Work crews restore power to thousands more in Missouri

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Utility crews made progress in cold but dry weather Friday, restoring power to at least 12,000 customers hit by this week's ice storms.

The two major utilities that still have outages in the Joplin area and north of Kansas City said they had a combined total of about 30,000 customers still off the grid by Friday afternoon.

That was down from 42,000 at the start of the day reported by Aquila Inc. in northwest Missouri and Empire District Inc. in the Joplin area. At the peak of the ice damage Tuesday, more than 165,000 customers lost power in southwestern, northwestern and central Missouri.

Rural electrical co-ops also reported progress but did not have an updated number from their early tally of 9,350 customers.

Aquila spokesman Al Butkus predicted it may take two to four days to finish restoring power.

Crews were working ahead of forecasts that called for up to 7 inches of snow across much of central Missouri starting overnight.

"Snow is not a problem for power lines like ice is. But it's no fun to work in," said Jim McCarty from the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives.

St. Louis-based AmerenUE earlier reported all of its customers in central Missouri were back online.

State officials dispatched medical teams including nurses and paramedics to help in three shelters for people with special needs in northwest Missouri, Gov. Matt Blunt's office said.

Local officials had requested help for special needs shelters in St. Joseph, Maryville and Savannah, Blunt said. The shelters serve people with physical or mental health needs.

Cleanup work continued as well to move trees and branches that were felled across the region by up to an inch of ice.

More rough winter weather was expected over the weekend. The National Weather Service was predicting two waves of snow that could dump up to 7 inches across much of the region hit by ice.

Steve Runnels, warning coordinator of the National Weather Service in Springfield, said the storms were predicted to drop between 4 and 7 inches of snow in the region between Interstate 44 and Interstate 70. North and south of that band, snow was still expected but in lesser amounts.