KTBB News, Weather, Talk

TYLER – As you travel along Highway 155 South, a group of men can be found planting, harvesting and maintaining a garden. What you may not know is it’s run by Smith County Jail inmates to donate all their produce to the East Texas Food Bank. “They’re sitting in line at the jail, wanting to get out here and work,” said Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith. According to our news partner KETK they produce enough fruits and vegetables to fill about three to four truckloads a harvest. “That’ll be probably in excess of 160,000 pounds, so it’s a lot of meals for our neighbors here in East Texas,” said Cullinane.

Sheriff Larry Smith says it’s not just the inmates that help out. At times you can find community members and himself maintaining the crop.

TYLER — The Better Business Bureau says to be on alert for less-than-honest contractors should you need one after severe weather in our area. According to our news partner KETK, scammers will try to prey on your emotions so you will make a quick decision.

What do you need to watch for? Low job bids. No brick and mortar locations and demanding cash. What can you do to tilt the scales in your favor? Take photos of the damage. Then call your insurance company, and get an adjuster to survey the damage. Get everything in writing from the company doing the work and never pay the full fee until the job is done.

The BBB adds it is good idea to take pictures of the license plates of vendor vehicles that are coming to your home.
Do all this and you’ll get a project done and make a valuable contact for future work at your home.

To get more information from the Best Business Bureau go here.

WINNSBORO – Multiple services are being offered on Thursday to the Winnsboro community and the surrounding area according to the Winnsboro Fire Department. No proof of residency is required. You can view the entire list of disaster services are being offered to anyone who has been impacted by the storm by visiting our news partner KETK’s website here

KILGORE – A man was arrested after leading police on a chase that resulted in the seizure of 16 grams of methamphetamine. According to our news partner KETK on Tuesday night, the Kilgore Police Department responded to a disturbance call and as they arrived, officials said they saw a man running from the scene leading police on a foot chase. According to the release, police witnessed the man “throw a package under some wood as he was trying to flee.” Police said they caught the man quickly and collected the bag which contained 16 grams of methamphetamine.

Edwin Mumphrey was identified as the suspect attempting to run from police and he was charged with a felony drug possession charge. “Edwin is known to us and his business has affected the city. We will make sure Edwin doesn’t continue to deal on the streets of Kilgore,” said the Kilgore Police Department.

GILMER — Storm recovery in Upshur County is ongoing according to our news partner KETK. Thousands are still without power, and trees are still down. The county is doing what they can to provide support to anyone who needs it. Some folks in Upshur County have gone days without power, meanwhile, temperatures are high and it’s humid. The county is providing support. “We’ve got places for folks to go, we’ve got plenty of water, plenty of ice, plenty of MRE’s,” said Nichols, of the Upshur County Emergency Management.

Upshur County is offering several cooling stations throughout the areas affected, it’s important to come inside to cool off and recharge. Adding that linemen are working extra hours to get everyone’s lights back on. “Just trying to get everybody back up as fast as they can,” said Nichols. A reminder to everyone to stay cool and hydrated through this summer weather. Upshur Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation said they have brought in more than 170 contract linemen and one of their main priorities is restoring as many outages as possible.

LONGVIEW — LeTourneau University opened its doors and dorm rooms for over 250 linemen to rest overnight according to our news partner KETK. Workers would normally stay in hotels, but they are booked up due to local families not having power. “The other option is they sleep in a cot, in a truck or they sleep in a tent. Where else are we going to put them?” said Robinson. Afraid of the alternative, SWEPCO turned locally and the timing was perfect in coordination with the university. After their 16-hour shift in the scorching heat, every lineman can rest comfortably.

“Because of previous camps all of our spaces were full and so, since the storm happened right around the time then all of those campers left and left us with the availability to have five open dorms in the first place,” said Marty Lane, Director of Conference and Event Services at LeTourneau University. This is the first time in Lane’s 15 years at the university to do something like this.
Kindergarteners who are at a summer camp on campus left letters of thanks for the linemen’s hard work. “They realize and understand ‘Hey! There’s these workers doing this and that’s why we have air conditioning,’ so they’re getting it and understanding it,” said Lane.

SWEPCO said 100 more workers are on their way Wednesday night to continue working on the damaged areas.

WOOD COUNTY – Wood County authorities arrest a man after he admitted he admitted drowning his daughter’s nine puppies. 66 year-old Jerry Lynn Thompson of Hawkins said to Wood County Sheriff deputies via phone that his daughter was threatening to burn his house down. When they arrived, they found out that Thompson had killed nine of his daughters 12 pups. Which is why she threatened to burned his house down. Deputies then arrested Thompson on nine counts of cruelty of non-livestock animals. He is in the Wood County jail on a $135,000 bond.

