Not once, but twice, residents in the area of White Lake Drive were left without power during Monday’s freezing rain that began creeping its way across Bladen County shortly before 9 p.m. Elsewhere, an area near downtown Elizabethtown lost power about midnight.
From Tobemory to East Arcadia, Clarkton to White Lake, Bladenboro to White Oak, and all points in between, Bladen County came to a virtual standstill as few folks seem to have ventured outside once the wintry mix began falling.
As people awoke Tuesday morning, they were greeted with ice covering their cars, icicles hanging from eaves and basketball goals, and, for those who dared to go outside, a crunchy, ice-covered and slippery walk through yards.
About 3,000 Duke Energy customers lost power for about an hour in the area of White Lake and Bay Tree Lake State Park about 9:45 p.m. when a tree limb broke off and knocked over a power line onto U.S. 701 north of White Lake, according to the utility company.
Just as folks were getting warm after having power restored, things went dark again about 30 minutes later in the area of White Lake Drive in White Lake for about 1,000 customers. There were reports that a transformer blew. Power began returning to homes shortly before 1 a.m.
Meanwhile, in Elizabethtown, about 135 Duke Energy customers lost power about midnight in the vicinity of Martin Luther King Drive, Della Street, and James Street. Power was expected to be out for about 3 1/2 hours.
There were no reports of power outages for Four County Electric Membership Corp. customers in Bladen County.
On the roadways, there didn’t appear to be any serious accidents throughout the evening.
Roads in Bladen County had not been affected much by the freezing rain as of 1 a.m. Tuesday, according to Ken Clark, who is an engineer with the N.C. Department of Transportation. However, Clark said, an expected significant drop in temperature over the next three days may cause already wet roads to become covered with a thin layer of ice which will make for hazardous driving conditions.
The temperature hovered around 30 degrees throughout Monday night and into the early morning hours of Tuesday. It was 32 degrees at Curtis L. Brown Junior Field Airport in Elizabethtown at 1:15 a.m. It’s not expected to get much warmer the rest of the week, and overnight lows will drop below 20 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
Tuesday’s forecast calls for rain or freezing rain likely before 11 a.m., then a slight chance of sleet from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., although no accumulation is expected. High temperature Tuesday is forecast to be 39 degrees with a low of 24.
There is a slight chance of snow showers in the early morning hours of Wednesday. The high temperature Wednesday is forecast to be 39 with a low of 18. Sunshine is expected to return Thursday, but the high will be only 28 with a low temperature of 11 degrees.
Bladen County remains under a winter weather advisory until 10 a.m. Tuesday.
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