Monticello Live

A tornado watch has been issued for Drew and surrounding counties.

There is a strong chance of Severe Thunderstorms across the area, tonight.

Keep checking MonticelloLive for weather updates, weather-related news, and everything else that is relevant to Drew County, when the storms roll in.

A MLive reader shared this photo of the wind-blown waves at Lake Monticello, Sunday.

Thanks to the MLive reader who shared this rainbow photo with us.

Heavy rain fell across Drew County, Sunday morning, causing several roads to be underwater, in places; sending at least three vehicles into crashes, especially around 11 am.

On Old Dermott Road, a Toyota was traveling toward HWY 35, hydroplaned after hitting some water over the roadway, then struck a tree and rolled over.

The driver was transported to DMH by SEEMS.

The Fire & rescue Team and Sheriff’s Dept. responded to the call.

Another vehicle was invoplved in a  single vehicle acciden, east of the Pine Hill / HWy 293 intersection, MASI and DCSO worked that accident.

Yet another vehicle, this time a Lincoln, ran off of HWY 425, near lacey, crossing into the trees, next to the highway.  DCSO also responded to that accident.

Finally, a tree was reported to have fallen across HWY 35 West, near Rock Springs, blocking both lanes of the highway.

The National Weather Service has confirmed that Tuesday night’s storm was a tornado.

It was classified as an EF-0.  Although weak, it did have a circular rotation, and measured 3 miles long by 50 yards wide.

These photos were sent in by an MLive reader. Thank you for sharing them.

Shown here is a Drew County Sheriff’s patrol car, which was damaged when a tree fell in it.

Pictured below are two MFD firemen responding to a call where a tree fell on power lines, causing a fire.  Two vehicle, driving in the blowing sheets of rain, collided with the tree, lying across the road.  No one was injured.

Both of these photos were included in the Good Morning America report.

Thanks to everyone who submitted storm damage photos to MLive to share with our readers.

ABC”s Good Morning America arrived at what is left of  UAM’s demolished horse barn, to cover Monticello’s severe weather, Tuesday night, in their program this morning.

Reporter Alex Perez, along with three members of their tech staff, arrived in Monticello around 4:30 to set up for the national broadcast.

Click here to watch the Good Morning America segment.

Some of MLive photos were included in the segment.

At approximately 9:30 p.m. Tuesday (January 29), winds blew a horse barn adjacent to the rodeo arena at the University of Arkansas at Monticello off its foundation. The barn was blown across the rodeo parking area and damaged three livestock trailers. The barn housed 11 horses owned by students who are members of the UAM rodeo team. None of the horses were injured during the storm, according to Rusty Jones, rodeo coach.

(more…)

A MLive reader sighted a pair of White-tailed Kites just off 16 Section Rroad, near the cemetery, recently.

She submitted the photos to Whatbird.com and the birds were verified as White-tailed Kites.

Those are scarce in our area and usually restricted to the south Texas  and Mexico area.

Thanks for sharing your discovery.

The fountain in UAM’s posd was still in operation, Tuesday night, in spite of the weather.

The pond has been known to freeze over, just not very often.  Actually MLive’s Joe Burgess walked across the frozen pond in 1984-85.

The recent ice storm has produced fewer fallen trees and broken limbs than earlier predicted.

The top photo shows a tree that fell on Jordan Drive, Tuesday afternoon.

The lower photo was taken of a North Main St. home, Monday evening.  No damage was reported.

Here’s a summary of Drew County’s weather and road conditions.

(more…)

Around 10am, Tuesday morning, a UAM student was traveling back to class, westbound on Jordan Drive, when he felt his Jeep loose traction in the ice, “fishtail”, and then rollover on the bridge.

The driver was not injured.  Monticello Police worked scene, assisted by Arkansas State Police. The Fire & Rescue Squad was also paged out.  Dan’s wrecker towed the vehicle.

The AHTD provides statewide highway road conditions at 1-800-245-1672.

Around 10 am, the AHTD was putting salt/sand on the HWY 425 / Jordan Drive overpass, because of ice accumulation.

Roadways and sidewalks are beginning to become slick in some areas, so use caution as you’re out and about, today.

Around 4 am, Sunday, flooding was reportedly enter homes homes on North Gabbert St.

In an interview with the family, they said they heard water running, and when they got out ot bed to see what was wrong, their feet touched the carpet, and that’s when then knew their home was flooded.

The family told KARK and MLive that they had requested the city and state clean out a culvert under North Gabberrt St. that was clogged up with leaves, but no one taken care of the impending problem.

After their hause was flooded, the AHTD cleared the culvert, and the water (in their yard) was soon gone.

Also see the KARK report.

Hours of cold, drenching rain seems to have washed away most of the public partying that many people consider a New Years Eve tradition, leaving most folks at home with their family, and the New York City celebration on TV.

There were a couple of minor accidents, with no injuries, around 8 pm.

The number of “midnight gunshots” was drastically down from normal.

City, county, and state law enforcement was out, another usual New Years Eve tradition, but report no unusual holiday related issues – not even a single DWI was reported.

Monday’s light rain was enough to make a rainbow, which was seen from Drew Central.

Photo provided by a MLive reader.  Thank you.

