I just watched the news (out of Kansas City, MO) and they have been doing a story on 20 to 25 miles of bumper to bumper stranded/stopped traffic on two lanes of EAST bound I-70 in the middle of Missouri, because of the snow. They said it was near the north south state road Hyw 65. I think it is west of Columbia. The countys they mentioned were Cooper, Boone, Calloway and Montgomery.

There are no state or county roads to exit to because of the snow, except Hgwy 65.

If anyone in St. Louis or east of the middle of the state knows anyone who is traveling east across MO, expect them to be late, very late.

With darkness on here now, and 20 something degree weather, it seems like a lot of folks are in for a miserable night. Some people had already run out of gas from being stranded so long. Lets hope they can figure out a way to get those folks out of that mess soon.

 

Actually that would be highway 63 around the Columbia area. Columbia is in Boone county and the others are to the west and east of Boone. Highway 70 was closed all lanes and all directions for quite a while. Highway 63 to the north and south of Columbia was also closed. Made for a real big mess this morning. I saw that first thing this morning and decided there was NO WAY I was going to work. I have to travel 45 miles on highway 63 to get to Columbia where I work (University of Missouri), and that wasn't goin to happen. Turns out they closed the university anyway, which is the first time I can ever remember that happening. Columbia is reporting 16" of snow last night. We got 13" here North of Columbia.

 

We had I-74 here in Peoria closed and numerous roads blocked by stuck cars or acidents, even I-80 north of Peoria a major east-west truckung route was closed...I guess this was definitely a major snow event...

 

we need some pics

 

The news this morning said that the MO Gov. called in the National Guard to get the stranded people fuel, blankets and food. They were able to re-open the East bound lanes of I-70 at about 9pm. Pretty good. Thank you National Guard men and women.

Now, if the people in St. Louis who are without power can get their juice back.

There was a "convoy" of Kansas City electrical trucks which were on the road to help St. Louis with the storm damage, that had to pull off of the road for the night. I like it when cities/folks help each other with emergencies. I know St. Louis had done the same.

Good stuff.

 

It's a mess here in St. Louis. Most of the roads are okay but the side street coulf take until the ice melts. We still can't get back on our streets. We were able to get our cars out and now we're parking on a nearby church lot that had been plowed. We just walk to and from our cars!

BTW, I couldn't haver timed unlowering my car better! Got it back from the shop Thursday afternoon. There's no way i could have driven it at all!

 

pics!!!!!!!!

 

JonyyB - Fortunately for me I can't give you any pics of the snow. I live between Lawrence and Topeka, about 45 miles or so west of the MO/KS line, and all I got was less than an inch of an ice/snow mix on Thursday, nothing at all on Friday. There's gotta be some folks who live in the snow area who could show us what we missed.

 

I am trying to get my pics sent, we spent all afternoon Friday and again today digging out our driveway and cars, had to stop to dig out an ambulance that got stuck trying to get to a call in our nieghboorhood. Peoria, Illinois is a good sized city, but 18 hours after the storm finds the streets still in terrible condition, the ice is the real problem. The highways are now in great shape and traffic is moving well only a few vehicles still in ditches but we saw no people with them.

 

A few pics of the recent ice/snow storm!






I know that for some of you this is nothing.

But that is about 3-4 inches of ICE with about 1 inch of snow on top. The local weather folks are saying thay St. Louis is going to have the coldest December its had in over 15 years.

Again, I know that for some of you, this is mild cold and just a light frost but for the last 15-20 years its the most we;ve had this early in winter.

BTW, JonyyB, would this qualify for the January feature pics?!