Freezing rain causes brief power outages, slick roads

After about a quarter-inch of ice accumulation because of freezing rain and sleet, the roads are once again safe for travel.

Tim Gramling, director of public works for the city of Cape Girardeau, said plows worked early Saturday morning scraping ice from streets.

"... Actually they were out into (Friday) night into the wee hours of the morning, and then they came back because temperatures didn't actually rise like we expected them to," he said Saturday afternoon. "So they came back early this morning and have been working all day. The roads are in pretty good shape now ..."

Because of freezing rain and ice, a few outages were reported throughout the Cape Girardeau and Scott counties.

SEMO Electric Cooperative reported on its official Facebook page that up to 2,200 people saw their power interrupted overnight Friday. But by 8 a.m. Saturday, the utility had restored power to those affected.

Lisa Manzo, an employee at Ameren Missouri, said the largest outage the utility had reported Friday evening into Saturday was in Dexter, Missouri. People there were out of power from 4 to 9 a.m.

Southeast Missouri State University experienced a power outage from about 1:30 to 5 a.m. Saturday as well. Facilities management director Angela Meyer said she believed all the residence halls were affected.

"Ameren had several locations across the city that lost power, and we happened to be one of them. I don't know exact details from Ameren ... but I do know they had some transformers that went down, but I don't know if that was directly related to our issues," she said. "But once they got their end back up and running, then we had no problems."

According to the interactive traveling map on the Missouri Department of Transportation's website, a majority of Southeast Missouri roads were partly covered with ice late Friday evening into Saturday morning. But by Saturday afternoon, roads were clear.

An employee at the Public Works department in Jackson said since 9 a.m., a few calls had come in regarding fallen tree limbs blocking streets, and flooding around a home, but nothing major had been reported.

The Jackson official Facebook page also lifted their snow event proclamation that banned cars from parking on certain streets, and it also said: "With this last round of winter precipitation, there have been no reports of major issues. No power outages have occurred, and the melting snow has created few problems. Please watch out for possible refreezing if the temperatures drop."

The National Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky, said temperatures would drop below freezing Saturday night, causing ice to possibly form on the roadways.

smaue@semissourian.com

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