Marion digs out of ice storm
What will certainly go down in the annals of time as one of the broadest natural disasters in county history has now come and gone.
The Winter Ice Storm of February 2008 will long be remembered, not for its destruction to homes nor fatal consequences, but for the greater inconvenience that it caused and the message it sent to disaster preparedness coordinators.
Although damages to homes, vehicles, livestock, barns, standing timber and landscaping was widespread and problematic, it could have been even more disastrous.
"We dodged a big bullet," said Greg Binkley, maintenance supervisor for Crittenden County School District. "The weather cooperated. It never got cold enough to do major damage while the power was out. If we'd have had temperatures down near zero, there would have been major problems with pipes freezing. We wouldn't be back in school this week, I can tell you that."
Homes and buildings that were not well insulated suffered from frozen water pipes, but for the most part that type of damage was mitigated by temperatures that never dipped below 25 degrees during the electricity outage.
At the peak of power outage, electric companies that serve Crittenden County and the Salem area say they had 7,500 customers without electricity. Restoration crews worked 16-hour days clearing right-of-ways and repairing damaged lines. Within a couple of days, about half of the power to the county was restored. By the weekend, there were about 1,000 homes still without power and a couple hundred started this week without lights. That was especially troublesome for families with school-age children who had to report back to class Monday.
Schools let out early on the first day of the storm, Monday, Feb. 11, and classes were dismissed the remainder of the week.
School buses operated on routes that were cleared of storm debris Monday. Several areas were still too troublesome for the big, yellow buses to navigate. Caney Fork, Nunn Switch, Fishtrap, Sulpher Springs, Airport, Love Cemetery, Youth Camp, Baker Hollow, North Kirk Bluff, Nipper, Copperas Springs, A.T. Crider, Brown School, Moore Springs, Bridwell Loop, Fords Ferry and Roe Wofford roads were either impassable or problematic for school buses Monday.
Bus drivers checked their routes Sunday in private vehicles and made special arrangements to pick up students where roads inhibited travel, said school transportation director Al Starnes.
So far this year, students have missed 8.5 days due to weather. The school calendar had some snow days built into it and school officials are already planning to make up a day and half by shuffling the remaining schedule.
As of right now, students will have to make up four days at the end of the year, meaning the last day will be May 30, unless other adjustments are made to the calendar such as eliminating spring break or going to school on days already scheduled as holidays.
The American Red Cross and Crittenden County teamed up to provide a local shelter during the power outage. Crittenden Elementary School was turned into a makeshift motel and restaurant. It fed several and provided warm lodging two nights. Overnight Tuesday there were 41 at the shelter and overnight Wednesday there were 61.
Geraldine Shouse, local Red Cross coordinator, said volunteers were very helpful in providing services to those in need.
"Conrad's, CVS and other businesses and churches really helped out by providing food, plates, towels, napkins and other items," she said. "We had Red Cross cots and the jail gave us mattress pads and the nursing home provided blankets.
"We even had Bingo and learned ballroom dancing thanks to Doug Wallace and Don Cruce."
Wallace, whose family was staying at the shelter, borrowed Bingo cards from the nursing home and even bought prizes himself to give away to winners.
"People were just wonderful helping each other out," Shouse said.
Donations to the Lakeland Red Cross, which provided assistance last week, may be made c/o Geraldine Shouse, 60 Lafayette Heights, Marion, KY 42064.
The Crittenden County Senior Citizens Center and Crittenden County Public Library were both without power part of last week, disrupting service to local residents. The library re-opened Friday and changed its schedule this week to be open on Presidents Day, a federal holiday, to better serve people needing to use computers and other library material. No late fines are being charged on books turned in this week which were due last week during the power outage when the library was closed.
The senior center was closed last Tuesday and Wednesday and operated on an abbreviated schedule Thursday and Friday. The center, operated by the Pennyrile Area Community Services, provides meals and transportation.
Donnie Arflack, chief of the Crittenden County Rescue Squad, said the disaster was the most widespread he's ever seen.
"This was actually worse than a tornado," he said, "because a tornado actually goes in a direct line and you normally have a straight path of destruction. This one affected everybody."
Arflack suggests that area emergency and disaster agencies get together in the coming days to discuss the community's weaknesses in such disasters.
