The recent winter storm certainly made its presence known, but it wasn’t as severe as the Dallas Office of Emergency Management had planned for.
“I think that this was a really well forecast storm and the communication was good and people took that seriously, in addition to the general level of anxiety that was out there because of last year’s event,” Assistant Emergency Management Coordinator Travis Houston said.
The city had plenty of advance warning that the storm was on its way with potentially crippling ice. Shelters were opened in the event of power outages and emergency vehicle tires were wrapped with chains to travel across the icy streets.
In the end, the advanced warning convinced the government and many businesses to shut their doors, sparing people from venturing out on streets that quickly became treacherous. However, it was the power that made the difference.
“The most critical thing just comes down to power,” Houston said. “And it showed me at least how much that changed the entire way were able to respond last year compared to this year.”
Indeed as of Friday morning, the city was only aware of 100 homes that were without electricity. ONCOR said virtually all of the problems were traced to trees that iced and fell across lines.
“People being able to stay home, stay warm have access to news and updates from us, I think, was really important this year. We just didn’t have that last year.”
The number of accidents requiring Dallas Fire-Rescue was on par with an average day, largely attributed to fewer cars on the roads.
“It’s not been as bad, obviously, as it was last year," Jason Evans of Dallas Fire-Rescue said. “But it’s not been as bad as we would have expected it to be up to this point, relative to the number of calls.”
Four fire trucks were involved in accidents because of the ice. Nobody was seriously injured in any of those collisions.
However, some of those calls were heartbreaking. Twice firefighters were sent out to garage fires caused by space heaters that were intended to keep pets warm.
“On one of those instances, an unknown number of dogs perished in a fire that was out in a carport/garage where the space heater itself was too close to some wood chips. Those wood chips ignited,” Evans said.
In the second incident, a dog knocked over a space heater, causing a fire. The owner was able to rescue the pets but the garage burned and caught the neighbor’s garage on fire as well.
The city is also bracing for a spate of broken water pipes when the temperature rises above freezing. If owners cannot shut off their own water lines, the city is forced to respond.
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