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County Sees Several Inches Of Wet, Heavy Snow, Some Power Outages Reported
Rainfall on Tuesday, Jan. 24, turned to icy snow as a cold front moved in from the southwest, bringing temperatures that stayed just below freezing overnight. Wednesday was warmer, but cloudy, creating a slushy mess that brought hazardous driving conditions and school closings.
Children who woke with ideas of building a snowman would likely have had to opt for sledding instead, and those who would have wanted to make snow ice cream had to settle for sno-cones. High temperatures for the day were in the low 40s, but enough to make work easy for snow plows.
Lance Pigg, Ripley County Emergency Management director, stated the roads began to get slick about 7 or 8 p.m., Tuesday night, “It wasn't the worst conditions, just enough to be a nuisance.” There were “numerous slide-offs, but nothing I know of that caused any serious injuries,” he stated. Deputies with the Ripley County Sheriff's Department were out most of the night working accidents, most of which occurred as a result of overconfident driving on the part of some motorists who underestimated the risks involved. Estimated snowfall was about 4 inches in the city of Doniphan, but Lance said further west there were reports of as much as 6 inches.
According to Ozark Border Electric's website, power outages were reported on Highways 160, 142 and 21 in Ripley County with an estimated 18.5 percent loss of service in those areas.
