Polar Bear Plunge surges on

Polar bears belong in the snow. Today, Polar Bear Plungers will get a feel of that natural habitat when they run full-force toward Lake Boutin through the snow that blanketed the area Thursday and didn't melt much Friday.

"We're freezing for a reason," said Penny Williams of the Area Management Team for Special Olympics Missouri. "I love the snow. I think it'll be the perfect backdrop."

The Missouri Department of Transportation has assured the organizers of the event that the roads to the Trail of Tears State Park's Lake Boutin will be clear for traffic to reach the lake.

Today's high is expected to be 43, said Dave Purdy, meteorological technician with the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky.

Registration for the Polar Bear Plunge starts at noon. The first wave of participants will rush in at 2 p.m.

Crews set up a tent to be used in the Polar Bear Plunge at Lake Boutin in Trail of Tears State Park. (Aaron Eisenhauer)

"It should be the warmest time of the day," Purdy said. "At least it will seem like a good day for it."

The winter storms that came through midday Thursday and again around midnight dropped 3 to 4 inches of snow over much of the area. Jackson reported 5 inches, the most in the immediate area.

The Cape Girardeau Public Works Department began prepping the roads for winter weather at around 11 a.m. Thursday and were still out on the roads Friday.

The county highway department worked until dark Thursday night with road graders and cinder trucks. Workers were back out at 5 a.m. Friday.

"Our guys are getting them clear as fast as they can," said a worker at the highway department.

She said five cinder trucks with plows were on the roads spreading ash to melt the snow and plowing it off the roads. The department also had five grade trucks dispatched and a back hoe in operation scooping snow off of the roads.

The cold front that brought the snow, sleet and freezing rain was already gone by Friday, leaving room for warm southerly winds that are expected to bring rain Monday and throughout early next week.

Williams said the snow and cold didn't phase the Plunge a bit.

"We'll never cancel. That's the whole idea of the plunge," she said.

They have signed up 129 people and raised close to $20,000. Williams said there is always a surge of people who sign up and donate money the day of the Plunge.

"That's where it all happens," Williams said, pointing to the snow-covered land leading up to the lake where two strings of buoys floated in the water about a dozen yards apart.

Plungers will enter the water in heats of 10. They will then exit and go straight to warming tents to change clothes.

Parks and recreation department staff were trying to set up the area Friday afternoon, but the cold weather and wind coming off the water made putting up the tents an arduous task. Highway 177 leading out to the Trail of Tears State Park was clear. The road leading to Lake Boutin was clear of snow, but a tractor-trailer had gotten stuck coming out of a driveway at a house halfway down the path.

"Our tents aren't going up as fast, and what are the odds that there's a semi blocking the road so we can't even get our porta-potties set up?" Williams said with a laugh.

The truck was expected to be gone by the time people showed up to plunge today.

charris@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 246

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• What: Polar Bear Plunge for the Special Olympics Missouri
• When: Today, registration starts at noon, plunge begins at 2 p.m.
• Where: Lake Boutin, Trail of Tears State Park