Nation’s midsection hit with freezing rain, crashes
St. Louis — A thick glaze of ice covered roads from Oklahoma to Southern Illinois on Friday amid a winter storm that caused numerous wrecks, forced school cancellations, grounded flights and prompted dire warnings for people to stay home.
Winter storms are typically associated with heavy snowfall, but the one hammering the southern Plains and Midwest dumped freezing rain, a condition even harder for road crews to treat. A slick roadway was suspected in a fatal wreck in Missouri, where long stretches of Interstate 44 and Interstate 55 were ice-covered.
More freezing precipitation was expected in parts of the nation’s central corridor throughout most of the holiday weekend.
“There’s no mystery to driving on ice,” Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Al Nothum said. “It’s impossible to do. You have to slow your speed down.”
Hundreds of schools were closed, including several college campuses. St. Louis closed all city operations as it braced for its worst ice storm in at least a decade. Several Missouri prisons halted visiting hours.
The forecast prompted the NFL to move Sunday’s AFC divisional playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas Chiefs to Sunday evening to allow more time to treat roads and parking lots at Arrowhead Stadium. The game was scheduled to kick off at noon but will now start at 7:20 p.m.
The atmosphere was so turbulent that thunder rumbled as freezing rain fell in Joplin, Mo.
Several utility companies brought in all available crews who were working extended shifts in anticipation of heavy ice snapping trees and power lines. Scattered outages were reported, including about 2,500 in Springfield, Mo. The Kansas National Guard mobilized about 200 soldiers to help first responders and stranded motorists throughout the weekend.
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and several officials thanked residents for heeding warnings to stay home.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said it responded to about 100 crashes Friday, with one fatality related to the storm.
National Weather Service meteorologist Steven Runnels said up to a halfinch of ice stretched from Joplin to St. Louis with “minimal impact.” But he warned that freezing rain would increase early Saturday in west-central Missouri, and then hit Kansas City and northern Missouri on Saturday night.
Forecasters issued ice storm warnings from the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles into Southern Illinois, with up to 1 inch of ice expected in some locations.