"We got a taste of what could happen if we ever suffer a major earthquake," he said. "If that happens, there will be little or no outside help. All these power crews that came in from somewhere else wouldn't be coming in to help."
The storm earned national media coverage. Crittenden County was mentioned in USA Today's weekend edition and on national television and radio networks.
Many people kept up with the storm damage through The Crittenden Press Online. Multiple daily updates, video, slideshows and still photographs were posted at www.the-press.com. People around the country and world were able to watch the storm and restoration efforts unfold. The Press Web site had thousands of daily viewers, many of whom were getting information from the Internet then calling powerless relatives in Crittenden County on cell phones to keep them posted on electric company updates.
The Crittenden Press and WMJL radio, the county's only two media outlets, were both disrupted by the storm. The Press was without adequate power to operate its presses on a normal schedule. Without electricity to power computers, newspaper staffers moved equipment to the Marion Ed-Tech Center and set up shop to produce last week's Press. It was on sale at The Press office at 9 p.m., last Wednesday, but wasn't available at normal newsstands until late morning Thursday. The Feb. 14 edition was an abbreviated version, containing just a dozen pages and had to be printed out of town.
WMJL was without power and off the air for more than three days. The station went down due to the loss of electricity overnight Monday and was back on the air at 6:15 a.m., Friday.
Reliable communication to the community as a whole was difficult during last week's power outage from the winter storm. While the City of Marion regularly issues its boil-water advisories and other urgent news to WMJL in Marion and broadcast and print outlets in both the Paducah and Evansville areas, Arflack is concerned residents do not know where to turn for emergency information.
Because cable television was out for a period and weather radios don't provide such local information, he said many people were left in the dark about shelter availability and where to turn for help.
However, City Administrator Mark Bryant said WMJL and 93.3 FM WKYQ and WPSD TV NewsChannel 6 out of Paducah are the most reliable sources for up-to-the minute news on weather and emergencies in Crittenden County. He said he communicates with them any important information people may need to know.
Judge Brown said there is also information made available on the weather radio system.
At one point, Liberty Fuels was the only facility in Crittenden County able to pump fuel. Had such private businesses been unable to provide gasoline and diesel, the city would have been without a fuel source for its vehicles, including police and fire units.
No set backup to Crittenden County Elementary School existed to shelter residents of the county left without power or whose homes were damaged in the storm, according to Arflack. Had the school lost power in addition to the churches and other large facilities in the county capable of providing refuge and warm meals to several people, no alternatives with backup power were available.
"These are things we need to be looking at," Arflack said during Monday's city council meeting.
Area farmers were fortunate, as were homeowners, that temperatures stayed in the normal range during the icy conditions and subsequent blackout. Van Hunt, a local cattleman, said his animals handled the weather okay.
"I lost a couple of old cows, but they weren't healthy to start with," he said.
Charlie Hunt, who operates the livestock feed mill in Marion, said his business was without power for two days, but fortunately there was enough food in manual bins and stores to keep farmers in grain. Their delivery trucks had trouble getting to some cattle yards early in the week, but they found ways in and out, Hunt said, thanks to their own chain saws.
Corey Payne, the county Extension agent for agriculture, said most stock animals are well equipped to handle a good bit of bad weather as long as their nutritional levels are high. Because of the poor hay condition this winter, Payne said some farmers were probably on edge, worrying that temperatures could dip lower and indeed been a serious threat to their livestock.
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet crews are continuing to make progress on removing downed trees and limbs along highways across the 12 counties and 2,800 miles of road in district one. However, highway engineers expect the clean-up to take up to six weeks or more. It may take another two months before the cost of ice storm response can be fully calculated. According to District One Operations Engineer Henry Luken, highway crews in the hardest hit areas are getting assistance from neighboring counties. “We have a few of our southernmost counties that were not as hard hit as those closer to the Ohio River.  Those crews will be assigned to assist their neighbors with removal of fallen limbs and trees to help expedite the process," Luken said. Two contractor crews are working to cut up and remove trees that may be larger than what highway crews are normally equipped to handle.  Luken noted that Ballard, Livingston, and Crittenden counties were hardest hit.
