Freezing rain leaves sheet of ice on area

Mother Nature dealt a blow to southeast Kansas over the weekend by punishing the area with a blanket of ice. But in Bourbon County, it could've been worse.

Saturday evening and into Sunday morning, freezing drizzle created a blanket of ice over Fort Scott resulting in a one-quarter of an inch of ice accumulation throughout the county. Numerous traffic accidents resulted.

It seems, however, Bourbon County didn't receive the brunt of the storm, which forecasters called for upwards of three-quarter to 1 inch of ice for the area.

The freezing drizzle glazed roads, much more to a greater degree than Bourbon County, across east-central and southeast Kansas and west-central and central Missouri with ice. It left thousands of residents in southwest Missouri and extreme southeastern Kansas without power.

No residents have experienced power outages in the county, Emergency Preparedness coordinator Laura Hyer said. No major number of tree losses were reported either because the ice didn't accumulate too heavy on power lines or trees.

But forecasters are calling for a 100 percent chance of precipitation in the form of freezing rain Monday with an accumulation of up to one quarter of an inch. On Tuesday, they are predicting a 100 percent chance of periods of freezing rain.

Hyer said county officials are monitoring the weather situation and are in contact with the state emergency operation center.

Kansas Department of Transportation, city and county public works crews labored over the weekend, treating highways and city roads.