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A Clear, Mild Christmas Day for Missouri

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Clear, mild weather is expected this Christmas Day. The National Weather Service reports high pressure stretching from the lower Mississippi Valley to the eastern United States is providing clear and tranquil weather.

Highs today are expected to hover between the mid-40s to the lower 50s in the St. Louis area. The National Weather Service expects temperatures in northern Missouri to be in the 30s, with the temperatures rising into the 40s in central Missouri. The Kansas City area should see temperatures near 50. Christmas Day in the Ozarks, including Springfield, is expected to bring temperatures in the mid-50s.

The Missouri Department of Transportation reports all roads are clear today, a stark contrast to this past weekend. The heavy snowstorm that hit northwest Missouri shut down Interstate 29 from Dearborn to the Iowa state line. The State Highway Patrol counted between 20 to 40 vehicles in a pile up at St. Joseph on I-29 and said whiteout conditions made it difficult to clear the interstate.

The Weather Service predicts nothing like that today and predicts the next winter storm will enter Missouri Wednesday evening. It is expected to be mild. Forecasters expect little snow accumulation and say that the precipitation could come in the form of rain if temperatures hold. A wary eye is being kept on a system that could enter the state prior to this weekend. This strong winter weather system brings with it a better chance of accumulation. The snow is expected to affect far northwest Missouri the most.

More Than 3,000 Missouri Households Still Without Power

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Power has been restored to most of the Missouri households left without electricity in wake of the massive ice storm that struck the state last week. The State Emergency Management Agency reports that 3,264 residences are without power as of early Tuesday morning. The greatest concentration of homes without power is located in northwest Missouri, where 1,315 houses still have no electricity. United Electric reports 1,100 customers in Maryville and Savannah have yet to have their power restored. Aquila reports 1,249 customers in the St. Joseph and Maryville areas still are without power. Empire Electric says that its number of customers without power has dropped to only 700. Those customers have been without power since the first wave of the ice storm hit Sunday, the 9 th . The ice storm knocked out power to an estimated 170,000 Missouri households at its peak. SEMA reports that four Missourians died during the ice storm.

MWSU Hires New President

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The new President of Missouri Western University calls his job "a dream come true".   The university Board of Governors has hired Robert Vartabedian to replace Jim Scanlon, who is retiring next June after seven years as Western President. Vartabedian is now the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Eastern New Mexico State.  He says his top priorities for Western are to improve graduation and student retention rates, and lobby the legislature for better funding for higher education.

 

One Massive Storm, Not Two, Hit Missouri Last Week

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It might have seemed like two ice storms hit Missouri last week, but it actually was one very big storm that slowly moved through the Midwest, hitting the state a couple of times, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes.

This winter storm didn’t treat regions of the state equally. National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Looney in Kansas City says that while a portion of southwest Missouri around the Joplin area got hit hard, central Missouri took a shot and ice coated power lines in portions of northeast Missouri and nearly blanketed northwest Missouri in ice, the Bootheel stayed nice and warm. And Looney says that while it seemed like two separate storms hit Missouri, it actually was a double punch from the same massive ice storm.

It might not help you feel any better, but Looney says that if you think of it as a main storm with smaller storms moving through the main system you get an idea of what did all the damage. Looney says when the storm hit last weekend, the atmosphere held in a locked pattern. The storm first hit Missouri early Sunday morning. That phase of the storm hit the Joplin area hard as well as the Lake of the Ozarks region, Jefferson City and portions of the state around O’Fallon and northeast to Bowling Green. The second phase hit the state early Tuesday morning. It slugged northwest Missouri, especially hitting the St. Joseph and Maryville area, then spread throughout the northern tier of the state.

The storm knocked power out for tens of thousands of Missouri households. The first phase knocked out about 50,000. The second took out another 120,000. Many utilities in the state were affected, including AmerenUE, Aquila, Kansas City Power and Light, Empire Electric and the state’s rural electric cooperatives.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

Restoration Work Continues; Thousands Still Out of Power

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Work to restore electricity to tens of thousands of Missouri households left without power from the double-punch ice storm that hit the state continues; still 36,000 homes remain without power.

The main focus of restoration work has shifted to northwest Missouri, where the second ice storm did incredible damage. Thousands still have no power in a small portion of southwest Missouri, mainly around the Joplin area. Scattered outages are reported across the state.

Aquila of Kansas City reports that 15,000 of its customers entered the weekend without power. The primary focus of restoration work is concentrated on St. Joseph and the surrounding area. The state’s rural electric cooperatives say their numbers have dropped below 10,000, but still hover around the 9,000 mark. Empire Electric of Joplin has under 13,000 customers without electricity, victims of the first ice storm that hit the state early Sunday morning. AmerenUE and Kansas City Power and Light report that they have completed restoration efforts.

Nearly 160,000 Missouri Households Remain Without Power

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Efforts to restore electricity to nearly 160,000 Missouri households should get a boost from the weather with precipitation finally tapering off and sunshine back in the forecast.