Marion resident Steffany (Smith) Lester was seriously injured in an automobile accident last week at the onset of the storm. The wreck happened Feb. 12 on the U.S. 60 Ledbetter Bridge near the McCracken County line.
Lester, three months pregnant, was taken to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville where she remains in critical condition with multiple injuries. A family friend said she is in a coma. Her husband, Shain, was also in the car, but suffered only minor injuries. He was treated and released from the hospital last week.
As Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District One workers prepped roadways for another blast of expected winter precipitation this week, engineers beganreplenishing stocks of salt and other ice-fighting chemicals. The district has placed orders for 7,000 tons of salt and 28,000 gallons of calcium chloride.  So far this winter, the district has used just under half of the ice-fighting supplies it had on hand at the start of snow and ice season Nov. 1. Snow response season officially ends for state highway crews on April 1.
Sign-ups for free tree removal and maintenance through Marion Baptist Church netted assistance for about 190 people in need of help cleaning up after last week's ice event. Eddie Osburn, coordinator of the Salem-based Ohio River Baptist Association Disaster Relief, said Tuesday that the all-volunteer crews had cleaned up about 40 properties.  Sign-ups for the free aid have ended, but the crews will need the rest of the week to fulfill their work.  The coordinator said the effort comes under the umbrella of the nationwide Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief.

Marion's disaster history
In Crittenden County's 166-year history, floods, fires and freak weather have all left their mark on the population.
Last week's ice storm left nearly 80 percent of the county without power in its first hours, created hazardous road conditions and closed numerous services. It was certainly one of the most extensive disasters in county history. The power was out for several days in some areas. A few started a new school and work week without lights or hot water.
"We've had other ice storms, but I don't think the power had been out so widespread and for that long," said Brenda Underdown, county historian.
As bad as last week's winter storm was, no one was killed and property damage was limited. This disaster paled in comparison to some in the past that have shut down the county for many days, destroyed an entire city, swamped structures and farmland under feet of water and turned homes to match sticks.
With help from Underdown, two published volumes of the county's history and the archives of The Crittenden Press, listed below are some other serious disasters from the annals of local history:
On March 27, 1890, a mother and her child were killed when a terrible tornado swept through the northern part of the county around the Mt. Zion Church and Cemetery area, destroying everything in its path. According to Underdown, the tornado picked up a young mother, Susan Moreland, and her daughter, Gladys, and carried them several miles from their home and left them both dead. 
"This is the only disaster that I know where a death was reported," the historian said.
Other tornadoes have created more monetary devastation, but have spared lives. One occurred in June of 1993 when a tornado hit Tolu and nearly wiped it from the map.
In January of 2000, Crayne was ground zero for an F3 tornado that ripped 25 miles northwest through the county, causing $11.8 million in damage, destroying 97 homes and leading to a federal disaster declaration.
On March 16, 1923, there was a major windstorm that struck the city and county and did much damage to both areas but only minor injuries were reported.
With two major rivers and one secondary river bordering the county, several floods have inundated communities from Tolu to Dycusburg. Most notable was the 1937 flood – perhaps the worst natural disaster in western Kentucky history – that left one million homeless and registered damages of $500 million from the origin of the Ohio River in Pittsburgh to Cairo, Ill. Dycusburg, along the Cumberland River, was evacuated and most of northern Crittenden County was left under water from the swollen Ohio River.
Other floods in 1913 and 1997 also created widespread damage, but nothing near the 500-year event in 1937.
The county courthouse was destroyed by fire twice, first during the Civil War in 1865 at the hands of Confederate Gen. Hylan B. Lyons. Five years later, the courthouse was again destroyed by a blaze.
On March 28, 1905, a stable in the rear of a Marion home burst into flames, spewing spars and embers across the city. Homes and buildings in the downtown business district were destroyed. In 1919, another downtown fire created similar widespread damage.
The winter of 1917 and 1918 left the entire county in a deep freeze. According to Underdown, the temperature was in the single digits or below zero the entire month of December 1917 and continuing into January and February of the next year.
"The snow over a period of weeks had risen to well over four feet deep," Underdown said. "Finally, in March, the cold spell broke and it started raining."
The winter of 1977 and 1978 was also terrible with snow and below normal temperatures, but the following year, in January 1979, there was so much snow and bad weather that "we didn't go to school the whole month of January and on into February," Underdown said.

