Snow drives buying at grocery stores

The threat of more snow sent hundreds of people dashing to local grocery stores Sunday to stock up on necessities.

At Food Giant in Cape Girardeau, assistant manager Charlie Adams said the rush started around 7 a.m. Sunday and continued throughout the day.

"They're buying everything we've got, trying to beat the weather," said Adams. "They start with the necessities, and then buy pretty much anything because they don't know what it's going to be like the rest of the week."

Jamie Penny with Country Mart in Jackson and John Graff with Bob's Foodliner in Scott City said customers began coming into their stores right as the snow started during the early evening hours.

"It was dead when I came in at 4 p.m., but right after that it got a little crazy," Penny said. People were buying "things like milk, bread, eggs, just stocking up for the snow."

Sunday's snowfall was the eighth major bout with winter weather Southeast Missouri has had since early December.

Jordan McCollum, meteorologist with KFVS-12, said that before Sunday, Cape Girardeau had seen a total snow accumulation of 19 inches since December, compared with only 8 inches total accumulation last winter.

Chris Noles, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky., said some places in Southeast Missouri received up to an inch of snow in 45 minutes.

"Sunday evening we have seen a pretty potent storm system move across the area," said Noles. "Several waves of snow had already gone through by 7 p.m., and it's been heavy with quick accumulations in a short period of time."

The National Weather Service in Springfield, Mo., said extreme southwest Missouri could expect about a foot of snow by morning. Totals were lower in central Missouri, between 5 and 7 inches, and in drought-stricken northwest Missouri, there was little more than a dusting.

Total accumulation in the Cape Girardeau area is expected to be between 3 and 6 inches.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

cclark@semissourian.com

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