Area crews still working to clear roads of ice, snow

Many local roads and streets were finally cleared through the day Monday after a winter storm dumped up to 2 inches of sleet and a foot of snow in areas of the region late last week.

Thursday and Friday's winter storm event was the fourth largest in Cape Girardeau on record since the blizzard of 1979 in terms of snowfall, according to Southeast Missourian archives. Most of the local area north of the Missouri Bootheel received between 6 and 10 inches of snow, though a section of Southeast Missouri and some of Southern Illinois saw between 10 and 15 inches, according to a graphic of totals released by the National Weather Service on Monday.

The conditions of numerous secondary routes into late Sunday afternoon forced many school districts to suspend classes Monday.

The Missouri Department of Transportation was reporting significant improvement in road conditions by Monday, though several school districts still canceled classes for today because of still-covered rural roads. In Perry County, for example, the sheriff's department advised Monday to not travel on county roads.

As of Monday afternoon, the districts planned to be closed today included Bloomfield, Chaffee, Kelly, Leopold, Meadow Heights, Perry County, Woodland and Zalma. The Jackson School District announced Monday evening it, too, would be closed today.

The results of the storm have also caused the city of Cape Girardeau to suspend a service -- automated leaf pickup, through at least Dec. 14, according to a city news release, since most yards are covered in snow and plowing efforts are ongoing on city streets.

Still-slick street and sidewalk conditions, along with icy parking lots and bus lanes, helped school administrators make the decision to call off classes in Cape Girardeau on Monday, though many were cleared by city crews and helped by a period of sunshine through the afternoon.

"I think the sun helped a lot today," said public works director Tim Gramling. "We finally got ahead of things today."

Gramling said he didn't think crews would any longer need to work through the night to try to clear the city's streets, as they have since Friday, though drivers can probably still expect some issues with parking, since the weather Monday wasn't warm enough to melt the large mounds of ice and snow pushed against street sides by plows.

Major melting of the fallen precipitation isn't likely until the weekend, when the daytime temperature will reach near 40 degrees. In the meantime, there could be more winter precipitation on the way, with a chance of freezing rain forecast for Friday night, according to the National Weather Service.

eragan@semissourian.com

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Cape Girardeau, MO

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