COLD WEATHER EXPECTED TO CONTINUE THIS WEEK

A truly snowy day in Southeast Missouri is rare, but that's what area residents saw Saturday.

In a region where snow and ice usually come in pairs, residents and law enforcement officials in the Cape Girardeau area saw the two to five inches of snow received Friday and early Saturday as a nice reprieve.

"At least it's not a lot of ice," said David Bell, a Jackson firefighter. "We've been pretty quiet here."

One of the few calls Bell responded to Saturday was a minor accident at Jackson City Park. The accident occurred when an inexperienced snowboarder bumped into another person, Bell said.

"She was alert and conscious. It was just a bump," Bell said. "That's the worst we've seen."

Cape Girardeau city and county officials said they responded to a number of fender-benders, but few other weather-related incidents. Police throughout the region advised motorists to stay off secondary roads which may not have been cleared of snow.

Although the northern areas of the region received no ice, the rest of the Bootheel was not as lucky. Police and emergency officials in Scott and Mississippi counties and below said roads hazardous conditions greeted motorists as falling temperatures caused snow to freeze on roadways Friday night.

The Missouri Highway Patrol handled a number of such accidents over the weekend. Letroy Martin, 50, of Cairo, Ill., received moderate injuries when the car driven by Gene Martin lost control on an ice-covered bridge and slid down an embankment seven miles northeast of Charleston early Saturday morning.

In a similar accident, Allyn, Black and Brandon Schmidt, all of Gulfsport, Miss., were moderately injured when their vehicle skidded on an ice-covered bridge, ran off the roadway, overturned and struck a tree Saturday morning.

Early Saturday on I-55, two miles south of Matthews, a vehicle driven southbound by Antonio Johnson, 26, of St. Louis struck the back of a International MoDOT truck driven southbound by Willie Robinson, 46, of Sikeston.

Johnson sustained moderate injuries as did his passengers, Willis Suggs, 29, Randy Johnson, 32 and Michael Robertson, 18. All were from St. Louis and taken to Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston.

Additional information on the injured was not available Saturday.

The National Weather Service forecast calls for cloudy conditions and continued flurries with temperatures in the upper 20s today and tonight. Temperatures should rise to the mid 30s Monday, with a chance of snow or rain again Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.