Precipitation eases as storm begins to peter out, thousands still without power

Thousands of electrical power customers in Hunt County remained without electricity heading into Thursday evening as utility crews battled problems caused by ice from winter storm Landon.

Residents of Hunt County and Rockwall County awoke to an ice-covered landscape with downed three limbs, extremely slick roadways and scattered power outages.

As of 5:30 p.m., 5,089 Hunt County customers of Oncor remained without power. The company gave an estimated restoration time of midnight. A total of 735 Farmers Electric Co-op (FEC) customers were without power, and 494 customers of Texas New Mexico Power were still without power, according to PowerOutage.US.

The largest concentration of outages was in the Quinlan area and in and around Commerce. Customers of Farmers Electric Co-op were seeing restoration times ranging from late afternoon to late tonight.

FEC customers can check on your area by going to https://s-webserv.fecelectric.com/farmersec/outagecenter/default.asp.

Oncor customers can go to stormcenter.oncor.com.

Customers of GEUS in Greenville were a little more fortunate.

"The most we've had is 150 to 200," said GEUS Consumer Services Specialist Jimmy Dickey, who said none of them have been widespread in Greenville. "It's been mostly isolated outages."

Oliver Delgado, who lives on Seventh Street in Greenville, reported that his power went out about 1:30 a.m. and it was restored at about 4 a.m.

“We lost a little heat,” but other than that the outage didn’t affect his household much, he said. “I missed work today because since our power was out – I actually get up to go to work around 3 a.m. because I work in Dallas – so I didn’t want to leave my family here without any lights, and I didn’t know what time they were going to restore it.”

Delgado remembers Winter Storm Uri, which also occurred in February.

“So far, I think this one is not as bad a last year, because we were having the constant rolling blackouts,” Delgado said.

Eddie Vasquez, who lives on Division Street, said his power was interrupted only momentarily.

“It flashed. Like the TV never went off or anything. It just flashed off and came right back on.”

Vasquez said he and his family intended to stay put Thursday, and he took off from work as a trim carpenter. “We’re looking to go back Monday,” he said.

Most government offices were closed today, including Greenville City Hall and the Hunt County Courthouse. The Courthouse also will be closed tomorrow. The Greenville City Hall was expected to make a decision later today on whether to open Friday.

Public schools in Greenville, Royse City and Rockwall were all closed today and will remain closed Friday.

There was no regular trash collection in Greenville on Thursday. The company was expected to decide Friday morning if it will resume. Harrison Library and Reecy Davis Rec Center also were closed Thursday. Greenville Christian School will be closed today and Friday.

Streets and roads in and around Hunt County were covered with ice as sleet began falling before 8 a.m. today. By 3 p.m., the storm was producing only light snow flurries. Authorities were requesting that people stay off the streets and roadways to keep non-essential travel to a minimum. In Greenville, street traffic was significantly lighter as many drivers heeded warnings to stay off the roads.

Schools across the region are closed today and most will also be closed tomorrow, as bitter cold temperatures are expected to descend on the area. The winter storm warning remains in effect until 6 p.m. today, with precipitation expected to diminish this afternoon.