Popping and banging noises were heard within a Princeton neighborhood overnight on February 3. Lauren Reber, a resident in the community, said that the sound resembled gunshots as if a gunfight was happening right in front of her home. With the freezing temperatures that North Texas is coping with, the bangs are not due to bullets traveling through the frosty air but the trees exploding with the stress of the winter storm.
Arbor Experts explain that freezing temperatures can cause stress to trees, especially ones that are not used to freezing temperatures. The sap inside a tree contains water, and when temperatures drop to a freezing point, the sap freezes while expanding simultaneously. The expansion in the trees causes the bark to split open, resulting in a gunshot-sounding bang.
NBC DFW interviewed Reber and took a look at the neighborhood in Collin County. Trees were observed lying on the ground, resting on home porches, and weighed down power lines. Linemen were witnessed on duty to free the lines from the ice-coated trees.
Due to the trees exploding in Reber’s yard, branches were tossed across the snow-covered grass. A sheet of ice, about a quarter-inch, acted like a frozen blanket upon the roof of her barn, causing the structure to collapse. Reber is currently without electricity due to transformers catching on fire near her home to add to the outdoor damage that occurred. “Our only means of heat right now is our propane heater because all of our firewood’s frozen,” she expressed.
According to The New York Times, Governor Greg Abbott spoke at a news conference about Thursday’s power outages and said it was caused by either ice weighing trees down upon the lines or the heavy winds that rolled through Texas. “Local power providers are bringing in extra resources to get those power lines back up,” Abbott stated. He also mentioned that over ten thousand workers were trying to restore power.