Do You Remember the Texarkana Christmas Ice Storm 2000?

This is the time of the year that many of us will have to put up with winter weather conditions such as freezing rain, sleet, and snow. If the first two weeks of January are any indication this could be a long winter. This got me thinking of the ice storm on Christmas Day 2000 when it pretty much crippled Texarkana for weeks.

Christmas 2000

Let's take you back to Christmas 2000, conditions had to be just right for what meteorologists would call the perfect storm. The evening started with rain which eventually turned to freezing rain/sleet and lasted well into the night. I was spending Christmas with my folks that night when I remembered what sounded like shotguns going off were tree branches and trees popping, breaking, and falling to the ground.

The noise grew louder and more numerous throughout the evening and electricity to the house was eventually lost to the falling trees and Texarkana came to a standstill as most roads and bridges were iced over. It wasn't until the next morning that we were able to see all the damage that was done around Texarkana and the nearby surrounding area. Most folks had to deal with no electricity for the better parts of two weeks and if you lived out in the country we're talking about a month before power was restored.

People were buying up generators like crazy and stealing them like crazy too from what I remember. The storm brought the worst out of people but it also brought the best out of people with neighbors helping neighbors clean up their yards and others offering shelter if they had power. The good news is that Texarkana survived the 2000 ice storm but a lot of trees didn't.

According to the National Weather Service, it was the worst ice storm since 1819.