Area digging out from giant snow storm; no damage, just a lot of white stuff

Top left: USD 234 Maintenance Custodian Garry Cook shovels on a four-wheeler in front of Eugene Ware Elementary Wednesday. At top right, a front-end loader driver places snow from National Avenue into a dump truck to be driven off site. At left, Emmett Chapman, Bourbon County janitor, blows snow outside the courthouse Wednesday in preparation for re-opening today. (Ruth Campbell/Tribune)

The snow has fallen and the sun has come out to shine on a community that appears to have been virtually undisturbed by Tuesday's major winter storm.

Bourbon County Emergency Manager Keith Jeffers said the storm dropped between 17 and 19 inches of snow on the area, which was right on target for what was being forecast Monday. Jeffers said that the massive snowfall combined with the wind has created snowdrifts throughout the county ranging from four to 10 feet high.

With nearly 48 hours of warning from the National Weather Service, Jeffers said the Bourbon County Emergency Management Department and other local agencies were prepared for the storm. Most importantly, he said, the community had time to get ready.

Many residents stayed in their homes and avoided getting on the roads, Jeffers said. Also, many businesses were closed, including Fort Scott City Hall and the Bourbon County Courthouse.

"I really applaud the companies that shut down rather than having their employees come in these conditions," Jeffers said.

With the community taking precautions, Whendi Martin, executive director of the Bourbon County Chapter of the American Red Cross, said there were no major incidents in which the Red Cross was needed.

Bill Ecker shovels outside Crawford Sales Co. in Fort Scott where he serves as account manager.

"Basically, people heeded the warning," she said. "I think that the community responded well."

In addition, Jeffers said, most of the highways in the area have been reduced to one passable lane for traffic. Along with the snow, he added, the public works departments struggled with abandoned cars on the highways. He said he heard reports of at least 100 cars being stranded on Interstate 44.

"(Bourbon County) didn't have any major accidents, we had a lot of slide-offs and people getting stuck," Jeffers said. He added fire trucks were rarely called upon. Calls came in mainly for law enforcement and tow trucks.

One reason Bourbon County didn't have as many traffic accidents as anticipated, according to Jeffers, was that there was less ice than originally forecast. Jeffers said the National Weather Service had forecast up to three-fourths of an inch of ice, however, the area only received about one-tenth of an inch.

"We really got lucky that we didn't have as much as was forecast," Jeffers said.

As far as a clean up of the snowfall, Jeffers said the community needs to be patient with the city and county public works departments as they work to clear the streets. With the temperatures not expected to reach above 32 degrees until the weekend and another one-and-a-half inches of snow expected between Sunday afternoon and Tuesday, Jeffers said the snow might be around for a while.

"I think that because there is such a large amount of snow, it will take a couple of days to get it cleaned up, or at least make the roads passable," Jeffers said. "We are really not going to thaw out for a while."