Blizzard Causes Damage, Knocks Out Power

Winter Storm Draco knocked out power for some customers and did various wind damage around the county Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The forecast was for 5 to 8 inches, revised downward to 4 to 6 Wednesday afternoon. The evening started out with 1” of rainfall. There was already slush in some areas that night, with people having trouble getting home that night. After midnight, the rain changed over to snow and winds picked up, with sustained winds of over 30 miles per hour. While the west part of the county only got a dusting of snow, ice underneath the snow and high winds made for a dangerous combination.

At 2 a.m., power to the Sheridan Housing was knocked out and stayed out until 10:15 that morning, when KCP&L crews restored power. Blockton was out of power until 6:30 that morning. Thousands of customers were without power around the area, including over 6,000 in St. Joseph. As of 8:00 a.m., there were still people without power there. Interstate 29 was closed from Kansas City International all the way north to Iowa and rest stations were set up for stranded motorists. Route 46 was closed west of Maryville due to heavy drifting. There were whiteout conditions around the area Thursday morning due to heavy blowing snow.

There were various reports of wind damage around the area, including tree branches, antenna poles, and Christmas decorations being damaged. In Ravenwood, the Frontier Grill sign was blown down. The server for grantcity.net was down Friday morning.

School at both Worth County and Northeast Nodaway was called off and was not rescheduled. The game between Worth County and Northeast Nodaway was rescheduled for Friday night as there were still slick spots on the road as of Thursday evening.

Events all over the area were canceled. There were several slideoffs on Route 169.

The Rural Housing in Sheridan was down for eight hours even though it is one of the critical facilities for the area. The County of Worth, the school, the Convalescent Center, along with Grant City, Sheridan, and Allendale all have generators to use if necessary.

Emergency Management Director Pat Kobbe said that there was no talk of a disaster declaration from either the federal or state governments. The area was more fortunate than a lot of the country as Des Moines got 16” to 17” of snow and Wisconsin got over 14”.

Road and Bridge Foreman Jim Fletchall reported that snow removal was proceeding even though there was mud underneath some of the roads that they encountered. They were running three graders over the roads and some of the snow was pretty deep. In some places, they had to use the plow. The east side of the county was hit harder than the west side.