Freezing rain causing power outages, flight cancellations in northern Missouri

Christy Forney gazed out the window of her office in the northwest Missouri town of Maryville and didn't mince words.

"We're a mess," Forney, Nodaway County's emergency management director, said Tuesday.

Much of northern Missouri could be described the same way as another round of freezing rain battered the Show Me State for a fourth straight day.

National guardsmen arrived to help ensure the safety of residents in Maryville and other northwest Missouri communities. In northeast Missouri towns like Bowling Green and Palmyra, more freezing rain was adding to the layer -- in some places 2 inches thick -- of sleet and frozen precipitation already on the ground.

Statewide, about 170,000 homes lacked power by Tuesday afternoon. The worst of it was in northwest Missouri -- the St. Joseph area had about 49,000 outages. But southwest Missouri with 44,000 outages and Jefferson City with 27,000 weren't much better off.

Travel continued to be problematic, even in St. Louis, where the high temperature reached into the 40s. The ice was gone but morning fog caused delays and cancellations at Lambert St. Louis International Airport, spokeswoman Sandy Singer said.

It was even worse at Kansas City International, where about 190 flights had been canceled by Tuesday afternoon, spokesman Joe McBride said.

Benjamin Sipprell, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in suburban St. Louis, said ice storm warnings remained in effect for much of the state's northern tier. More freezing rain was in the forecast through Thursday before a break in the weather was expected.

-- The Associated Press

It was already bad enough in Maryville, a scenic college town of 11,000 residents. Forney estimated that about three-quarters of the county was blacked out Tuesday afternoon, mostly because heavy ice accumulations knocked down limbs and power lines.

"In some cases the power poles are down over the roads," Forney said. "And now the National Weather Service says we'll get colder and we'll get some wind. It may be two or three days before the power is completely restored."

Shelters opened at a community center and a church in Maryville, though most people were either toughing it out or staying with relatives. Members of the Missouri National Guard arrived to help transport people to shelter, clean up debris, and perhaps go door-to-door to check on some residents.

In Kansas City, the morning drive was much improved over a day earlier. Still, many Kansas City-area schools canceled classes.

Dozens of wrecks, mostly fender-benders, have been reported around the state over the last several days. St. Louis-area emergency rooms have been busy treating more than 100 slip-and-fall injuries -- mostly fractured ankles and wrists and cuts and bruises from falls on slippery sidewalks, stairs and driveways.

Gov. Matt Blunt issued an executive order giving the Missouri Department of Natural Resources the discretion to waive regulations concerning waste disposal in some counties to allow for faster elimination of storm-related debris.

At least three deaths in Missouri were blamed on bad weather since the weekend.

A 92-year-old man was killed when a limb hit him in the head Monday as he tried to cut down an ice-damaged tree outside his home near Carl Junction, north of Joplin, Jasper County Coroner Jerry Neil said.

Ralph Struchtemeyer, 56, of Hartsburg, was killed Sunday while cutting down a tree near his house when a different tree buckled from the ice and fell on him.

Neilson Rudd, 22, of the St. Louis suburb of Wildwood, died Sunday evening after he got out of his vehicle to check on an accident on U.S. 63 near Jefferson City and was struck by another vehicle that skidded on an ice-covered bridge.

Sipprell said the good news is that the worst of the freezing rain is about over.

"We're anticipating by Wednesday night or Thursday morning it'll finally clear out and we'll finally see the sun again for the first time in six days," Sipprell said.