St. Mary begins to thaw

The Tri-City area looked forward to 50-degree warmth Wednesday after struggling with sub-freezing temperatures and wintry precipitation from Winter Storm Uri, which struck much of the nation.
Winter hasn’t quite relinquished the grip.
Icing on the La. 83 overpass led the Sheriff's Office to close it early Wednesday. U.S. 90 was also closed between La. 83 and Calumet.
Lows just below freezing are in the National Weather Service forecast for Friday and Saturday mornings in east St. Mary. And the service warned that rain was possible Wednesday before the temperature rose above freezing, making icy conditions possible on bridges and overpasses.
Elsewhere in the state, the Alexandria area was experiencing another round of wintry precipitation Wednesday with accumulation of up to a quarter-inch of ice expected. All state offices were closed Wednesday.
Closer to home, the National Weather Service was calling for a high of 54 degrees Wednesday in east St. Mary. A 30% chance of rain was expected to grow to 80% during the day and to 90% Wednesday night. The rain should end Thursday, and highs will be in the 40s and lows near freezing into Saturday.
This winter weather event wasn’t as notable for its cold temperatures or frozen precipitation as for its duration.
The temperature measured at Harry P. Williams Memorial Airport near Patterson dropped to freezing just before 6 a.m. Monday and, except for about an hour Monday afternoon, stayed at 32 degrees or below for more than 48 hours.
The coldest weather came about 4 a.m. Tuesday, when the mercury dropped to 21 degrees and stayed there until almost 9 a.m. Wind chills Monday dropped in the teens
Among the impacts of the winter weather:
—The poweroutages.us website reported that more than 2,300 of Cleco’s 18,891 St. Mary customers were without power Monday morning. Nearly 90% of the affected customers had power again by Monday afternoon. Cleco reported that 58 St. Mary customers were blacked out at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The utility put on 400 contractors to restore power in addition to the company’s own resources, Cleco said.
The more enduring story related to Uri may turn out to be the health of the power grid.
Although St. Mary was spared, communities across much of the state were subject to rolling blackouts beginning Tuesday morning, many lasting for 20 minutes, in an effort by utilities to protect the region’s power distribution system.
The rolling blackouts were directed by Midcontinent Indep-endent System Operator, the region’s reliability coordinator, in response to increased demand for electricity, Cleco said.
The order was lifted Tuesday night.
Gov. John Bel Edwards said he spoke with the CEO of Entergy and other utilities after the rolling blackouts were ordered.
“They assured me this was done as a last resort, in order to prevent more extensive, prolonged power outages in Louisiana that could severely affect the reliability of the power grid,” Edwards said. “Further, these rolling outages will be done only when necessary, and the aim will always be to minimize the impact to any individual customer or household.”
Edwards noted that other southern states imposed rolling blackouts.
“We are not the only state where extreme winter weather has taxed electrical and generation systems, and it is our hope that this issue will be resolved quickly and with minimal impact to our people.”
In Texas, more than 2 million people were still without power Wedn-esday, leading to a fierce debate over whether the problem with that state’s electricity distribution is a lack of regulation or regulations mandating a move toward renewable energy sources.
—Freezing rain Monday led to the closures of many businesses and closed down the parish’s main traffic artery for several hours.
Local officials closed the U.S. 90 bridge early Monday, and it stayed closed until just before 10 a.m. Tuesday.
U.S. 90 itself from Morgan City east to La. 24 and from Berwick west to Franklin was also closed for much of Monday. Traffic was diverted to La. 182.
Icing on bridges and overpasses remained a concern.
The police radio logs submitted by the Morgan City Police Department reported four traffic incidents and a crash Monday and one traffic incident Tuesday.
—There was no snow day for local K-12 students. Schools were scheduled to be closed Monday through Wednesday anyway because of Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday. South Louisiana Community College schools turned to remote learning Monday.
—The weather claimed at least one life in south Louisiana. A 50-year-old Carencro man died from a head injury after slipping on ice Monday. The body of a Lafayette woman, 74, was also found outdoors early Tuesday.