MONDAY'S RAIN HAMPERS CLEANUP OF DAMAGE FROM SUNDAY'S STORM

Constant rain Monday morning hampered cleanup of Sunday's storm damage, but most of the work on roads and power lines already was done.

Yard work -- everything from cutting up fallen trees to replanting flowers -- may go on longer. Cape Girardeau citizens may leave their branches at the curb beginning today, and public works employees will pick them up as time is available.

Stan Johnson, traffic operations engineer with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Department, said crews took to the road around 3 p.m. Sunday to get fallen trees off highways. In some cases, homeowners and neighbors already removed the branches.

At times highway crews had to wait for utility workers to untangle trees from power lines.

Most of the cleanup was done by 10 p.m. Sunday, Johnson said. Work included replacing eight traffic signals at the Interstate 55 exit into Scott City. The storm left some of them hanging by thin wires.

"That stretch seems to catch a lot of wind," Johnson said.

On Monday, highways department personnel cleared shoulders and removed fallen trees that created blind spots.

Meadow Heights students got half a day off Monday after the school district's transportation and maintenance directors noticed water rising in creeks.

"Rising creeks are a very big concern for us," said Rick Chastain, high school principal. "Our buses travel a lot of back roads and cross a lot of low-water bridges. We don't have a lot of travel on pavement."

Monday morning maintenance people came in early to clear water from Meadow Heights School hallways. Leaky roofs have plagued the school for some time, Chastain said.

Union Electric continued efforts to restore power to about 12,000 Southeast Missouri customers, most of them from Cape Girardeau to Charleston. About 1,000 were still without electricity late Monday morning, but most Cape Girardeau customers had power by then.

"This was a very bad storm that resulted in significant damage to our electrical facilities," said Doug Groesbeck, UE district manager. "We appreciate everyone's patience as we work to get service restored."

He said crews would be working until late Monday evening to help all the affected customers.

In Cape Girardeau, drivers may have noticed a casino company's billboard missing. Mike Schumer, vice president of Bening Motor Co. on South Kingshighway, said the billboard flew off its posts during Sunday's storm and damaged four Bening vehicles, one seriously.

Nobody was injured, although one employee was on the property when it happened.

"The sign company's insurance will probably take care of it," Schumer said. "They said they were sending some guys out to look at it."