Icemageddon: The Storm that Paralyzed North Texas

Dec. 06--Kye Cox was working as a terminal manager for deBoer Transportation in Cedar Hill last December when an ice storm struck -- seemingly without warning.

While forecasters had been saying winter weather was on the way, Cox, like many others, had no idea that a major ice storm was looming. The combination of freezing rain, sleet and snow started falling on the afternoon of Dec. 5 and by the next morning a thick coating of ice covered North Texas, knocking out power for thousands and bringing the region to a standstill.

As people drove on the ice, some of it turned to slush, which became an ugly grayish brown when mixed with sand. When that slush refroze and hardened, area roads were transformed into rugged terrain -- called "cobblestone ice" -- and became virtually impossible for road crews to remove.

"It was like concrete," Cox said of the bizarre road conditions. "It would shake the hell out of you."

Trucks littered the roadways and others were iced in at truck stops or shipping terminals, waiting for a big thaw.

"That storm shut down trucking in North Texas," said Cox, adding that it took about three weeks to fully recover. Of the 397 trucks he was responsible for, he estimates about 200 were affected by the storm.

And the ice didn't go away. It stayed below freezing for 61 hours during a period from Dec. 5 to Dec. 8.

"Icemageddon" was born.

At Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, hundreds of flights were canceled and thousands of travelers stranded. If they could, businesses shut down. People stayed at home for days. Those who did venture out found sidewalks and roads impassable. In Fort Worth, there were four fatalities and 1,621 injuries, most from falls and wrecks.

The combination of sleet, ice and snow that fell on Dec. 5 and 6 would hang around until Dec. 10, when temperatures finally warmed enough for the ice to begin its slow melt.

While there had been plenty of advisories about the impending storm, many were caught off-guard by its severity and duration, said Tom Bradshaw, meteorologist in charge at the Fort Worth office of the National Weather Service.

"There was a lot of vacuum there," Bradshaw said. "That led to some of the EOC's [emergency operation centers] saying they had no idea it was going to this bad. A lot of that comes back to us. We need to do a better job of communicating what we know."

Juan Ortiz, Fort Worth's emergency management coordinator, said part of the problem was that many of the people he worked with had never seen a storm of that magnitude.

"I remember very clearly going around the room and none of us had the experience except the old-timers," Ortiz said. "It was a very rare occurrence."

One of the issues was that it ended up staying below freezing for longer than anticipated, which made it far more difficult to clear roads.

"We just couldn't warm up enough to melt it all away," Bradshaw said. "Then it metamorphed into this element called cobblestone ice."

Going forward, the weather service may look toward issuing forecasts in layman's terms to make sure everyone -- from transportation workers to residents -- are aware of the risks. That may include more use of social media, YouTube videos and more direct contact with public works officials.

A costly storm

Ice storms that shut down regions and cities can lead to economic impacts of $300-700 million per day, said Bruce Hamilton, director of Safety and Research Programs at the American Highway Users Alliance/Roadway Safety Foundation, a non-profit highway advocacy group. The study looked at 16 states and two Canadian provinces, but did not include Texas.

"Unfortunately, the direct impacts are hourly workers are the hardest hit -- they're the ones that pay the biggest cost," Hamilton said.

The ice storm cost the city of Fort Worth $940,000, including MedStar expenses, with about $427,000 of those costs attributed to the Public Works Department, which was sanding roads constantly during the storm. The total expenses for all of Tarrant County was $2.9 million with DFW Airport spending about $1.5 million.

That did not meet the minimum threshold of $6.3 million for Tarrant County to qualify for a federal disaster declaration.

State transportation officials have said they spent about $2 million trying to clear roads during the storm.

Businesses that managed to open faced a variety of struggles.

Grocery stores, for examples, had a hard time stocking shelves and keeping the power on. Getting employees to work was a major problem.

