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White Christmas forces changes in travel plans
By Emily Younker
eyounker@joplinglobe.com
Jeremy and Alexis Boyd, of Joplin, planned to spend Christmas Day visiting their parents in Noel and Pineville.
But it wasn’t a trip they were willing to take in the snow — particularly with two young children in the back seat of their Crown Victoria. So, like a lot of other travelers on Friday, they canceled their plans.
“Of course we’re disappointed,” Jeremy Boyd said. “We’re going to have to wait until at least Monday or Tuesday before we can reschedule, weather permitting.”
Meteorologist Doug Cramer of the National Weather Service station in Springfield said Southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas received 4 to 6 inches of snow Thursday night into Friday morning. Most areas saw a mix of freezing rain and sleet before the snow arrived, he said.
Boyd said he was unable to get out of his house until 10 a.m. Friday because of snow drifts that blocked the door. After noon, he took a short drive to test the roads.
“I got stuck just trying to get off 17th Street onto Maiden Lane,” he said. “A guy in a 4-wheel-drive truck pulled up behind me, and he had to push me out.”
Boyd then tried to make it to the gas station next to the nearby Price Cutter supermarket.
“I was just cruising, (going) like 10 mph, and I started sliding and almost ran into the gas pumps over there,” he said. “So we’re not going anywhere.”
Those owning vehicles with 4-wheel drive had better luck Friday.
Galen Edwards, who lives in Saginaw, said he had a little trouble getting to a well-traveled road. Even in his Jeep, which has 4-wheel drive, he slid once he left his driveway.
“I made sure I had my seat belt on, just in case,” he said. “We had to go uphill to get to Range Line. The snow plow came up our road; they cleaned it off good, but it was down to solid ice.”
Local police and sheriff’s departments reported a number of slide-offs and minor weather-related accidents Friday.
Flights to and from Kansas City from the Joplin Regional Airport were grounded Thursday night and Friday morning because of the snow, said Luci Tarter, Great Lakes Airlines customer service representative.
Tarter said she expected a flight to arrive from Kansas City on Friday afternoon, but she wasn’t sure when the airline schedule would resume as normal. She said that depends on the weather, and she was keeping her eye on a system near Kansas City.
The snow also was responsible for several closures, including the Joplin Recycling Center, which will be closed today.
Temperatures stayed in the 20s on Christmas Day, and Cramer said they won’t likely improve soon.
“We’re in a really cold pattern now,” he said. “Temperatures are really going to struggle to warm out of the 20s in the next couple of days.”
That means the snow will stick around, too.
“It’s probably not going to melt any time soon,” Cramer said. “At least for the next couple of days, it’s going to be hanging around.”
Trash delay
Allied Waste Services, the Joplin residential trash hauler, will not pick up its Friday route today as originally planned. The Friday route will now be picked up Jan. 3.
Mary Anne Phillips, Joplin Recycling coordinator, said Friday: “Motorists are reminded that it is difficult for heavy trash trucks to stop on icy and snow-covered roads and alleys. Furthermore, city and state crews do not plow residential streets or alleys because the snow banks would block cross streets, driveways and parked vehicles.”
- Joplin Metro
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Lobbyist: Bill on tax-stacking appears stalled
