Rockdale, along with Milam County and the majority of central Texas went 70 consecutive hours with temperatures below freezing during the mid-January ice storm that crippled much of Texas during its visit. The weekend began with rain storms, but by evening Sunday, the weather forecast was calling for a wintry mix and school children in our area anticipated the call for a "snow day". They would get their wish and would not return to school until 10 a.m. Thursday morning. Frozen precipitation that sticks usually shuts down our area and this one did, with vehicles having a quarter to half inch sheet of ice, not to mention the roads had black ice, especially the less traveled rural roads of our area. Over 2.5 inches of precipitation fell between Sunday, January 14 and Thursday, January 18, and included a wintry mix of frozen rain, sleet and yes, even snow! Any time we get frozen precipitation, everything comes to a stand still. City and highway crews are not equipped to tackle the daunting task of clearing the roads when they do not have the proper equipment, so applying salt, sand, and other de-icing products is about all they can do, except hope those that don't have to travel heed the warnings and stay home. Which, is what the kids and I did, but that wasn't the case for Duane. He works for the local lignite mine which provides the resources for the adjoining power plant and as he says, "you want heat, then I have to go to work". He managed the dangerous roads fine, but said there were several big rigs jack-knifed and in the ditch along with numerous other vehicles who found that sliding around on ice isn't always fun and should be left to those on ice skates!
