy snow, removed tree limbs and cleared walk and driveways.
Broken tree limbs damaged cars, homes and snow covered awnings collapsed. City crews roamed the streets Friday removing debris that block roadways.
Oncor reported that about 200,000 residents in the metorplex have no electricity, with between 5 and 6 thousand Grand Prairie residents affected.
The company has brought in about 2,500 contractors and utility workers from other Texas cities, Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Missouri to help the company’s 2,500 employees restore power as quickly as possible with crews are working around the clock.
Oncor spokesman Steve Taylor said it is hard for the company to put a timeframe on when all power is restored “because it is a really unique type of situation.” He added that Oncor is accustomed to working with outages caused by Texas’ severe thunderstorms, but the record snow has caused a new set of problems.
“We’re getting a lot of folks back on, then here comes another outage,” Taylor said. Initially, he said, tree limbs weighted down with snow making contact with wires caused most of the problems. Now, snow laden limbs spring back as snow melts and these limbs are making contact with power lines causing outages.
Taylor advised anyone seeing sparking, or fire from a power line or find a down line, should call 911. To report an outage, call 1-888-313-4747.
