BEAUMONT, Texas — Just seeing the forecast for early next week already has some Southeast Texans anxious. It's bringing back memories of the 1997 ice storm when some lost power for days.
Some Southeast Texans say 1997 is a year they say they will never forget. 24 years ago, an ice storm swept through Southeast Texas.
“We just got caught off guard I think everybody else did too the schools the kids everybody they shutdown majority” Joe Canizales, of Port Neches, said.
Beulah Norman, of Beaumont, still remembers what her neighborhood looked like.
“Ice on the roads. If you had to get out and travel, they asked us not to travel unless we had to,” Norman said.
Rain froze on trees causing them to collapse.
“The post was cemented to the ground, but it lift them up folded them down nice and neatly, and I had two oak tree one over here one over there they just broke,” Canizales said.
And ice on power lines caused widespread power outages.
“They asked us to be prepared with candles flashlights and food, of course,” Norman said.
If Beaumont gets another ice storm next week, Norman’s concerned about the roadways and trees like this one. They're not made for ice storms and the branches snap.
It took a couple of days for the ice to melt.
“Once the ice had melted, then people could get out and clean the debris from the tree the guys were working on the power lines getting their power restored back to them,” Norman said.
Although the storm was unpredictable, Southeast Texans did what they always do, and made the best of it.
“We made us a little snowman facing the traffic and that was it was fun,” Norman said.
Typically ice accumulations between a fourth and a half of an inch can be enough to break small tree branches.
The 12News StormTracker team will be closely monitoring the threat.
