Local travel could be slow going until Wednesday once temperatures finally get out of the current deep freeze.
Overnight lows dipped to -10 and wind chills went under -30 at times Monday morning, meaning it will be tough for treatment materials to do much good until we have temperatures in the 20s or abundant sunshine. Public Works Director Dean Grant says crews will keep working the next few days.
Grant also says there haven’t been a lot of issues with underground waterlines to this point, but he’s watching to see if there are breaks during the cold or perhaps once temperatures warm to the 40s by the weekend. He also says some valves and leaky water mains may well be allowed to drip for now.
Separately, Public Works got several calls about frozen service lines over the weekend. Grant says residents should let their faucets drip while the extreme cold continues.
Numerous schedule adjustments were called in over the weekend and many of those are effective Monday. Click here for the KVOE.com Closings and Cancellations page.
Emergency accident reporting continues in the Emporia city limits. If you get into a non-injury crash, exchange insurance information with other drivers involved and file a report with Emporia Police at your earliest convenience. Those in-town non-injury crashes do not need to be immediately reported to Emergency Dispatch, but the department is asking residents who have crashes outside the city limits to call those in.
Winter weather advisories continue for Lyon and most surrounding counties until 3 pm, with Chase and Greenwood counties in separate advisories until noon as a dusting to half an inch of new snow could fall across the area. Wind chill warnings continue areawide until noon Tuesday.
Conditions gradually improve this week, and the current forecast has highs getting above freezing Friday and into the 40s by Saturday.
Be sure to stay with KVOE, KVOE.com and KVOE social media for updates as this bitter cold weather continues. If you have schedule adjustments, call KVOE at 342-1400 or email kvoe@kvoe.com.
