First bout of 2025 weather winter leads to icy roads, power outages

Bollinger County and portions of Southeast Missouri was shut down earlier this week due to a winter storm system that moved through the area, blanketing the region with ice and then a little snow.

The entire southeast Missouri region was under a winter storm warning advisement due to the wintry weather.

If folks are using generator power, they need to take extra care to make sure generators in outside well-ventilated areas are at least 20 feet away from their house to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.

For downed trees, officials recommend contacting the emergency management agency, local highway department or electric company if the downed tree is blocking a road or has taken down power lines.

As for the approximate accumulation totals from the winter storm Jan. 4-5, there was no specific data from anywhere in Bollinger County to report.

Marble Hill Police Chief Dan McMichael urged residents not to travel if they didn’t have to and to take proper precautions.

“I want to stress the importance of this future impactful weather ahead of us,” McMichael said Jan. 3. “This weather has the potential to be dangerous for our community. If you don't have to be out, please don't. If you do have to, please prepare and plan accordingly. Due to possibly hazardous road conditions emergency response times could be delayed.”

“Deputies and other emergency personnel are currently deployed and working several calls related to this storm,” Sheriff Casey Graham said in a Jan. 5 Facebook post. “At this time, roadways are starting to become compromised due to fallen limbs, trees, and power lines that are blocking the lane (or lanes) of travel. As we approach the night time hours, it is expected that these conditions will worsen as there are currently numerous tree limbs that have not yet fallen but are low hanging in the roadway and pose an additional threat to motorists traveling on roadways.

“We have also received numerous reports of power outages throughout all of Bollinger County. The electric companies have numerous crews working around the clock; however, we are being told to expect long term outages.

Graham said the First Baptist Church at 502 Broadway Street in Marble Hill was being opened as a warming shelter for those in need of this type of assistance.”

Graham also urged motorists to limit travel.

“If you do not have to travel, you are urged to remain indoors and off of the roadways,” Graham said. “If you need assistance, please contact the Bollinger County Sheriff’s Office.”

Black River Electric Cooperative crews worked to restore power across the Southeast Missouri region. There were 70 additional lineworkers joining BREC crews in power restoration efforts.

Widespread outages across the BREC system were due to heavy ice on tree limbs and power lines.

Outages began Sunday morning as freezing rain coated power lines and weighed down tree limbs. At the peak of the storm Sunday afternoon, there were 12,000 members without power across the BREC service territory. Crews made progress and restored power to a couple thousand members and then more outages occurred after winds picked up overnight.

There were 9,402 members without power, as of Monday, Jan. 6, at 5 p.m., with 2,614 of those BREC customers located in Bollinger County. Another 2,088 customers in Madison County were out of power, plus more than 830 members in Cape Girardeau County.

Every electric cooperative follows a basic principle when it comes to restoring power — priority goes to the lines that will get the most people back in service the quickest, according to the BREC release.

The wintry weather led to the closure of the Bollinger County Courthouse and City Hall in Marble Hill Jan. 6, plus the closure of schools in Leopold, Zalma, Meadow Heights and Woodland for both Jan. 6 and 7.

The circuit courts of Cape Girardeau, Perry and Bollinger were closed both Jan. 6 and 7 as well.