ICE-COATED ROADWAYS PROVE TREACHEROUS

When the ice started falling from the skies at about 1 p.m. Sunday, area emergency personnel knew they were going to have trouble.

By 6 p.m., Cape Girardeau police had worked 15 accidents throughout the city, and were bracing for more with rush-hour traffic Monday.

Street crews hit the streets as the ice and sleet began to fall, but were not able to cover the roadways fast enough to prevent motorists from slipping and sliding on the icy surfaces.

"Most of the accidents were fender-benders, a couple had minor injuries," said Officer Mark Weldon of the Cape Girardeau Police Department. "Most of the motorists are off the streets now; it's up to the street crews to clear the ice off the roads, if that's possible."

The Missouri State Highway Patrol worked its share of accidents Sunday as well.

Perhaps the most serious accident worked by the patrol in Southeast Missouri Sunday occurred on Interstate 55, about four miles north of the Sikeston/Miner exit.

At about 12:40 p.m. -- just as the ice started to coat the roadway -- a northbound van lost control, ran off the road and overturned in the median. Lonnie L. Bryant, 70, of Memphis, Tenn., received moderate injuries in the accident.

A trooper called for an ambulance, which was immediately dispatched from the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston.

As the northbound ambulance slowed in the passing lane to turn onto a causeway joining the two lanes of the interstate, it was struck from behind by a truck carrying a Farmington family home.

The driver of the ambulance, David L. Retting, 29, of Sikeston, was seriously injured in the crash. All four passengers of the truck which struck the ambulance, including driver Thomas G. Harrington, 30; his wife, Telissa D. Harrington, 27; and his sons, Thomas E. Harrington, 8, and Joshua W. Harrington, 5, all received serious injuries.

All injured persons involved in both accidents were transported to the Missouri Delta Medical Center.

Sgt. Frank Burg of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said that troopers were very busy Sunday working a series of minor accidents on Interstate 55, as well as the highways and back roads of Southeast Missouri.

"It's a mess out there," Burg said.

A spokesman for the National Weather Cooperative at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport said the worst may be yet to come.

"They are predicting up to four inches of snow overnight, and then the temperature is going to bottom out," he said. "We expect a high of about 7 degrees Tuesday."

The temperature between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. inched up to about 27 degrees, allowing the sleet to turn to snow.

During the peak of the ice storm -- caused by a cold, arctic air masses from the north being overrun by moisture-laden jet streams from the Gulf of Mexico -- winds reached speeds of 12-15 miles per hour, adding to the bitter-cold conditions.

As the winds died down, the temperatures began to climb, from a low Sunday morning of 3 degrees.

The cold caused its share of problems early Sunday too.

Cape Girardeau firefighters were called out at about 9 a.m. Sunday to a report of a sprinkler system activated in Lerner's at the West Park Mall.

Fire Capt. Mearlin Allen said that ice formed in a sprinkler head in the showcase area in the front of the Lerner's store. The pressure caused by the expanding ice caused the head of the sprinkler to break off, showering clothes inside the showcase.

At 11:20, firefighters were again called out, this time to the Missouri Surgical Center, at 300 Mt. Auburn Road.

"A feeder line going into the sprinkler froze up and busted," Allen said. "There was quite a bit of water damage to the office before we could get the water supply shut off."

Firefighters were later called to a similar report of a water line freezing and breaking at Show Me Laundromat South, at the corner of William and Park streets.

In addition to shutting down water mains and running medical assistance calls all day Sunday, firefighters put chains on the tires of the fire trucks that afternoon.

"We thought it was about time," said Allen.

Area residents decided that it was time to stock up on groceries when severe weather warnings came flashing across their screens early Sunday.

An employee of Shop N' Save, at 254 Silver Springs Road, said the store was "very for a Sunday."

"People are buying everything," said Shannon Tankersley. "They came through the checkout lanes with baskets loaded down with just about anything you could possibly need."

Schnucks, at 19 S. Kingshighway, had to call in extra workers to handle the swarms of shoppers which picked the aisles bare of essentials early Sunday afternoon.

"We're out of most varieties of bread -- especially wheat and white bread," said John Hostetler Sunday evening. "We're running low on milk and eggs, too."

Hostetler said the store was extremely busy from about 10 a.m. to about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, when the weather turned "really bad."

"There's no telling what it's going to be like tomorrow," he said.

Southeast Missouri State University announced late Sunday that the Student Recreation Center will open at 8 a.m. today, rather than at 6 a.m., due to the inclement weather.