SHELBY COUNTY – Wednesday Gov. Greg Abbott added two more East Texas counties to the state’s disaster declaration. According to our news partner KETK, Morris and Shelby counties were included due to widespread electrical infrastructure damage. They join Franklin, Harrison, Marion, Upshur, Wood, Camp, Gregg, Hopkins, Panola, Smith and Titus counties on the state disaster declaration list. By having the disaster declaration, the counties will get more state resources, personnel and equipment to help deal with last week storm damage.

Tyler — UT Health Tyler has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR (National Cardiovascular Data Registry) Chest Pain ̶ MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2023. UT Health Tyler is one of only 262 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.

The award recognizes UT Health Tyler’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies that UT Health Tyler has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations. Continue reading UT Health Tyler Among Nation’s Top Performing Hospitals

EAST TEXAS — The East Texas Food Bank (ETFB) will distribute fresh produce and emergency food boxes at multiple locations in East Texas this week to assist East Texans impacted by the power outages. Last week’s severe weather storm caused widespread power outages and damage, with several East Texas counties being part of the state’s disaster declaration. The emergency boxes contain shelf-stable food including cans of food and personal hygiene items. The distributions are open to the public while supplies last. No ID or paperwork is required. To find the schedule for this and other East Texas Food Banks events click here and select “find food.”

NACOGDOCHES (AP) — An assistant women’s bowling coach at Stephen F. Austin is out after the university discovered he cheated on his wife, who is the team’s head coach, with a student-athlete. SFA assistant Steve Lemke opted to resign rather than be fired after the school learned of the affair, which led to a split with his wife, the Lufkin Daily News reported Tuesday. The 38-year-old Lemke, who is married to head coach Amber Lemke, helped coach the team to two national titles and two second-place finishes before resigning April 10. The couple has since filed for divorce, according to court records.

GREGG COUNTY – Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt gave an update on power restoration as more than 40,000 people are still without power in East Texas. On Tuesday, Stoudt told KETK News they’re down to less than 15,000 outages from the high of around 60,000 on Friday morning. According to our news partner KETK Stoudt went on to thank the crews who are working to get the lights back on and said 3,000 SWEPCO employees had to be brought in from nearby states to help repair the historic damage.

“Probably in the 40 year history, we’ve never seen the infrastructure damage like it has been through this last storm. We’ve got poles that were just broken in half and big trees that had fallen over on transmission lines and it just takes a lot of personnel.” Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt

Stoudt added that the plan is to have all power restored no later than Friday.

HARRISON COUNTY – A 35-year-old lineman has died after working in the heat trying to restore power to East Texans. Harrison County Justice of the Peace Precinct 1 Judge John Oswalt told our news partners at KETK that on Monday, the 35-year-old lineman told co-workers he was feeling overheated and not well. Oswalt said the worker was taken back to his hotel for a medical evaluation to rehydrate and take a cold shower. After the evaluation, Oswalt said the heat exhausted lineman told co-workers and evaluators that he was feeling better so they left him to recover and rest for while they went back out to work. When the lineman’s roommate return to the hotel later that day, Oswalt said the lineman was found on the floor unresponsive and called for medical help. Continue reading Lineman dies after working in East Texas

TYLER – A Bullard man was indicted for impersonating a public servant in Smith County. According to our news partners at KETK, Jason Fears, 35, was arrested in January after officials said he flashed red and blue lights and made a hand signal at someone to pull over. The incident happened in Chandler, and the man Fears attempted to pull over called law enforcement. According to officials, the caller followed Fears to Tyler and he was later pulled over for speeding. After learning about the incident, Fears was arrested for impersonating a public servant, and booked into Smith County Jail. Fears was indicted on May 4 for exercising a function of a public servant without legal authority by performing “a traffic stop using emergency flashing lights,” according to the indictment. Fears was booked into Smith County Jail on Saturday following his indictment, and was released the same day after posting a $75,000 bond.

TYLER – ERCOT issued a voluntary conservation notice on Tuesday due to extreme temperatures and forecast record demand, according to our news partners at KETK.

The notice is in effect Tuesday from 4 p.m. from 8 p.m.

ERCOT said they are also requesting all government agencies to implement all programs to reduce energy at their facilities. On Monday, ERCOT said they broke the June peak demand record and said they are using additional tools to manage grid reliability.