YET ANOTHER ICE STORM BLANKETS REGION; ACCIDENTS PLENTIFUL ON INTERSTATE 55

Freezing rain and drizzle closed schools and left motorists and pedestrians skating on thin ice Friday.

The storm closed the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. Public Works crews in Cape Girardeau and Jackson spent the day battling ice.

"We have our ice skates on," airport manager Bruce Loy said Friday afternoon.

The airport closed at 8:43 a.m. and remained closed throughout the day.

Loy said airport crews couldn't keep runways and taxiways clear of ice despite putting down a mixture of sand and fertilizer.

The airport can't use salt on the runways because it is corrosive to airplane engines, Loy said.

"We just made a determination that we needed to shut it down. The airlines out of St. Louis were canceling."

Trans World Express canceled its flights to Cape Girardeau.

"We already had freezing surfaces, and then it rained on top of that this morning," he said.

Loy said he hoped to have the airport open for business today.

The ice made driving hazardous on city streets and Interstate 55.

The Missouri Highway Patrol in Poplar Bluff reported numerous accidents on I-55. There were 20 to 25 accidents reported on Troop E roads between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday.

"It's very icy, and traffic on the interstate is driving 30 mph," dispatcher Greg Hill said.

The most serious of the accidents hospitalized a 59-year-old Houston, Texas, woman with moderate injuries after a three-vehicle crash on I-55 a mile north of Jackson. Monica Lee was taken to St. Francis Medical Center after the 3 p.m. accident.

Hill said Lee's vehicle slid on the ice and collided with vehicles driven by Jerry Nunnally, 30, and Jeffrey Barnicle, 32, both of Jackson. They were not injured.

Illinois State Police at Ullin reported four accidents between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday, none of them serious.

Cape Girardeau police worked several accidents on the interstate late Friday afternoon.

From 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., police worked 11 accidents. Falling temperatures late in the day made roads treacherous for motorists going home from work.

"It is slick out there," said Cpl. Kevin Orr. He said a number of vehicles had to be towed from accidents along I-55.

Many Cape Girardeau streets were hazardous. "We still have a lot of side streets that are really ice covered here in town," he said.

Officer Freddie Ford said Cape Girardeau police worked 12 accidents between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Friday. "The side roads and main arteries are slick as can be," he said.

"We're asking people to stay off the roads if possible, but looking out my window they're not doing it," he said.

A mixture of rain, freezing rain and drizzle blanketed the region.

Temperatures stayed at or just above freezing throughout much of the day. Temperatures reached only the high 20s in some areas, the National Weather Service said.

"People just don't drive well on the ice," said meteorologist Mary Lamm with the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky.

The wet weather was expected to end by today. The forecast called for the rain to change to snow flurries before ending.

"We might see some flurries on Sunday. Otherwise, it will be dry," said Lamm.

The Cape Girardeau Public Works Department battled the ice on city streets beginning about 7 p.m. Thursday. Crews worked throughout the day Friday.

"Right now we are putting down a mixture of salt and sand," said Tim Gramling, assistant public works director.

Gramling said the city was running low on salt. Ice on the Mississippi River has delayed barge traffic, including supplies of salt slated to be unloaded at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port near Scott City.

The city went into winter with about 1,000 tons of salt. But three ice storms since Dec. 22 have used up most of the supply, Gramling said.

He hoped for a break in the weather today. "We're told we may get a delivery of salt by Monday or Tuesday," said Gramling.

The bad weather prevented city crews from picking up all the trash along recycling routes Friday. City officials said crews would finish the work today.

The icy roads forced the Jackson Public Works Department to cancel its trash pickups.

"We didn't feel it was safe for our workers or anybody nearby," said Jim Roach, public works director. The trash will be picked up Monday, he said.

Crews in Jackson spent the day spreading a mixture of cinders and gravel on streets. The slippery roads were blamed for a number of accidents.

Roach said temperatures made it almost impossible to scrape ice from the pavement. "It is frozen pretty solid," he said.

Roach predicted his street crews would be working through much of the weekend.

"It is going to be a long weekend," said Roach.