Tree cleanup is costly, dangerous
Scars from last week's winter storm will be evident for months or years to come despite the best efforts of homeowners to remove limbs and damaged trees from their lawns.
Dr. Bill Fountain, a master arborist with the University of Kentucky, said there are several things property owners should know about damaged trees, foremost is whether the person doing your cleanup work is properly insured.
Fountain said tree trimming specialists cost between $45 and $75 per hour depending on the type of equipment they have at their disposal. Smaller operators concentrating on lawn cleanup are fetching around $25 to $30 an hour.
A property owner should ask two questions before contracting with an agent to handle storm cleanup.
"Ask them: Are you insured and do you carry worker's compensation insurance?" he said. "If they don't and they are injured on the job, it can bankrupt you. Also, make sure that if they cut a limb and it falls through your roof, their insurance will cover it."
Fountain says tree trimming is the second deadliest job in North America. High winds mixed with widowmakers – large, damaged limbs and branches clinging atop trees – can be dangerous for amateurs and professionals alike.
For those doing their own cleanup work, the City of Marion and Crittenden County are each keeping their debris dumps open to the public round the clock. Both locations are for logs, limbs and other plant matter. No garbage or household refuse can be left there. Both are free of charge.
The city's dump site is on Mill Street. Its can be accessed best from East Depot Street. It's a gravel road next to the old railway.
Neither the city nor county will pick up limbs or other storm debris left on the curbside or on rights-of-way of county or state roads. In fact, Judge-Executive Fred Brown says no such material should be left on the edge of the road.
The county's storm debris dump site is located on Bridwell Loop Road at the entrance of the old county dump.
When considering whether a damaged ornamental shrub or a tree with sentimental value should try to be salvaged or cut down, Fountain said it's best to seek professional advice.
"There are so many factors to consider such as what species it is, how many branches it's lost and the size of those branches. Some trees will recover," said the arboriculture specialist.
Fountain was at Madisonville Wednesday meeting with area Extension agents, providing information they can use to pass along to area property owners who suffered tree and shrub damage.
Cory Payne, Crittenden County Extension Agent for Agriculture, met with Fountain and is available to answer questions about trees and landscaping plants. Payne is also working to schedule a Marion workshop featuring Dr. Fountain.
Tree wounds never heal, Fountain explained. However, trees can survive being damaged. He suggests that if a damaged tree is hanging over a house, a driveway or a place where children play, it's probably best to remove it. Safety should be the primary consideration, he said.
If a limb is damaged, it should be pruned.
Fountain said pruning is a precise process and the limb should be cut at the point just before where it intersects with the main trunk. The exact location of the cut should be where the limb as it gets closer to the trunk begins to flare out in a bell shape.
"We call that the collar," Fountain said. "You don't want to leave too much of a stub or cut it off flush."
Do not use pruning paint, Fountain says. It will actually slow the closing over of tissue and promote decay.
When negotiating a price for cleanup, Fountain says the property owner may be able to get a discount if the limbs are chipped up on site and left in the yard. That material can be used later for mulch and could save the homeowner because the workers will not have to haul off the debris.
For more about trees and storm damage, go online to www.treesaregood.org.

County tables insurance tax plan
About 100 residents packed into the Crittenden County Courthouse Tuesday morning, many of them armed with their own reasons for opposing a proposed four-percent insurance premium tax.
Crittenden County Judge-Executive Fred Brown and local magistrates had discussed during their January fiscal court meeting the idea of imposing an insurance tax on citizens in order to make up for a projected $145,000 shortfall in the FY 2008-09 budget. The plan passed on a 4-2 vote. Before the idea could become law, however, a public hearing and second vote were required.
The public meeting was held this week amid a hail of opposition, prompting county leaders to back off the idea temporarily while exploring other options. Dozens of people attended the Tuesday hearing, forcing it out of the fiscal court's normal chambers on the main floor of the courthouse and into the more spacious district courtroom upstairs. Still, every bench and chair was filled. Many voiced their opinion regarding the tax; all were against it. However, some in the crowd expressed their understanding of the county's financial woes. A few offered their own ideas of how to solve the county's budget crisis.
