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The senate is expected to advance a ban on texting while driving–for everybody–today.
The state law now allows drivers 22 and older to text while they drive. But Senator Ryan McKenna’s bill makes it illegal for anybody to be typing while driving. [Read more...]
SHP Supt. Ron Replogle addresses a news conference as Adjutant General Steve Danner and Gov. Nixon look on
Governor Nixon has activated state resources to respond to a rarity in Missouri: a blizzard.
Nixon has issued two executive orders. One activates the Missouri State Emergency Operations Plan, which allows state agencies to assist cities and counties in preparing and responding to this winter storm. The other activates the National Guard.
“Temperatures across the state will be very cold, in the single digits or lower for a number of days in a row here,” Nixon stated during a news conference held Monday afternoon in his Capitol office. “This is a very serious storm.”
Nixon was joined by Adjutant General Steve Danner and State Highway Patrol Superintendent Colonel Ron Replogle.
Replogle says Missouri motorists need to take this one seriously.
“I don’t think Missouri drivers have seen a storm system quite like this one unless you’ve lived in the northern plains of the United States,” Replogle stated. “Rarely do we have a blizzard warning ever issued in the state of Missouri.”
Replogle encouraged anyone who doesn’t have to travel to stay put.
Adjutant General Steve Danner says the Missouri National Guard is prepared to help in any way it can.
“Whether it might be a rescue of individuals who are stranded at a farm home, whether it might be taking elderly patients to or from a hospital or a nursing home,” said Danner.
More than 600 guardsmen have been activated. Almost all the nearly 800 State Highway Patrol troopers, plus Water Patrol will be on hand to respond as the storm.
Nixon encouraged Missourians to take steps to protect themselves and their families such as listening to the radio or NOAA Weather Radio for updates or watching local television for weather reports. Also, the state Web site – mo.gov – will have emergency information. Anyone considering driving should check the latest road conditions from the Missouri Department of Transportation Web site. The State Highway Patrol can be reached by cell phone at *55. Missourians in need of disaster information, shelter information and referrals can call 2-1-1. The 211 service is now available in most of Missouri. An alternate number to call is 1-800-427-4626.
AUDIO: Brent Martin reports [:60 MP3]
AUDIO: Gov. Nixon news conference with General Danner and Supt. Replogle [21 min MP3]
Freshman state representative, Wanda Brown of Lincoln, suffered serious injuries when she lost control of her car on icy Highway 52 and overturned. The State Highway Patrol reports the accident occurred this morning near Crockerville. A relative reports Rep. Brown suffered serious injuries to her back and neck. She was taken to the University of Missouri Medical Center in Columbia.
The U.S. Postal Service is taking precautions to ensure the safe delivery of mail in the aftermath of the approaching storm, it says in a press release issued today.
“Letter carriers will face the elements to deliver mail on Tuesday and Wednesday,” says spokeswoman Valerie Hughes. “To help them make their appointed rounds, the U.S. Postal Service asks you to clear snow and ice from the approach to your mail box.”
Hughes says delivery service may be delayed or curtailed whenever streets or walkways present hazardous condition for letter carriers or when snow is plowed against mailboxes. Delayed mail is attempted the next delivery day.
All of the employees of the State Emergency Management Agency are on 24-hour alert because Missouri is hours away from being nailed by a winter storm that the weather service says could be “historic.”
SEMA spokesman John Campbell says the agency’s top priority when Missouri gets hit by a storm like the one is to keep the lights on. That’s likely to be a tall order, given the wide area that is expected to get hit by ice and freezing rain this afternoon and tonight…and then get the biggest snow of the winter tomorrow night.
The weather service is warning of “extreme winter weather” that could provide more than 20 inches of snow in some places….with high winds causing drifting snow and low visibility.
Campbell says almost all of Missouri is going to feel this one, although the bootheel is more likely to get liquid precipitation rather than the ice and heavy snow other areas will get.
