Freezing rain disrupts travel across Midwest
Bad conditions forecast through holiday weekend.
ST. LOUIS — A t hi c k g l aze 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 c l o s e d, i nc l udi ng s e ve r a l 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 atmosphere was so turbulent that thunder rumbled as freezing rain fell in Joplin, Mo.
Several utility companies brought in all available crews to work extended shifts in a nt i c i pa t i o n o f he av y i c e snapping trees and power lines. Scattered outages were reported, including about 2,500 in Springfield, Mo.
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.
Residents were taking the warnings seriously. Grocery s tores were s el l i ng out of bread, milk and other necessities, and hardware stores were running out of flashlights, batteries and alternative energy sources.
“They’re grabbing generators, and I’m sold out,” said Raymond Bopp, assi st ant manager of the Woodward Ace Hardware store in Woodward, Okla., about 140 miles northwest of Oklahoma City.
Several states activated emergenc y management procedures. In Oklahoma, Gov. Mary Fallin declared a disaster emergency. The state set up generators and supplies at temporary shelters in the northern part of the state. Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and top Cabinet officials manned an emergency operations center.
Kansas officials were still waiting for the worst of it, with freezing rain in much of the state expected to arrive today.
The storm began in California, dumping heavy snowfall in higher elevations that led to the evacuation of thousands of people as rivers surged.