Of those ideas, many were either illegal or impractical based on federal, state and local laws. Some had merit and were duly recognized by county officials as possible options.
Local businessman Bobby Martin suggested putting a $10 surcharge on property tax bills to help pay for county fire departments; Tolu resident John May, a former county judge-executive, suggested taking part of the county judge's salary out of the road department instead of taking it all from the general fund; county resident Gary Hardesty asked if the insurance tax could be collected one year then eliminated, giving the county some much needed cash right now but not holding up taxpayers from now on.
Magistrate Curt Buntin gave Hardesty's idea some credit when he said, "We just have a shortfall right now and a year from now we might not be having this discussion."
Local leaders have suggested that the new jail will save the county thousands in the coming years, but right now they are not certain enough to pencil those figures into the budget. Judge Brown said that by state law, the county must present a balanced budget by May.
The idea presented by Martin, to make county fire dues mandatory, has been discussed numerous times by the fiscal court. However, county fire departments have been against the idea.
Judge Brown said if he took May's advice and pulled part of his salary from the road department – which receives greater state funding – then that would leave the road department's budget at a deficit.
For a full three hours, ideas were shared by a sometimes hostile, but mostly amicable public. Magistrates listened attentively to virtually all of them, even those that were clearly impossible to implement.
At one point, Judge Brown picked up a copy of the budget and started down it line for line asking what those in the crowd would like to cut. Some said they would support cuts to the sheriff's department, economic development, the airport, parks and more. Some even suggested taking money from the Extension service or public library, each of which have their own taxing districts.
County officials quickly pointed out that by law, those other taxing entities have nothing to do with the county's general operating fund. Those taxing districts, Brown told the crowd, might be cut through various legal means, but that wouldn't help the county because you cannot divert funds from those tax receipts to the county coffers.
"We don't need to cut the sheriff's department. They're underpaid as it is," said local resident and private contractor Wayne Crider.
Some people suggested finding a way to tax new landowners who have come in from out of state and driven the price of property up to about $2,000 an acre, mostly for deer hunting. Local officials who understand federal and state laws and regulations tried to explain how such remedies would be discriminatory.
May, who was county judge for three terms, said he'd looked at the county's budget and could find no cutback in spending.
A good many attending the meeting stressed over and over their willingness to accept fewer services for lower taxes.
"Take less from us and do less for us, that's what we're asking for," Sister Lucy Tedrick said, summing up much of the crowd's sentiment.
Local resident Jimmy Curtis suggested letting voters decide if they want to raise property taxes to pay for the services provided by the county.
In the end, magistrates tabled the plan in order to pursue ideas posed during the meeting.
The fiscal court set up three separate committees to further research the county's 12-month spending plan that starts July 1. The committees will be looking at ways to cut expenses, shuffle dollars and perhaps raise new revenue as the proposed insurance would do.
Judge Brown explained that there are limited resources for county funds, among them are increased property taxes, a new insurance premium tax or a countywide payroll tax. The county currently has neither of the latter two, but the City of Marion does. Based on the current projected spending for next fiscal year, the county will have to raise another $145,000 or cut that much from expenses.
While the insurance premium tax was originally proposed at four percent on all insurance except worker's compensation and state sponsored health plans, magistrates suggested that if the measure does eventually pass, it will be a streamlined version. Most of them, when asked during the meeting, suggested they might be able to support a two-percent insurance tax if health and life premiums were excluded. All stopped short of endorsing that as the final plan though.
Since the tax ordinance proposal was tabled during Tuesday's meeting, there are some special rules that must be followed in order to get that measure off the table at a future meeting.
According to general rules of order, the original tax proposal is not dead and can be revived at the next meeting by a simple majority vote of the fiscal court. A new undebatable motion will be required to take the original proposal from the table. Generally, according to Roberts Rules of Order, if the original motion is not revisited at the next scheduled meeting, then it dies. A new and separate tax motion could be introduced later, but it would require another public hearing.
The next regularly-scheduled meeting of the fiscal court is Tuesday, March 18. However, Judge Brown alluded to the possibility of a special meeting being held prior to that time in order to address the insurance tax matter.
According to state law, the county will have to implement the insurance tax no later than next month in order to begin collecting those funds during the 2008-09 budget cycle.