Carpet Medics owner, Randy Phillips, is traveling to the east coast to assist to the thousands of homeowners whose homes have been damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

Phillips says, “There are still hundreds of thousands of people whose homes are waiting to be repaired, and before that can happen they will have to be dried. The storm surge filled many homes with as much as 4 feet of sea water and although the water has receded the structures are saturated. There are hundreds of restoration contractors like us there but they can barely scratch the surface of the work needed to be done.”

(more…)

Last night, 1,442 Entergy customers were without power; at 3 pm, that number was down to 124.

The outage map is posted below, along with storm damage photos from State School Road, where two trees fell on a mobile home, as the family was trying to leave the residence, and another home at the intersection of S. Gabbert and E. Jackson, where a tree section fell onto a truck and home.

With fall weather across southeast Arkansas, the appeal of the open road and open air become stronger.

These two vehicles, recently seen in Monticello, demonstrate how much progress has been made in the field of “tricycles”.

This early map of siren locations has been revised for better siren coverage, but presents the general areas of population concentration. The new map will be available soon.

The members of the Drew County Quorum Court came together the night of Sept. 17 for their monthly meeting to discuss the warning system for county, the disposal of county trash and the hospital report.

The Drew County Office of Emergency Coordinator Bill Horn presented the members with the updated news regarding the early warning storm system, which just rounded its third year of progress. The county looks to install 30 sirens all together and received a three-year time frame to complete the project.

(more…)

Some of you may be familiar with the “Shrimp Guy” that sells fresh gulf shrimp from time to time on the parking lot of ReMax. That guy is Todd Tassin and I am proud to say that he is my brother-in-law. He and his family live in Slidell, La just outside of New Orleans. He sustained knee deep water in his house from Issac. They are having to get rid of everything that was touched by the water as God only knows what the water brings in and he has three small girls.

This is the pile of stuff in front of his house after three days of gutting the house and ripping out sheetrock. Almost every house in his neighborhood looks like this. Police have to guard the entrance to his neighborhood to make sure people can’t just come take items from their piles as the insurance adjusters have to come inspect them before anything can be disposed of in any way.

(more…)

With Hurricane Isaac’s final clouds leaving Drew County, Friday, all we have left of the storm is the memory of 4-8 inches of rain,
and French Toast (since we all buy milk, bread, and eggs whenever there is a storm coming).

There are a few photos left to post, like the “white-capping waves” at Lake Monticello, and

several large trees down, like this one that fell on Rose Hill Cut-Off Road,

some casuing power outages. These out of state power crews were on HWY 278 West, Friday.

Seval homes, roofs, and out buildings sustained wind damage, like this barn on Pine Creek lane.
Thanks to the MLive readers who sent in photos.

MPD Chief Eddy Deaton and Captain Carlos Garcia dressed in rain gear,

and Thursday’s MPD dispatchers found “fashion rubber boots” in style.

Since I posted the last two photos, I promised them I’d include this one.
“The MonticelloLive Guy” in his “Weather Channel Moment”.

Now its time to pick up the limbs out of the yard……

(more…)

As the rain continued to fall, today, the number of wrecks continued to climb.

Around noon, a Chevy truck and an 18-wheeler sideswiped in Dead Man’s Curve.  SEEMS transported the Chevy driver to DMH.  DCSO worked the wreck, Reliable Towing loaded the pick-up.

A couple hours later, the driver of a GMC Sierra slipped off of the right side of Babin Drive, near UAM, then crossed both lanes, rolling his truck over into the far ditch.  He was uninjured, MPD, DCSO, and UAM Safety responded.  Reliable towed the vehicle.

Other wrecks this afternoon include an accident reported at Drew Central, and one on HWY 425 North, which was investigated by the Arkansas State Police.

Fox 16′s David Goins is shown here, covering an electrical fire on East Shelton St., Thursday, caused by a limb falling on a power line.

KARK Channel 4 was also in Monticello, covering the power outages, from the UAM campus.

Several strong thunderstorms rolled across Drew County, last night, with strong winds, heavy rains, and dangerous lightning.

The first storm came through around 8:20, another around 11 pm, with 2 more storm systems (one near Florence and another near Lake Monticello) around midnight.

(more…)

A heat advisory is in effect for Southeast Arkansas today, and that will likely be extended further into the week.

Heat index values will exceed 105 degrees across the region with temperatures ranging between 100 and 105 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Heat index values as high as 108 are expected. Isolated heat index values will be above 105 degrees from around noon until 7 p.m. in the evening.

Some neighborhoods in Drew County have had rain for 5-6 days in a row.  It’s been several weeks since we’ve been able to say that.

A 50% chance of rain stays with us for at least another 2 days.

Thunderstorms moved across Monticello, this morning, bringing with it rain, and hopes of more rain.

There wasn’t enough rain to make a big difference in the recent hot, dry spell, but it did bring some welcome relief to local residents.

There’s a 50% chance of rain for the rest of the day, and a 60% chance on Monday & Tuesday.

Around 6 pm, following a good thunderstorm in the area, a woods fire was reported near HWY 133, south of Lacey.

Lacey-Ladelle and Valley Fire Depts. responded with trucks and firefighters, and extinguished the blaze, estimated to be around one acre, which is believed to have started by a lightning strike to a White Oak.

The Monticello Boys & Girls Club recently set up a 160 ft. long “home made” water slide for the youngsters to enjoy.

The Monticello Fire Dept. helped get it off to a good wet start, and MPD officer Chris Owen, a regular volunteer at B&GC also helped out with the project.