Thursday, March 28, 2024

Sheriff: Ice brings team effort from first responders

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When icy winter weather hit Tuesday, first responders and road crews did not have the luxury of working from home in their pajamas. 

They reported for duty, lessening the danger to the community, according to Sheriff Roger Deeds, who emailed reports to the Hood County News as ice continued to pose threats. 

On Tuesday, the first day of icy roadways, Deeds said that there was little traffic and that by mid-afternoon only two accidents had been reported: one around 6:30 a.m. on Fall Creek Highway and one around 8:30 a.m. on Star Hollow Court in Lipan.

One call to dispatch involved a fall and there were “two or three” calls to report cattle on roadways, he said. 

On Day 2, Wednesday, things stepped up a bit. 

Deeds said that his department had experienced “a busy morning” that began with an ambulance and a deputy patrol vehicle stuck in Comanche Cove in separate incidents. 

While this was going on, at about 5 a.m. a justice of the peace vehicle and a funeral home vehicle became stuck in Oak Trail Shores. Deeds said that a death had occurred just before 3 a.m., apparently due to cardiac arrest. He said that the person’s passing was not due to a slowed emergency response. 

In his late morning email to the HCN, the sheriff reported said there had been two non-ice-related falls thus far that day, six ambulance calls, and three minor accidents that occurred in Lipan, Canyon Creek, and Comanche Cove. 

City and county road operations sanded roads and assisted Lake Granbury Medical Center with clearing ice from the ambulance bay parking area, he said.

“I think we used up most of the sand around,” Deeds stated in his email. 

He said that the Texas Department of Transportation sanded U.S. Highway 377 but did not sand state highways. 

Deeds credited Emergency Management Coordinator Margaret Campbell for working with TxDOT to get whatever help it could provide to Hood County. 

The sheriff said that deputies and Granbury police officers conducted building checks and close patrols.

About an hour and a half after Deeds sent his email to the HCN on Wednesday, the city of Granbury posted a warning that more freezing rain was expected to fall after 1 p.m., with temperatures below freezing, and that freezing rain was expected during the night.