Cold Snap Causes Minor Headaches

by Tony Vindell/LFN

The first cold snap of 2018 lowered the temperature to the low 30 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday but it caused just a few minor headaches to this area of the Rio Grande Valley.

The icy road conditions and strong wind made a driver to go off the road on Highway 100 and knocked down a power line, Gene Daniels director with Los Fresnos Emergency Medical Services said.

“Other than that,” he said, “it has been quiet.”

Daniels attributed the slow activity to the fact that no overpasses are around, compared to other areas of the Valley.

He said they transferred a patient to Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville and it took them 45 minutes because of heavy traffic.

The icy road conditions resulted in the closing of overpasses on FM 1847, also known as Paredes Line Road, between Los Fresnos and Brownville and on The Expressway north of Brownsville and at the exchanges in Harlingen and the McAllen/Pharr area where several accidents were reported.

The frigid-like weather was one of the coldest to descend into this part of South Texas, area residents said.

“It’s cold,” Aba Gonzalez, a bus driver with Los Fresnos school district, said. “But cold or not we have to week.”

Los Fresnos City Hall officials decided to play it safe than be sorry by closing the town’s administrative building on Tuesday morning.

Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District held classes as usual at its 14 campuses, making it one of a few school district in the RGV not to cancel classes.