Winter storm causes icy roads, power outages

Snow and ice made for a nasty combination Wednesday, closing area schools, knocking out power and making travel risky across Southeast Missouri.

Schools, nutrition centers and some governmental offices shut down and at least one area manufacturer -- U.S. Poly -- was closed due to the snow and ice.

The winter storm that brought the season's first substantial snowfall hit the Poplar Bluff, Mo., area between 8 and 9 p.m. Tuesday with a mix of freezing rain and sleet, which by sunrise had turned to snow. City street superintendent Gene Brannum estimated that three and a half to four inches had fallen by 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Three to four inches of snow were also reported in Dexter, Mo., and Doniphan, Mo.

In preparation for the storm front, city crews were out Tuesday spraying chemicals on Dexter roadways. The anti-freeze chemicals seemed to do the trick, as workers were able to get major thoroughfares in the city drivable by 7 a.m.

Scott County crews also worked Tuesday preparing the sand-salt mix and servicing road graders for the county's roads in anticipation of bad weather's arrival. Crews were also working in Sikeston, Mo., and the Highway Department crews began putting down salt brine on road surfaces.

Road crews across the area reported the same thing -- three to four inches of snow with a layer of ice underneath which made driving more difficult.

While the northern sections of Southeast Missouri were hit with mostly snow Wednesday morning, towns to the south were doused with ice pellets.

Craig Moody, a police officer in Kennett, Mo., said freezing rain there caused tree limbs to fall on power lines. Most of the town was out of power for most of the morning, he said.

Power went out for about 30 minutes for some 800 to 900 people in the Malden, Mo., area about 4 a.m. Wednesday, said Stan Estes, Ozark Border Electric Cooperative general manager.

Since then, there have been isolated outages in the Bootheel area.

"Ice collects on the lines and will break them, and also the trees will get ice on them and the limbs break and fall into the lines," Estes said.

Power was lost in portions of Sikeston for some 20-30 minutes around mid-day on Wednesday.

Powerlines were also reported down Wednesday in Pemiscot County leaving some residents without power.

Mike York, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said from the town of New Madrid, Mo., southward was hit mostly with ice.

Snow and ice covered much of Southern Illinois Wednesday morning, sending cars into ditches and causing officials to close schools.

"This is the first big one of the year, and it's a real mess," said Pat Spoden, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky.

The bottom part of the state from Mount Vernon southward got as much as four inches of snow in the early hours Wednesday, Spoden said, with most accumulation across Jackson, Williamson and Saline counties, he said.

Farther south, the snow was mixed with sleet, Spoden said.

"I just spoke with someone in Cairo, Ill., and she said it's sleeting and there's already three inches on the ground," he said. Cairo schools, like schools in many other districts across the region, were closed Wednesday.

A school bus taking students to Carbondale, Ill., schools got stuck in the snow in rural Makanda, Ill., just south of Carbondale. There were no reports of injuries.

No reports of serious traffic accidents surfaced during Wednesday's morning rush, according to a dispatcher for the Illinois State Police in Du Quoin, Ill.

"We just have a lot of people sliding off into ditches," said the dispatcher, who declined to give her name.

Corning, Ark., didn't have any snow Wednesday morning, but it did have about a quarter to a half inch of ice and downed power lines.

"We've got every crew we can find out," said a spokesman with the Corning Police Department. "It's pretty slick down here."