AmerenUE reports a bit more than 13,000 households remain without power from Sunday’s ice storm, nearly 6,000 in Jefferson City. Ameren’s Mike Cleary says the ice really wrecked the system. He says the extreme amount of damage and the large amount of repairs that must be made are holding things up.

Aquila reports that nearly 47,000 customers remain without power this morning in wake of the second storm that hit the state. Aquila’s Al Butkus is looking forward to a better weather forecast as the Kansas City-based utility sends extra crews to St. Joseph, which took the brunt of the second storm.

Empire Electric of Joplin reports 42,000 customers remain without power. The Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives reports the various rural electric co-ops have nearly 47,000 still without electricity and Kansas City Power and Light reports fewer than 10,000 do not have power. The total number of Missouri households without electricity Wednesday morning totaled 158,713.

One aspect could hold up homeowners hoping to have power restore. Damage at the household might prevent the utility from getting power restore. Ameren says it is up to the homeowner to make repairs to such things as the meter base, weatherhead or point of attachment, which all could have been damaged by a power line pulling them away from the house.

Ameren has a diagram on its Web site to help customers determine if they need to contact an electrical contractor to make repairs before the lights can be turned back on. 

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

Second Ice Storm Slams Into Missouri

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A second ice storm has slammed into Missouri, this time taking direct aim at northwest Missouri. One official in Maryville states simply, "It’s a mess".

The total number of Missourians without electricity now is estimated at 170,000. Tens of thousands of households in central and northeast Missouri still struggle without power. More than 66,000 northwest Missouri residents now have no power.

Aquila of Kansas City reports that 49,000 households in St. Joseph don’t have power as ice has either brought power lines down by itself or has weighed down tree limbs, which has snapped and fallen on power lines. A few substations have been knocked out. Maryville and Mound City have been hard hit as well. Some reports indicate that the entire city of Savannah, north of St. Joseph, is without power. Kansas City has an estimated 27,000 households without electricity.

Those numbers only add to Missouri residents coping without electricity. There are an estimated 44,000 households without power in Joplin. Jefferson City has about 27,000 households still without power from the Sunday ice storm. An estimated 32,000 customers with rural electric cooperatives do not have power.

Shelters have been opened at many of the communities to allow residents without electricity to warm up. Some shelters are providing food and overnight shelter. Others are only meant to provide a place to get some warmth during the daytime.

The weather forecast provides a bit of hope. Temperatures are suppose to rise tomorrow and the precipitation should dwindle and give way to sunshine at the end of the week.

Governor is Critical of Court Funeral Protest Ruling

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Governor Blunt criticizes a court ruling that has blocked enforcement of the state’s ban on protests at military funerals.

A preliminary injunction has been issued by the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals, preventing enforcement of the protest ban. The court has blocked enforcement until it can consider a challenge to the law’s constitutionality. The lawsuit was filed by the Phelps family of Topeka, Kansas which operates the Westboro Baptist Church and has become infamous for staging protests at military funerals across the country.

Governor Blunt says the court showed a callous disregard for the families of fallen servicemen. Blunt is especially critical of the court’s statement that it issued the preliminary injunction after deciding that such action will not cause substantial harm to others. Blunt argues it would be hard to convince the families of fallen military personnel of that.

And Blunt doesn’t buy the claim that the ban on such protests infringes on First Amendment rights. He says the First Amendments doesn’t confer absolute rights without restraint.

The Phelps family has filed suit to throw out the funeral protest ban. It claims it has a right to demonstrate at military funerals, because those funerals have become public events. The Phelps family claims American military deaths demonstrate God’s judgment on America for tolerating homosexuality.

The legislature approved the ban in response to the Phelps family protest at the funeral of Specialist Edward Lee Myers, which was held in St. Joseph in 2005 after his body was returned from Iraq.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

St. Joseph "School" Helps Train Foreign Allies’ Military Personnel

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The Missouri Air National Guard’s Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center in St. Joseph is not only a destination for Missourians and other Americans being trained, it’s a destination for military personnel from more than a dozen countries.

Colonel Steve Cotter, Commander of the 139th Airlift Wing, says what started out as a small operation about a quarter century ago has now gained a reputation among America’s allies as an important training center for 9-day and 11-day training courses.

Representatives from 14 allied nations are now in the regular rotation of foreign nationals receiving advanced tactical training in academic areas such as low-level dynamics, visual illusions, and aircraft structures. They then take part in flight operations that include hostile environment training, dissimilar defensive maneuvering, and formation flight.

Academic and flight operations begin in St. Joseph, with the class then deploying to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, where personnel are exposed to high altitude, desert, and mountainous environments. Approximately 25 foreign nationals take part in this training each year.

Download/Listen: Steve Walsh report (:60 MP3)

Arson Ruled Out in St. Joseph Fire

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Arson has been ruled out as the cause of a six-fatality apartment fire in St. Joseph. Investigators say the fire on August 11th was caused by an arcing electrical cord on a window air conditioner.

The only survivor who was at home at the time is the father of the family, Bryan Riggs, who thought everybody else was out before he jumped from a second-floor window.

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