By Shelley Kofler, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-885339.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Our record snow fall has left thousands of North Texans without electricity. KERA's Shelley Kofler has more how the aftermath of the storm.
Near Dallas' White Rock Lake a police squad car stopped morning traffic on Garland Road. A foot of soggy snow had weighted the limbs of a massive 20-foot oak, snapping its trunk, dropping it in the path of commuters.
Beverly: It's huge I can believe its just one tree
Elliott Beverly snapped a photo.
Beverly: It looks beautiful with all the snow, but a lot of downed trees.
On Garland Road, and throughout North Texas downed trees and limbs snagged utility lines as they fell. Oncor estimated more than 200,000 lost power. So many the utility began calling in repair crews from around the state and beyond.
Oncor says it's first priority for restoring power is public service facilities: hospitals, police and fire stations. Power lines serving the largest number of homes and businesses come next.
Oncor says it may take days to repair all of the outages and it urged residents without power to stay with relatives or friends in the meantime.
In neighborhoods that escaped the destruction of the storm the rare, wintry landscape seemed magical. In Dallas, John Graham packed snow around the base of a gigantic snowman.
John Graham: This is one of the first times we built snowman's in Dallas, it's awesome. I really like it.
His older brother David said what a half million North Texas kids are feeling.
David Graham: It's a day off from school. It's great.