Ole Fern.
The wintry, week-long, white blanket of ice and snow and freezing rain sure made his impact on much of the United States.
I know he sure slapped those of us in the 318 right in the face, some more than others.
Lincoln Parish was lucky if we are being honest.
Sleet is much better than freezing rain … just ask those people 15 miles further east. Ouachita Parish was not only slapped by Fern, but it was punched, kicked, and slammed as more than 90,000 people lost power.
We were inconvenienced. Our neighbors to the east were dominated by the winter elements and repercussions from all of it.
The Lincoln Parish Journal did our best to provide as much detailed, up-to-date coverage as possible from when the first pellet of sleet hit the ground to when most of Fern had melted away, at least to the point life began to take the shape of normalcy.
While my business partners, Kyle and Judith Roberts, were the home base of our operations from the cozy confines of their humble abode, I — in my Tacoma TSD Sport with four-wheel drive — put close to 1,000 miles on the roads of Lincoln Parish. By the way, the Tacoma handled the ice and snow like a champ.
I played photographer, videographer, journalist, chauffeur, even tow truck at times, as it was my mission to showcase as much of our parish as possible through the lens of my I-Phone.
I had Ronny Walker and Landon Hunt and Kip Franklin and many others on speed dial throughout the winter event.
We, at the LPJ, were proud of our efforts in telling the stories and providing as up-to-date intelligence as possible. And our numbers showed that the consumers appreciated the information.
In a five-day span, we had more than 4 million impressions on our Facebook page. That’s a lot. We gained more than 2,000 new Facebook followers in five days.
People were engaged.
We told numerous stories about the good deeds of common folks. We reported on the hard work of so many law enforcement, utility, and first responders who never get enough credit for the long, hard hours they put in during these types of events. So kudos to all of them.
One thing I did learn was that sometimes people can struggle with taking information and understanding that 10 minutes after it’s posted … its very likely outdated, at least to a point.
Especially traffic updates. This was the trickiest of the subjects.
The perfect example was the parking lot we refer to as I-20.
While thousands of people were stranded on various stretches of I-20 during about a 72-hour window — many for close to a day –, we did our best to provide details from law enforcement of reasons, timelines and movement. Not an easy task.
I compared it to giving up dates during a basketball game. I can tell you the score and the time, but 10 minutes later, that information is outdated.
And, although I can tell you what is happening on I-20 in Lincoln Parish, I don’t know about state line to state line. As the Lincoln Parish Journal, we are focused on what is happening in the 472 square miles that comprise our parish.
I, for one, am glad that Fern melted into oblivion. Good riddance.
So, until the next winter storm ventures our way — maybe sooner than later — my time as the poor man’s Jim Cantore has come to an end.
