Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2019 will be pretty spring-like with temperatures in the 60s.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2009 were anything but, with a bona fide blizzard whacking the KVOE listening area and much of eastern Kansas with heavy snow, high winds and blinding travel conditions.
National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Gargan was tracking the winter storm as it approached.
The area started Christimas Eve under a winter storm warning, but Gargan made the upgrade to a blizzard warning — reflecting the high winds and resulting travel hazards — shortly before the storm began impacting our area by the afternoon hours. City Manager Mark McAnarney was the assistant city manager at the time. Then-City Manager Matt Zimmerman was out of the country, and McAnarney says city leaders faced a nightmare scenario for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and a few days afterward.
Assistant County Engineer Jim Brull was out of town when the snow started. When he got back, there was a lot of evidence of the storm’s power — especially north of Emporia.
Area residents awoke Christmas Day to find up to 13 inches of snow. KVOE General Manager and Morning Show host Ron Thomas anticipated travel issues, so he was up two hours earlier than normal.
Thomas enlisted the help of Daryl Polzin, who drove his four-wheel pickup to his house in east Emporia and later picked up KVOE News reporter Chuck Samples. They barely made it to the station in time to start the Morning Show, and once the program was done they helped push several vehicles through snow to safer conditions.
Gargan says forecasters did a good job of alerting residents to the possible dangers well in advance. Lyon County Emergency Management Director Jarrod Fell says there is more emphasis on getting information out to residents through social media.
However, Fell says the amount of resources at the government level — city, county, state or federal — to get things back to normal are still about where they were 10 years ago. Fell says people need to plan ahead, including a travel kit for vehicles and three days of supplies at home. The plan should also include an alternate power source if that’s available and trips to the store and pharmacy before a winter storm hits.
Snow totals
*Emporia: 9 inches
*Eskridge: 10 inches
*Neosho Rapids: 7 inches
*Osage City: 13 inches
*Saffordville area: 5 inches
Peak wind gust
*Emporia: 54 mph (1:20 am Christmas Day)
File photos by Chuck Samples/KVOE News
{gallery}122419 Blizzard 10 Year Anniversary{/gallery}
File graphics courtesy National Weather Service
{gallery}122419 Blizzard 10 Year Graphics NWS{/gallery}
