Agencies geared up for predicted ice storm troubles

One last frozen blast?

Pastor Daniel Hilty thoroughly salts the sidewalk Saturday outside of the First United Methodist Church. Although there was a midday lull in the inclement weather, more ice was expected to accumulate overnight.
Pastor Daniel Hilty thoroughly salts the sidewalk Saturday outside of the First United Methodist Church. Although there was a midday lull in the inclement weather, more ice was expected to accumulate overnight.

Even as some of Friday night's icy conditions melted Saturday, the National Weather Service still was predicting slippery conditions for today.

"The storm activity diminished during the day Saturday," meteorologist Melissa Byrd, with the Weather Service in St. Louis, told the News Tribune. "The last round of icy weather is predicted to hit early Sunday morning.

"It looks like Mid-Missouri could get one-tenth to two-tenths of an inch of ice from that.

"By mid-day Sunday, the temperatures should start to go above freezing - and by Monday, we're looking at highs in the low to mid-50s."

Jefferson City's Salvation Army provided shelter for just three people Friday night.

"I assume people had trouble getting here," shelter monitor Michael King said Saturday. "I live very close to here and had trouble getting home after my shift (Friday), slipping and sliding.

"I can imagine people walking here - our community meals have been down, as well."

He wasn't making predictions for how busy the shelter would be Saturday night.

Typically, King said, the Salvation Army's Shelter of Hope provides overnight sleeping space for "from three to many," so there's some concern that only three found their way to the shelter Friday night.

"Our hope is that they found other places to crash," he said.

Lt. Rachel White added: "We'll continue to provide community meals and help the community as much as we can.

"I'm grateful we've been able to stay open. Obviously, most people are just trying to stay home."

King said the bad weather has had another impact - several church groups that normally help the Salvation Army provide meals at the Shelter of Hope have canceled this weekend because of the icy weather.

And, King said, the Salvation Army's work as a "warming center" has been increased somewhat, because other places that help serve that purpose - like the Missouri River Regional Library - were closed this weekend because of the bad weather.

Byrd, the meteorologist, said the final totals from the storm for Mid-Missouri should have most locations getting about a quarter of an inch of ice.

"Along with people heeding warnings and staying off the roads, the other good news out of this was that the winds stayed light," Byrd said. "That helped to keep trees and power lines up."

Byrd noted most of the damage reports they had called into their office were in Eastern Missouri - primarily south of St. Louis in Jefferson, Washington and Crawford counties.

Officials with Ameren Missouri also reported the majority of outages they dealt with were in the eastern part of the state and, just as happened on Friday, the outage maps for both Ameren and Three Rivers Electric showed no outages in the Mid-Missouri area through Saturday afternoon. Both companies said they would have crews remain on standby until the ice storm warning expired in case they were needed.

Jefferson City street crews planned to stay on 24-hour operation possibly through mid-day today. Cole County road crews worked early Saturday morning, with the main crew going home in the afternoon and planning to get back out early today.

City officials said residents did need to watch out for sidewalks and some parking lots that hadn't been treated before the ice hit. There were no reports from local hospitals of any increase in falls or other weather-related injuries as of Saturday afternoon.

A man who identified himself as David, said the Salvation Army has been important to him during the last few days.

And Tina Parsley, a shelter resident, said the Salvation Army "has been a blessing for me - and I think a lot of the other people here feel the same way. Their emergency services are excellent. And, it's like one great big family."

The American Red Cross was prepared, but wasn't called out to provide any special services in the first part of the ice storm weekend.

"We've been involved in a number of conference calls to determine what we're going to do," Red Cross Director Dave Griffith told the News Tribune on Saturday, "and we have positioned some trailers in certain places that have cots and blankets and those kinds of supplies if a shelter is needed to be set up."

The Red Cross also placed a volunteer at the State Emergency Operations Center, "so we can be in the same room - in case Red Cross services are needed, they can reach out to us."

Meanwhile, he said, the Red Cross still is "doing what we normally do. We're responding to single-family fires and multi-family fires, and we've had a number of those over the last few days."

Griffith noted the Red Cross has developed a free application for use on smartphones that "gives you step-by-step instructions as to what to do if you're stranded somewhere or you're preparing for the storm that we have."

Griffith said the Red Cross wants people to avoid unconventional in-home heating situations that could cause fires.

"You don't want to use your stove or your grill or your camping stove - or any of those kinds of things - inside," he said. "If you are going to use a space heater, we recommend that you keep anything flammable at least three feet away from the heater. Just be smart."

Some extra postal deliveries planned

Jefferson City's postal workers did a good job of getting the mail out Friday, Acting Postmaster Krystal Drone said Saturday.

"We had no accidents or incidents," she reported. "Out of 38,000 customers, we had fewer than 200 customers we couldn't get to" because of icy conditions, mainly on outlying roads.

On Saturday, she said, the Postal Service brought in some extra workers to make those deliveries at the beginning of the day.

Another problem, she said, was the "ton of businesses that were closed Friday" because of the ice storm.

So, that will increase the delivery volume Tuesday, when the Postal Service resumes its normal operations after Monday's holiday.

Still, Drone said, there will be some package deliveries today and Monday, in spite of the holiday.

"It's possible we'll bring extra employees in on Monday," she said, "to deliver any packages where we couldn't walk up steps (Friday and Saturday) to deliver them - hoping that the ice melts on the steps and the porches."

More than anything, Drone said, "I am just so impressed with the preparation to clear our roads and have emergency crews out there.

"If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't be able to get around."

 

WEATHER ADVISORY

The National Weather Service has issued an Ice Storm Warning in effect now until noon today for much of Missouri.

Another wave of freezing rain spread into Mid-Missouri overnight and is expected to continue across the region through midday today. Additional accumulation of ice is expected to total 1/10 to 2/10 of an inch.

The wintry precipitation will likely result in hazardous travel conditions, especially on bridges, overpasses and untreated roads. Parking lots and sidewalks may become slippery as well. Damage to trees and power lines also is possible.

See also: Mid-Missouri forecast, radar, advisories

TRAVEL

MoDOT traveler information map

Jefferson City street condition map (If citizens need to contact the public works department, call non-emergency line 634-6400.)

UTILITY STATUS

Electric providers prepare for ice storm includes a list of links to area power companies and their outage maps.

ADDITIONAL UPDATES

Check for ongoing weather-related and other announcements on our Jefferson City area Twitter list.