By KLTV Digital Media Staff
Published: Jun. 4, 2024 at 7:04 AM CDT|Updated: Jun. 4, 2024 at 12:55 PM CDT
TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - Monday evening’s severe weather has left over 70,000 residents in Smith County alone without electricity and led to several road closures caused by downed trees and power lines.
Smith County Judge Neal Franklin gave an update during Tuesday morning’s commissioners court meeting where he said that emergency responders received 300 calls for service overnight, while 71,000 businesses and residents have been left without power. Additionally, it was reported that nine homes had trapped residents inside, and one water rescue was performed by emergency responders overnight as well. Multiple calls were also received reporting people trapped in vehicles.
The power outages have also affected some county operations, including Pct 5 Justice of the Peace and constable offices in Lindale which are currently closed. However, Judge Franklin said the constables are still on the job.
Around 3 p.m., Whitehouse Mayor James Wansley announced a local state of disaster for the city due to the widespread damage caused in the storms.
At 12:45 p.m., the county announced that more than 300 trees were down on at least 100 county roads following Monday night’s storms.
County Road 129 is washed out and barricaded while County Road 354 and County Road 411 are barricaded due to high water.
Judge Franklin advised that if you live on a county road and have trees down, road and bridge crews can remove the debris only if it’s moved to the right-of-way. They just started yesterday. Likely to be delayed by yesterday’s storms.
Pct. 1 Commissioner Pam Frederick expressed appreciation for lineman working to restore power. Noted she met a crew from Tennessee this morning.
Pct. 2 Commissioner John Moore asked that residents be civil and kind to county workers during this difficult time.
“Please remember that the folks who work at the county are human beings and they are overloaded and bombarded,” Moore said.
Smith County Emergency Management Coordinator Brandon Moore reported 71,000 residents and businesses were without power in the county.
Emergency calls included nine homes with trapped residents, one water rescue, multiple people trapped in vehicles due to power lines and/or downed trees, as well as multiple traffic lights out, he said.
The Smith County Road and Bridge Department is working on a list of Smith County roads that could have wash outs or downed trees. The Precinct 5 Justice of the Peace and Constables Offices in Lindale are closed because of a power outage.
The Heritage Building, which is serving as a polling location for the City of Tyler District 2 Council Runoff Election, is without power but the elections equipment is running off backup batteries. The Hub, at 304 E. Ferguson St. in Tyler, and Lanes Chapel Methodist Church, at 8720 Old Jacksonville Highway in Tyler, are also open for voting today.
City of Tyler officials also reported that due to heavy rain, the City of Tyler Water Utilities is temporarily closing all public boat ramps on Lake Tyler and Lake Tyler East. Ramps are being closed due to boating hazards resulting from debris washed into the lakes by the recent rains and to reduce damage from shoreline erosion caused by boat wakes. In addition, the lakes are closed to boat traffic from lake residents. The ramps will be closed until further notice. Tyler Water Utilities anticipates reopening the ramps once the lake levels recede.
ONCOR is reporting over 57,000 outages, most of them coming from Smith County Tuesday morning without an estimated time of restoration. You con view the ONCOR outage map by clicking here.
“This is going to be a slow process. This is a multi-day restoration effort,” said East Region Manager for ONCOR Tom Trimble. Crews are preparing to deploy another mobile generator for the Lake Tyler water intake. Officials are asking the residents to continue reporting outages using the ONCOR app.
Multiple school district with summer school programs, and early education centers, have closed for the day across East Texas due to the outages. For a complete list of closures click here.
Meanwhile first responders and crews are working hard to keep storm debris and downed stop lights from causing traffic delays. Crews have been working in Van Zandt County to remove downed trees on the westbound side of Highway 80 just east of Grand Saline. Whitehouse is also reporting downed trees across Highway 110 and the City of Tyler is currently monitoring roads conditions throughout FM 848 in between Tyler and Whitehouse for downed trees.
For a full list of traffic conditions and road closures click here. You can also view road conditions reported by TxDOT here.
Remember to treat intersections without working traffic lights as if they were a four-way stop.
Oncor asks residents to report down power lines to the Tyler Police Department’s non-emergency line at (903) 531-1000 or 911.
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