Last Wednesday night, temperatures in the Texoma area dropped to below freezing as Winter Storm Cora brought in a wintry mix that had area residents waking up Thursday morning to a winter wonderland.
For hours, giant snowflakes poured from the sky and resulted in an accumulation of 8-10 inches of snow for many people in the area. While some school districts announced closures the day before, others (like Whitesboro ISD) originally planned on starting two hours later to see what the weather was going to do. Before Wednesday was over, they had already announced a full-on cancellation. As snow and sleet continued throughout the day on Thursday, around 4 p.m. the ISD canceled school for Friday as well.
The two snow days resulted in area kids bundling up in their winter coats, hats and gloves and building snow men, igloos and snow angels in their yards. On Buchanan Street, neighbors held an epic snowball fight, and folks trekked to Godwin Park with inner tubes, plastic tubs and wheel-less skateboards to “sled” down the snow-covered hill there.
While the winter weather brought excitement and fun for some, it meant trouble for others.
Whitesboro Fire (WFD) and EMS began preparation well before the storm arrived. The impending weather pattern initiated departmental review of many cold weather policies, including operations for pumps and apparatus, refreshers on chain systems and driving on ice and familiarization of cold related medical protocols.
As the storm arrived, WFD personnel, staff and volunteers were on hand to respond to calls for service as they came in.
At one point, WFD was juggling as many as four emergency calls at once as the winter weather set in.
The icy roads delayed response times substantially. A third ambulance was staffed to help cut down on those delays as medical transports to the hospital took twice as long as usual.
WFD EMS relied on first responding fire departments to help locate and navigate the best roads for accessing rural addresses, and extra manpower was used to ensure the slippery conditions did not lead to patient or responder slips or falls.
The call volume at WFD peaked Friday evening as 10 calls came in seven hours, including two working structure fires, a gas leak and two motor vehicle accidents.
Crews manned every piece of apparatus the department owned during that stretch and successfully and safely managed each emergency as it was dispatched.
A structure fire on Shadow Valley Road brought Collinsville Fire Department to assist Whitesboro.
The home suffered limited fire damage and some smoke damage. Crews quickly located and extinguished the fire that had worked into some wall spaces around a chimney.
As this house fire was ongoing, a gas leak, two medical calls and a motor vehicle accident response with Sadler Volunteer Fire Department were covered by additional personnel.
In all, the department ran 19 emergency calls over three days that can be attributed to the winter weather beyond the daily expected call volume.
As the storm moved out and temperatures rose, WFD was in recovery mode from the storm.
The department had over 1,000 feet of hose that needed to be cleaned, dried, inspected, and rolled to be stored.
All the apparatuses were washed thoroughly to ensure all the road grime and dirt was cleaned off. The bay floors had to be washed as well.
The bunker gear worn by the firefighters had to be washed following the structure fires, and general cleaning of the station was amplified to make up for the dirt, snow and ice that had been tracked in during the storm.
The storm response by WFD was injury and accident free. Despite the hazardous conditions the WFD crews and apparatus operated in, they maintained safe work environments and emergency scenes were kept injury free, due in part to the many community partners involved in the response.
“This successful outcome was all about teamwork,” Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Patterson said. “The City of Whitesboro Office of Emergency Management, Interim City Administrator Phil Harris and other department directors throughout the City managed the daily operations which didn’t miss a beat despite the winter weather.”
Jessica Edwards contributed to this article