The bright white snow covers roads and lawns as the wind sends a chill breeze through the air. Just a handful of cars pass by, with once busy roads now sparse.
On Monday, Jan. 15, Texarkana ISD announced the decision to remain closed one day after the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The Texarkana region received light snowfall along with sleet and freezing rain Sunday night, creating hazardous conditions on the road.
“TISD considers several factors before making a decision to close school, delay school or dismiss school early due to inclement weather. These primary factors include the health, safety and welfare of students and staff and the safe transport of students and staff to school,” chief communications officer Todd Marshall said. “In this case, road conditions due to inclement weather along with extremely cold temperatures were major factors in canceling school on Tuesday, Jan. 16.”
School officials monitor the weather forecast and consult with all stakeholders involved with transporting students to and from school.
“When inclement weather threatens normal school operations, district personnel evaluate the roadways and travel conditions across the district and consult with Texarkana ISD transportation staff, emergency management officials, the highway department, the sheriff’s department and area districts,” Marshall said. “After considering all the information from external and internal sources, the TISD Administration will decide whether to delay or cancel school as soon as possible. If a decision is made to delay or cancel school, Texarkana ISD will communicate the details in various ways.”
Due to the weather conditions, many students have been affected differently. This can range from the inability to preserve heat to pipes bursting.
“The cold weather caused the pool pipes to explode and it lost about half of its volume,” senior Carly Hickerson said. “The rest of the water froze in my yard. We planned on heating the pool to prevent this but we forgot.”
Cold weather, like the hard freeze that Texarkana and the surrounding area experienced on Sunday night, creates unsafe road conditions when students travel to and from school.
“I have no concerns anymore [regarding our house] because the worst happened,” Hickerson said. “However, I’m definitely worried about the roads being icy, especially because most people here aren’t really prepared to drive on them.”
Many families that work in agriculture attempted to care for livestock during this difficult time.
“Now that the roads are icy, road travel is limited and half of our livestock is in Leary and the other half in DeKalb, where I live,” senior Nicholas Spivey said. “The other half of the livestock is currently being held in Leary because that’s where all the mothers and baby calves are. We are trying to keep a watchful eye on them, but reaching them is difficult because of the terrain. Once we did reach them, we made sure to give blankets to the calves and open several bales for the mothers to sit on that is not snow.”
Predictions of this type of weather arose last week, so families took action beforehand to prevent disaster.
“During the hay season, we made sure to stock extra bales in case of another winter storm. We also had to dismantle spray rigs so that the pipes and tanks do not burst,” Spivey said. “We also had to make sure the smaller animals, such as calves, stay warm and do not freeze.”
Weather forecasts predict to temperatures remaining below freezing until at least Wednesday afternoon, causing some uncertainty in the situation.
“The district will continue to monitor weather and road conditions,” Marshall said. “[We will] communicate any changes as they happen.”
