County Bounces Back From Snowstorm
Mother Nature dumped 8 to 10 inches of snow on McDonald County by Friday morning, but emergency management officials say no major accidents were reported.
Eight inches of snow — on average — fell in the county, while the eastern side received more like 10 inches, McDonald County Emergency Management Director Gregg Sweeten said.
In some places, due to the wind and terrain, some experienced 20-inch drifts, he said. But by Friday morning, Sweeten said he did not know of any accidents that had occurred because of the winter weather.
“We lucked out,” he said. “We didn’t have any ice. We had a little bit of sleet.”
Though there were several calls of people falling, due to the conditions, Sweeten said no major traffic accidents had been reported so far.
He believes McDonald County neighbors were alerted of the predicted ice storm and winter weather, prepared, and then stayed in.
“People went out beforehand. The Walmarts in Neosho and Jane were packed, and I think that got their attention,” he said. “Everybody was prepared. We’ve had no major issues.”
By the time the snow finally arrived, most folks were home from work. Thankfully, the first round didn’t occur in the middle of the day, he said.
On Thursday, Sweeten was out on the roads, which were nearly traffic-bare. A few tractor-trailers were out and about, but most other traffic was nonexistent, he said.
Sweeten credits the power companies, which have done a great deal of trimming trees in recent years to prevent possible outages.
Missouri Department of Highway officials, as well as local crews, were out on Friday, trying to clear as many roads as possible with help from the sun.
Anderson Police Officer Kyle Hackworth said several slide-off incidents had occurred, but no significant accidents had taken
place. Hackworth captured icy and wintry conditions during his night shift, showing how tough Mother Nature can be on McDonald County roads. From 71 Business and NN Highway, to F Highway, Hackworth’s photos showed snow-packed and icy roads before crews and sun cleared them.
Luap and LaSandra McKeever ventured out on Thursday, along with Cathy Wales, to capture some of the county’s scenic shots. From the top of McNelly Road to crossing the bridge over Big Sugar Creek, the crew captured numerous photos of the snow.
The Sauerwein and D’Amico families took advantage of the snow-packed hills to sled and make snow angels. Sauerwein, whose birthday was Feb. 4, said it was pretty cool to celebrate the day with a “snow day.”