Good news is welcome news.
And the good news is this community escaped Winter Storm Fern, which had us holding our collective breath throughout the weekend.
Mayor Mitch Colvin declared a state of emergency for the city in anticipation of a mix of rain, freezing rain, sleet, and snow. So did Kirk deViere, chair of the Cumberland Board of County Commissioners, who warned about a forecast for heavy mixed precipitation of snow and sleet accumulations of up to three inches and ice accumulations up to three-quarters of an inch with below freezing temperatures during the nights.
We feared hazardous roadways and bridges, downed trees, and power outages. Or to put it another way, we feared the worst and hoped for the best.
No Major Storm Issues
“The City weathered the weekend winter storm well, with thankfully no major issues to report,” Laura Smith with the Fayetteville Office of Emergency Management said Monday. “We did experience some icy road conditions, with some traffic accidents but impacts were limited. Our first responders with Fayetteville [Police Department] and Fayetteville Fire [Department] were able to assist as quickly as possible to help those residents.
“Our Streets Division worked closely with county and state partners, including NCDOT [North Carolina Department of Transportation], to obtain brine and proactively apply brine and sand to major roadways, which helped improve travel conditions and reduce hazards.
“As additional calls came into 911,” Smith said, “we were able to direct our Streets Division to secondary roads with significant impact, mostly in the central and northern regions of the city limits.”
Garry Crumpler, director of emergency services for the county, on Tuesday told CityView there was no significant damage reported to the Emergency Operations Center, county roadways heavily pretreated with brine remained in generally good condition, there were no major accidents reported during the storm, and there were no widespread power outages.
However, power outages were reported to the Fayetteville Public Works Commission.
“Between Saturday and the close of business today, we had 3,627 customers lose power during Winter Storm Fern,” Gavin MacRoberts, communications manager for the utility, said Monday. “Most of those outages were caused by a vehicle into a utility pole and tree limbs falling onto power lines.”
For the most part, our community was fortunate. Winter Storm Fern left us alone and spared us of any significant issues.
But you can’t say we were not vigilant. We had white flag shelters available for the unhoused and our public school system kept school buses off the roads, opting instead for an asynchronous remote learning day on Monday just to be safe and a two-hour delay Tuesday.
Epilogue
Remember, good news is welcome news.
But still, we are dealing with these frigid temperatures this week, with weather forecasts calling for below freezing numbers into the low 20s and the teens. It’s a hard cold out there in the evenings, and it’s not letting up for now.
“We’re very thankful for the strong partnerships across city departments and with our county and state partners that helped keep residents safe,” Laura Smith said, “and we’re grateful the storm did not bring more severe impacts.”
Don’t get too comfortable. Old Man Winter may not be done with us. Weather forecasters already are talking about another winter storm heading our way for the weekend.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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