Goliath strikes

Winter Storm Goliath did not pack quite the punch in Donley County that it did in other parts of the Texas Panhandle, but the meteorological finale of 2015 still left its mark.

Heeding warnings ahead of the storm, Lowe’s Family Center was swamped Saturday, December 26, by local residents stocking up on essentials, and the shelves of milk, eggs, and bread were bare by that night.

Rolling into the High Plains Saturday evening, the storm blasted the area with strong winds that lasted through Sunday and periodically pelted the county with ice and snow. Official reports said local snowfall amounted to between three and four inches, but strong north winds pushed much of that snow into drifts while leaving some areas of bare ground.

The primary difficulty for local folks were power outages. While electric service in Clarendon stayed on, some county residents suffered power losses with a few being in the dark for several days even after the storm subsided Monday. Landline telephone and even some cellular phone services were also disrupted.

Southwestern Electric Power Co. reported that at Goliath’s peak, 15,500 SWEPCO customers were without power, with 5,400 outages in in the areas of Clarendon, Hedley, Wellington, Memphis, Shamrock and Wheeler.

Employees with the Texas Department of Transportation worked diligently to keep major highways passable. Travel during the storm was discouraged, but several motorists continued to push their luck and had to be rescued.

By 5 p.m. Sunday, state officials had closed Interstate 40 through the Texas Panhandle, and by 8:30 that night, US 287 from Childress to Amarillo was closed as well.

TxDOT’s Childress District at that time reported “heavy sleet and snow falling with snow pack and black ice on roadways,” and the department said it had numerous reports of vehicles sliding off of roadways, rollovers, and jackknifed trucks.” Downed power lines across roadways and widespread power outages were also reported.

Clarendon’s Red Cross shelter at the First United Methodist Church opened its doors to 110 stranded motorists, and the Church of Christ Family Life Center sheltered about another 50 people.

Roads re-opened Monday, but it was still a few days before some folks in rural areas were able to get their lives back to normal.

By last Wednesday, Greenbelt Electric still had local men working to restore all their members’ power with help from two other electric cooperatives as well as construction crews from Oklahoma, Louisiana, and from Lubbock.

Road graders were called in to help clear county roads to get linemen to downed poles, according to Greenbelt Electric’s Randy White.

“Donley County commissioners and hands really stepped up, working nights and weekends to help clear roads for us,” White said. “I was impressed.”

White said Greenbelt Electric lost a total of 250 poles during the storm, and the last residential outage was not restored until Sunday, January 3. As of Tuesday, Greenbelt was still working to repairs lines to some rural water wells.