Southeast Missouri and southern Illinois are digging out of the winter storm this morning that buried the region in ice, sleet and snow.
Schools cancelled class, including all Southeast Missouri State University campuses, and most if not all school districts are closed, such as Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Farmington, Ste. Genevieve, Sikeston, Perryville and Fredericktown.
In Cape Girardeau, snowfall totals were relatively light, but the area received over two-and-a-half inches of sleet and ice.
“We had much of the precipitation fall as sleet last night and that did a couple things. It took away from the ice accumulation and also from the snow total,” said Rick Shanklin, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Paducah.
Shanklin adds it is still possible to see a couple inches of snow south of Cape Girardeau towards the Bootheel this morning.
“Travel conditions will be quite treacherous with temperatures as cold as they are and not expected to warm up very much at all, there really is not going to be any improvement from what we had this morning,” Shanklin said.
Ameren reports over 400 of its customers are without power this morning, largely concentrated in the Bootheel near Hayti and Bragg City.
Several Cape Girardeau facilities will open late today. City Hall, the Shawnee Center, the Osage Center and A.C. Brase Arena will all open late at 10:00 a.m. Monday trash and recycling routes should still run, also delayed, starting at 10 a.m.
Cape Girardeau County Government Offices and Circuit Court Offices will be closed.