Storms Wreak Havoc Here
Many Jasperites can share horror stories about how last week’s ice storm affected them, but two local families can really attest to problems caused by the storm.
The homes of Randy and Diane Parker at 749 Forsyth Street and Clint and Amanda Currie at 432 Hillsboro Street both suffered major damage from structure fires caused by the storms last week.
The Currie house caught fire about midnight Wednesday after a tree fell on the power line, taking the service off the house, and causing a surge through the wall. Mr. Currie said he heard the loud boom of the tree falling, and could smell smoke, but the home did not lose power. And, there was not much smoke initially.
{{more}}
However, Mr. Currie was proactive and told his wife to get the children bundled up and take them to his parents’ house which is just down the street. Soon thereafter, the house began filling with smoke, and Mr. Currie and a friend began carrying stuff out.
Meanwhile a city worker was on the scene of the downed power lines and saw the smoke and called the fire department.
Mr. Currie had nothing but praise for the fire department. He said they arrived almost immediately, and began pulling hose and working on putting out the fire. After they extinguished the fire, he said the community has rallied around him and his family giving them clothes, financial donations and offering to help in any way.
The fire at the Parker home on Hillsboro Street started in the chimney, where the Parker’s had apparently started a fire after their power went out. They called the fire department at 9:30 a.m., and the first truck was on scene at 9:33 a.m. They were lucky….a truck was coming back through town after cutting trees out of the roadway. The extent of damage at the Parker house is unknown, but the estimate is fairly high.
One reason the firefighters were able to respond so quickly to both the fires in town is they were at Station 3 in Monticello, where they were re-grouping after the last round of tree-cutting.
Firefighters, sheriff’s department employees and public works department employees were out virtually all Wednesday night putting out fires and cutting trees out of roadways. The sheriff was able to put his military humvee to work on the icy roads.
The first storm-related fire the firefighters responded to was Wednesday afternoon at 376 Doe Lane. A tree fell on a power line that shorted out the wires to the barn, and caught the barn on fire.
From then on, the firefighters, along with the county’s emergency personnel, worked through Wednesday afternoon and evening, and all night.
The fire department responded to 14 fire calls during the storm. Several homes suffered damage from power surges into the home or electrical problems caused by lines swaying in the breeze. One property owner reported a tree down on an electric fence charred the electrical box at the barn and there is soot everywhere, even though the structure remained intact.
Luckily, even though several of the fires were serious, only the two homes were badly damaged.
The winter storm system that began Wednesday morning, Feb. 12, had a devastating effect on the Central Georgia Electric Membership Corporation (CGEMC) electrical distribution system, according to an announcement from CGEMC. The same can be said for all electrical providers.
Overall 12,687 of the cooperative’s 52,274 metered members were without service at the peak of the storm. The outage restoration was difficult due to the mass destruction from trees and tree limbs falling on power lines throughout the 14 counties served by CGEMC, the announcement said.
In Monticello, the city electrical department approximates about one-half of residents were without power at some time.
The county was still trying to assess the cost damage Wednesday morning. Monticello put its cost at $30,000.
Trucks from the cities of Albany and Monroe, as well as Over and Under, Inc., and Ben’s Tree Service helped with city with its storm repair.
