MORE BITTER COLD SEIZES REGION; MISSISSIPPI 80 PERCENT ICE FILLED BUT OPEN

Another bout of bitter cold moved into the region Thursday, sending temperatures plummeting.

The forecast called for lows of zero to minus 5 Thursday night, with wind chills of 25 to 30 below zero.

The National Weather Service at Paducah, Ky., warned people to bundle up. Greg Lamberty of the weather service said, "The main threat is frost bite and hypothermia."

Many schools remained closed today, including Cape Girardeau and Jackson public schools. Students also will be out of school Monday in the Cape Girardeau and Jackson school districts in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Temperatures are expected to warm gradually through the weekend, with highs reaching the 40s by Monday.

The cold Thursday night and this morning weren't expected to set records. The record low for January in Cape Girardeau is minus 18 degrees on Jan. 11, 1977.

Low temperatures approached the record level on Jan. 17 of the same year, with a low of minus 16.

Southeast Missouri State University climatologist Al Robertson said January is typically the coldest month of the year.

Chunks of ice clogged the Mississippi River Thursday, slowing barge traffic. At Cape Girardeau, the river was about 80 percent ice covered, the Coast Guard said.

Ice covered much of the river from St. Louis to Cairo, Ill.

Some barge traffic is pulling up to shore at night rather than risk traveling through the ice floe, said Lt. Mark Emmons of the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Office in Paducah.

Emmons said towboats rely heavily on radar at night, and the ice gives false readings. The ice also has dislodged some channel-marking buoys, he said.

So far the river remains open. Last February the Coast Guard closed the Mississippi from St. Louis to Cairo to barge traffic for several days because of ice.

"If the ice is moving through the water almost as fast as the tows are there is not a problem," Emmons said.

He said the river could be closed if conditions deteriorate.

Barge companies have cut back on the size of their tows because of the ice.

"With big tows you slow way down, and it is hard to steer some of the bends with heavy ice," said Leo Steger, general manager of Missouri Barge Lines in Cape Girardeau.

Tree services spent much of Thursday cutting up broken limbs and trees that had been uprooted by Wednesday's ice storm.

"It is pretty bad," said Keith Wright, who operates Wright's Tree Service in Cape Girardeau.

Wright and his employees spent much of the day tackling tree damage in Jackson.

Hardest hit were soft-wood trees such as white pine, Chinese elm and silver maple, he said.

Ice-covered branches drooped toward the ground throughout the area. But unless cracked, the branches should bounce back once the ice melts, Wright said.

Most roads and highways were in relatively good shape, but parking lots and sidewalks remained ice covered.

In Cape Girardeau, city street crews worked throughout the day spreading salt and sand.

Sunshine and an afternoon temperature in the 20s helped, said Doug Leslie, Public Works director.

But some residential streets still had patches of ice Thursday afternoon. Leslie said cold temperatures overnight will leave some ice on city streets.

He said people should take precautions to keep pipes from freezing.