SEMA Starts Scaling Back Storm Recovery Efforts

The state emergency management agency has pulled back from its 24-hours-a-day schedule as Missourians recover from last week’s snow and ice storm. SEMA has counted almost a dozen storm-related deaths. Five are traffic fatalities. Two people have died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Two have died in fires. And the state health department is looking at hypothermia as a possible cause of two other deaths. Agency spokesman Susie Stonner says most of the attention has been on the St. Louis area and eastern Missouri counties. But other areas were hit hard, too. She says SEMA is just beginning to hear from other counties in other parts of the state. Stonner says the National Guard has helped local authorities run safety checks door to door, delivered generators and equipment to shelters, and is helping with debris removal in several places.The transportation department shoveled roads; the highway patrol handled some security work; the health department worked with local health departments to check on at-risk Missourians. But Stonner says things are getting better. But she says more damage will be revealed as the snow and ice melts away.