"In terms of roads, that's beyond our control," said Gary Huddleston, director of consumer affairs for Kroger. "What we can try to do is control electricity to our stores and getting our employees to the stores."

Over the last year, Huddleston said Kroger officials have talked with Oncor about the need to restore power quickly to prevent food, especially frozen products, from spoiling. And if the power is going to be out for a prolonged period, Huddleston said they want to know as soon as possible so they can move products or even bring in refrigerated trucks to store frozen food.

"We've had discussions with them as well as other food retailers across the state to talk about their needs," said Oncor spokeswoman Connie Piloto. "Most of these major retailers have key a contact person. There's communication back and forth about how long the outage is going to be."

Hospitals and municipalities also have the same ongoing dialogue with Oncor while residential customers have more ways to communicate with Oncor, including by text, email and social media. Oncor has also set up an online newsroom where customers can get information.

But telling people precisely how long they'll be without power is still a work in progress.

"We're still working on that and fine-tuning those tools," Piloto said.

'We weren't equipped'

Fort Worth and other police departments faced challenges navigating roadways and realized they need four-wheel drive vehicles to navigate the thick ice.

"We weren't equipped," said Fort Worth police Capt. Tyson Cheek. "We didn't have four-wheel trucks or gators."

The department has included four-wheel drive vehicles in this year's fiscal budget but those probably won't arrive in time for this winter.

As for answering calls, Cheek said the police were able to respond but it took time.

"We were hindered to some extent," Cheek said. "We basically tried to direct our officers to calls. It took time but we got there. If you stayed in the slushy areas and stayed out of the ridges, you could make it."

On minor crashes that police couldn't get to, those involved were told to exchange insurance information.

"We didn't go out unless we had to," Fort Worth police Capt. Charles Ramirez said last December.

Fort Worth police also relied heavily on social media, tweeting about problem spots on area roads.

MedStar responded to 1,621 calls during the ice storm, which was a 21 percent increase over the normal rate. Of those, MedStar dealt with 165 fall calls and 119 vehicle accidents.

Response times were also slower due to the road conditions, said MedStar spokesman Matt Zavadsky

"We learned the need to have additional supplies of pain medications on hand for events like this in the future," Zavadsky said. "The multiple calls for falls and car crashes, combined with the significant time increase transporting patients to the hospital due to road conditions, we used nearly double the amount of pain medications we use on a typical weekend."

'It was quite treacherous'

Julianna Blanchard, 44, a trucker who lives in the Central Texas town of Oglesby was taking a load northward from Dallas to the Midwest last December. She made it northward through Oklahoma without too much trouble but saw many drivers having difficulty.

"It was quite treacherous, especially in Texas where so many people are not experienced at all with driving on icy conditions," Blanchard said.

Blanchard drove northward into the upper Midwest and encountered ice from Missouri northward and was rerouted through Iowa and Minnesota.

While there were serious winter conditions, Blanchard said those states were far better prepared.

"We just don't have the stuff on hand down here," Blanchard said. "The southern states -- they're not going to put their money or resources into it because we don't deal with it on a weekly or daily basis like they in Minnesota and Wisconsin."

For the Texas Department of Transpotation, clearing the roads would prove challenging because there as so much traffic already stuck on the highways.

"It definitely had an impact," said TxDOT spokesman Val Lopez. "There was a large amount of traffic, including trucks, that were stuck on the roads. But this was a very unique situation, perhaps a once in a generation event."

As the storm dragged on, TxDOT enlisted the help of law enforcement to clear sections of major highways so they could be treated. Looking ahead, Lopez said they have discussed using law enforcement's help again if another major ice storm strikes.

To Blanchard, the best way for truckers to avoid becoming stuck on the road is paying attention to the weather conditions and talking with their employers.

"A lot of it has to do with planning and staying in touch with the company and saying 'No way -- the load can wait,' " Blanchard said.

Bill Hanna, 817-390-7698 Twitter: @fwhanna

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