Winter Storm Fern hammered Erath County and surrounding area over the past week ending up with numerous closures, slick roadways and even some winter fun in town.
As winter precipitation and bitter cold temperatures began to roll in overnight Friday, Jan. 23, numerous warning and watches were issued by the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.
On Thursday, Jan. 22, Erath and the surrounding area was placed into a Winter Storm Watch only to be followed with a Winter Storm Warning, Extreme Cold Warning that extended into Tuesday, Jan. 27 along with dense fog advisories.
Dangerously cold wind chills as low as 10 below zero occurred in the area, keeping most people bundled up and indoors.
For the most part, power outages were limited with Tarleton State University having a power outage for a few hours Monday, Jan. 26 and a wreck impacted a power pole knocking out electricity to the area of CR 258 also on Monday.
School was canceled both Monday and Tuesday for Dublin ISD as well as all of the surrounding school districts.
A fatality fire killing one individual occurred Monday morning in Comanche with a family losing everything they owned. The three children in residence managed to escape the fire.
Both Dublin Police Chief Cameron Ray and Stephenville Police Chief Dan Harris said they were thankful that everyone followed the weather alerts closely, heeded the warnings to stay indoors.
“We have been extremely fortunate throughout this weather event. We received very few calls for service involving law enforcement, fire or EMS. Public works has remained busy but, thankfully, not overwhelmed. Yesterday morning and into the evening we did respond to some sewer backups and water issues, but those were relatively minor compared to what could have occurred,” Ray said. “I cannot thank all the employees of the city that were boots on the ground to keep things rolling, enough. I can attest that it was cold, really cold and they never missed a beat. I also want to thank the community. They listened to the warnings, stayed indoors and I think they also led to the success of managing this event.”
During the cold weather event, a portion of Dublin experienced low natural gas which Atmos Energy was able to repair.
“Our vehicle accidents have been minimal in Stephenville,” Harris said. “We went for 24 hours on Sunday, Jan. 25 without incident.”
The overall area saw anywhere between 1.5 and 2.8 inches of snow, ice, sleet and freezing rain.