Winter storm leaves thousands without power; Randolph holds strong

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A rough winter storm pounded the heartland on Monday, Jan. 26 and Tuesday, Jan. 27. The worst to hit the heartland in quite sometime. Yet, despite thousands without power and a state of emergency being declared in southern Missouri, Randolph County residents did quite well, braving the vicious onslaught of winter weather. There was little to report from the various police and fire departments around the county. The Randolph County Sheriff's office only had one serious accident to report. Chester police reported one car that slid into a telephone poll. Otherwise their officers were only responding to people who were stuck in snow banks. It was noted from both departments that there were more accidents in the first snowfall that we had a few weeks ago. The departments thought that once people get their "snow-legs" they tend to be more conscience in adverse weather conditions.

Steeleville Police and Fire Department had little to report as well. "Our maintenance guys [were] doing good," said Steeleville Mayor Mike Armstrong. The maintenance crews were working hard to keep the streets clear of the ever falling snow. Steeleville resident Bruce Fiene said, "Its not too bad with four-wheel drive. The city has done good with clearing the roads." Fiene was watching the gathering storm around a cup of coffee at Huck's with fellow Steeleville resident Allan Waeltz, who said, "I don't have four-wheel drive and I drive around fine as long as I drive slow." Huck's employees noticed that many people were filling up, as the "panic" set in while the snow and sleet fell. In fact, most of the residents in Steeleville were most concerned with the driving conditions. Aaron Rubach had this advice to give, "Take it slow and watch out for the other guy because that is where the trouble starts." The Steeleville Post Office was in full swing, with the carriers out in the trenches making sure the mail got through. "The mail must go through," said Postal Employee Amy Fisher, "[but] these Jeeps don't handle so well in the snow."

There was a water main break in Chester, early Tuesday morning. The Chester City Maintenance crew were working in the frigid air all day on the break on Oak street near the intersection of Hacker St. City Superintendent Kevin Diercks said, "We have more breaks in the winter time than any other time." Dennis Hartenberger, head of the Utility Department said, "This is the fourth one in the last month." No residents were affected by the water main break due to the dilligence and dedication of the utility crew.

The Missouri Governor issued a state of emergency that was backed by the White House. There were reports of a 3/4 inch of ice build-up in some areas of southeastern Missouri as well as southern Illinois. Ameren spokesperson Lee Morris said, "It is the ice. What the ice does is create 2 problems- the weight of the ice can cause insulators to brea and the biggest problem is the trees." According to Ameren, 120,000+ people were without power in Missouri and were expected to be out for a week or more. Southern Illinois did better, with roughly 11,900 people without power at the peak of the storm. Morris said, "Sometimes as fast as they could put up the line, they would come down." The main Illinois counties suffering the affects of the winter storm were: Alexander, Gallatin, Johnson, Massac, Pulaski, and Union. There was one reported outage to Ameren in Randolph County as of Thursday afternoon.