Falling limbs damage lines

Heavy ice combined with increasing winds cracked tree limbs and took down power lines across the northwest part of Cape Girardeau Monday, leaving hundreds of AmerenUE customers without power.

After Sunday's icy rains, AmerenUE restored power Monday morning to all but 90 customers in Missouri and Illinois, said spokesman Mike Cleary.

"All of Sunday's outages were due to weather," Cleary said. "With the ice, the lines themselves were heavier than normal."

But by midafternoon, the number of those without power rose again, up to 1,372 customers in Cape Girardeau at 2:30 p.m.

"The wind has been picking up," Cleary said. "With the weight of the ice already on the tree limbs, the wind can crack and break the limbs and bring them down."

Utility crews worked quickly. By 4:15 p.m., power was restored to all but 453 customers.

Monday evening brought more rain and light snows to parts of Southeast Missouri. According to the National Weather Service, today's forecast calls for flurries in the morning, then partly cloudy skies. Highs are expected to reach 31 degrees.

A central part of the state from Kansas City to St. Louis was expected to get 2 to 4 inches of snow by early today, said George Amis, a National Weather Service spokesman. By Monday night, Kansas City had already gotten an inch of snow, and freezing drizzle was falling in St. Louis.