Fire And Ice

After escaping November, December, January and half of February without any measurable snow, Mother Nature issued a stark reminder Sunday night and Monday morning that winter is far from over.

A layer of 7-8 inches in most places, with some localized areas of more, covered a thin layer of freezing rain and sleet that accumulated before the snow started falling at about 8 p.m.

While the moisture is needed, the snow created hazardous driving conditions and forced the postponement and cancellations of several events and activities.

While Monday was a regularly scheduled holiday for the McDonald County School District, classes that were scheduled to resume Tuesday were canceled. No word on plans for the rest of the week were available as of press time.

Also, basketball games scheduled for Monday night at MCHS were postponed. The Lady Mustangs were scheduled to play East Newton and the boys were to have played Lamar. The girls game was re-scheduled for Feb. 18 and the boys has been reset for Feb. 19.

The 7-8 inches of snow were just what was predicted for McDonald County, according to Gregg Sweeten, emergency management director.

"We had a conference call with the National Weather Service on Sunday morning and they said McDonald County would get seven inches," Sweeten said. "They predicted we would get a pretty significant snowfall. They had taken out the freezing rain and sleet, but came back later and said we would probably get a little before it started snowing."

Sweeten said the timing of the storm helped keep the number of accidents to a minimum.

"It hit a good time," Sweeten said. "Traffic is light on Sunday night and then Monday was a holiday. There have been a few slide-offs, but I haven't heard of any injury accidents."

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, no injury wrecks were reported to the agency in McDonald County since the storm hit. The highway patrol is responsible for all wrecks that occur outside of the city limits of any municipality.

Sweeten, who also serves as fire chief and mayor for Pineville, switched roles from fire chief Sunday afternoon to McDonald County Emergency Manager by Sunday night and to mayor by Monday morning.

The Pineville Fire Department helped White Rock with one brush fire on Sunday afternoon and then had a grass fire on Route H that threatened a farmhouse. Within hours of fighting the fires, the snowstorm was in full force.

"I think this is the first time in 20 years since I been in emergency services that I have fought a grass fire in the afternoon before a snowstorm hit that night," Sweeten said.

Sweeten then jumped on a city tractor on Monday and helped clear streets.

McDonald County Sheriff Mike Hall said his department has not had that many problems reported.

"I think it has went pretty well," Hall said. "We have responded to several slide-offs and given people rides to where they needed to go, but everybody seems to have been pretty cautious and people have stayed off the roads unless they had to be out."

Hall said he is maintaining a road condition update on the sheriff's department Facebook and web page. The Facebook page is linked to the web page so you don't have to use Facebook to find the information.

The website is mcdonaldcountysheriff.com and see McDonald County Sheriff's Office on Facebook.