Emporia roads weren’t as bad as anticipated this morning as temperatures hovered around the freezing mark.
Temperatures were 32 degrees at 6:30 a.m. as ice from overnight hung heavy on the trees. Rain was coming down in the liquid form and roads were coated with slush and ice. Lyon County still remains under a ice storm warning until midnight Wednesday.
Lt. Scott Cronk of the Emporia Police Department said there were no major accidents reported in Emporia overnight.
“Right now the roads aren’t that bad,” Cronk said at 6:30 a.m.. “If it drops a couple of degrees it’s gonna get bad.”
Cronk said there were power outages on the east side of town caused by ice and briefly on the west side of town. Neither he nor the police dispatchers heard of any residents having to go to shelters overnight.
Not everyone in Kansas was so lucky.
Westar Energy, the state’s largest electrical provider, said outages started spiking as temperatures dropped after 10 p.m., according to the Associated Press.
Spokeswoman Gina Penzig said roughly 25,000 of the utility’s 674,000 customers were without power as of 11 p.m., and Westar was preparing for that situation to become worse. The worst outages were reported in Saline and Geary counties.
The weather forecast from the National Weather service calls for periods of freezing rain today and a high near 32 with more freezing rain. Tonight the weather calls for more freezing rain and sleet before midnight.
City and county officials were well prepared for this winter storm. They met Monday afternoon for a weather conference call in anticipation of a major weather event as Gov. Kathleen Sebelius declared a state of emergency in all 105 counties, and the state’s emergency operations center was activated to coordinate the response to the storm.
Officials from Lyon County and Emporia met at the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office to participate in the conference call and to plan how to handle things locally as the storm system moves in to the Emporia area.
According to the National Weather Service, there is a 100 percent chance of freezing rain through tonight and much of tomorrow. Ice accumulations of more than an inch is possible with this storm, which is set to move in this afternoon.
Rick Frevert of Lyon County Emergency Management said yesterday the county’s new Emergency Operations Center (EOC) could open up this morning depending on how the weather event unfolds. It was not open as of early this morning. The operations center will allow city and county officials to gather in one place.
Emergency Management prepared for the worst-case scenario, he said after the meeting.
“You just hope you don’t need to use it,” Frevert said.
If the power goes out, Frevert added, shelters will be set up based on where the power is. Most shelter locations such as churches don’t have generators, so it wouldn’t do any good to send people there.
Earlier Monday, County Engineer Chip Woods, of the Lyon County Highway Department, was busy along with crews planning on how to prepare for icy conditions. Woods said about 300 tons of sand was used over the weekend during the icy weather. Another 300 tons of sand was delivered today and salt and sand was being mixed throughout today to fill the trucks.
Woods said the county will run between five to six sand trucks. Last year the county only had two. The county picked up four more from state surplus.
Woods said even with the sand and salt mixture, once the temperatures get bitterly cold, the salt won’t react. The sand will, however provide traction. Woods said salt isn’t applied to gravel roads because it eats away at the base of the road and the road will have to be re-built.
“We try to blade it as much as possible,” he said. “Even graders with chains don’t do much on pure ice.”
Wasp (anonymous) says...
"Woods said salt isn’t applied to gravel roads because it eats away at the base of the road and the road will have to be re-built."
What base? The maintainer drivers have already eaten it away! There is not a base left because there has not been any gravel added to most of the roads forever! There are many places where the road is the lowest place between pasture fences so the water just runs down the middle of the road and wash them out more! These are not minimum maintenance roads I am talking about either!
I understand that the County can always use more equipment, but why do they need 3 times as many trucks as they had last year. I could understand getting one or two more, maybe.
December 10, 2007 at 5:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MelissaE (anonymous) says...
I'm in Oklahoma and it's bad. We have about 450,000 without power and the roads are so awful that the OKDOT and Highway Patrol are begging people not to leave their homes. If you have a chance, get everything you need from the store right now. Don't wait. I think we've had 13 fatalities since Friday night.
If you own/operate a business, please let your people stay home with pay. The risk far outweighs any benefit.
I say this as I just removed about an inch of ice from my car tonight....and we're only halfway through it.
M
December 10, 2007 at 5:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
slipandslide (anonymous) says...
the weather predictions are making me nervous, we are planning to hunker down for the next few days
December 10, 2007 at 5:56 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MelissaE (anonymous) says...
The number without power is now over 500,000. One of my husband's guys (from Tinker Air Force Base) just called to say that he's been without power since 10:30pm Sunday night.
Please prepare.
M
December 10, 2007 at 6:37 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eiggohp (anonymous) says...
Remember the number to call about road info is 511.
December 10, 2007 at 6:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
slipandslide (anonymous) says...
i also found 511 on the internet, go to kvoe radios home page and click on the link they have and i havent tried it yet,but it can give you info, and maps showing road conditions in the state. i just hope everyone stays home its saddening to read about accidents, and the fire dept has to drive on bad roads to go to the accidents
December 10, 2007 at 8:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DJrocksthemic (anonymous) says...
I think things went smoothly and the roads aren't bad, with a high today of 36 everything should return to normal.
December 11, 2007 at 9:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )