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Icy Weather Causes Major Delays on Mid-Missouri Roads

Freezing drizzle and low temperatures hit sections of Missouri, making travel icy and treacherous.

I-70, Stadium Boulevard, and many other major roadways were at a near standstill Friday afternoon. 

Columbia Public Works says it put about 25 peices of equipment on Columbia streets, priority routes, starting at 10:30 am Friday to spread salt. The crews will continue to work overnight.

Public Works said, "Conditions may improve for a few hours tonight before deteriorating around dawn on Saturday. Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills arrive Saturday afternoon."

The delays caused significant disruption to school bussing in Columbia Public Schools. As of 8:30 p.m. Friday night, there were still students at 7 schools - all 4 high schools and 3 of the district's elementary schools that had not even been put on a bus to go home yet. At 10:13 p.m., the school district issued this update:

Buses have now picked up students at all of our schools.  We’re working now on getting students who are en route on buses home safely.  We have a few situations with buses needing to be rerouted due to hazardous or closed roads.  We also have a few buses that have slid off roads and we’re sending alternate buses to pick up students and complete the routes.  We have had a few bus accidents involving slick surfaces.  We had a bus slide into a tree.  Minor damage to the bus.  We had a bus slide into some neighborhood mailboxes.  We had a few hit curbs.  We don’t have a lot of details on individual incidents available at this time. 

 

We are proud of our teachers and staff who remained in buildings to keep students safe while our bus drivers and transportation staff worked to operate our 3-tiered bus system.  It was a team effort.

 

The timing and unexpected arrival of today’s weather situation was difficult.  It would not have been possible to dismiss early given the time frame and not advisable as roads had not been treated.  Between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. there were more than 30 reported calls for first responders.  Additionally, challenges with road closures, traffic gridlock and accidents around Columbia caused significant delays.  Our district covers 300+ square miles and we transport more than 9,000 students daily on 200+ buses and we operate hundreds of individual bus routes. 

 

District administration will continue to work until all students are safely home tonight"

The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory for much of the area Friday through late Saturday. The weather service said some areas would also get light snow. Wind chills in sections of Kansas were also expected to fall to 15 to 25 below zero late Saturday.
The Missouri Department of Transportation said in a release that slick spots were reported on highways across the state Friday. The department says road conditions could get worse as rapidly dropping temperatures combine with more rain, ice and snow.

Several accidents were reported in the St. Louis area, and Jefferson City police said officers responded to numerous weather-related incidents, including four rollovers and eight injury crashes.

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