Oh, snow! Winter storm brings snow, frigid temps and slick roads


Lauren Hillhouse, 12, daughter of Corey and Hope Hillhouse of Gainesville, found Monday’s snow just right for making big snowballs. Area students were out of school Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday – and also Tuesday, when all five county schools canceled classes due to the snow-slick roads and ice temperatures.

City maintenance man William Walrath spent the MLK holiday driving around Gainesville in a snowplow. Times photo/Jessi Dreckman.

Darrell White snapped this photo of a snow-covered Gainesville Monday from his home east of town.

A winter storm socked Ozark County this week, blanketing the area with as much as 6 inches of snow in some places Monday on top of a dusting of snow that fell Sunday. Bone-chilling, single-digit and below-zero temperatures moved in Tuesday on wind gusts that added to the outdoor misery.

Snow-packed roads proved to be treacherous, and Ozark County Darrin Reed said Monday he and his deputies stayed busy responding to slide-offs and other icy-road incidents. On Sunday, J Highway was closed for a while near Lick Creek as vehicles got stuck on the slick roadway that curved up the north-side hill.    

All five county school districts had canceled classes Monday in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, but the weather forced all of them to close again Tuesday. At press time Tuesday, decisions had not been announced about possible school closures Wednesday. 

MoDOT crews worked steadily throughout the snowstorm, but in many areas they were unable to keep the main highways clear. Most roads remained partly or totally covered as snow continued to fall throughout the day Monday and Monday night. Some residents expressed frustration and surprise  that roadways south of the Missouri-Arkansas line were substantially clearer than on the Missouri size – an unusual situation compared with past years’ snow events.

“We’re not sure why that is, but it was a blow to our ego,” Missouri Department of Transportation’s Gainesville shed supervisor Rodney Yost said Monday. MoDOT crews worked all day Monday, which would have been a holiday for them, blading roads and spraying pavements with a mixture of salt and beet juice. Highways 5, 160, 181 and J were the priorities, Yost said. Secondary routes would be worked on as time and primary road conditions allowed, he said. 

Ozark County Presiding Commissioner John Turner said Arkansas roads were clearer because “it snowed less and was warmer down there, in my opinion.” 

County roads remained slick “and it’s not going to get better until Thursday, so if you don’t have to be anywhere, stay home,” said western district commissioner Greg Donley. “As cold as it’s going to be, plowing the county roads now would just take it down to bare ice.” Instead, road crews were “salting the steep hills on paved roads,” Donley said, adding, however, that “salt doesn’t help when temperatures fall below 20 degrees.” 

Gary Collins, the county’s eastern district commissioner, agreed that plowing the snow-covered county roads wouldn’t help. “There’s not much you can do for the gravel roads. When the ground’s frozen, like it is now, if you try to grade it, you scalp a spot in the gravel, and then you end up with a mud hole later.”

The east-side road crews had spread sawdust from the Luna Sawmill on the hills to add traction. “The sawdust is  hot, and it’ll put some roughness on the chip-and-seal roads. We did a lot of the hills yesterday,” Collins told the Times Monday. 

Commissioners urged residents to stay off the roads if possible. “But if anyone is stranded or has an emergency, they can call us and we’ll do what we can to get them out,” Donley said. Donley’s number is 417-683-0607; Collins’ number is 417-261-2229.

Gainesville Mayor Gail Reich said city streets were also treacherous Monday. City employees were out in snow plows trying to clear the roads, but they remained slick, and several slide-offs were reported in town, and a rollover was reported on Cedar Oak Drive. At press time, the Times was not aware of any injuries resulting from the icy-road accidents.  

Despite the snowy roads, the bitter-cold temperatures and the fact that Monday was a holiday, the Gainesville Livestock Auction held its regular Monday sale as usual. Patty Donley, who owns the sale barn with her husband, Rex, told the Times that they “pretty much had to go ahead with the sale” because 725 head of cattle had been delivered to the facility Friday and Saturday, ahead of the storm, and “we needed to get them out.”

While some local producers who bought cattle Monday would be leaving their purchases at the sale barn until the roads improved, Patty said four semi-trucks planned to load cattle Monday afternoon and evening and set off for Kansas or Iowa feed lots, despite the road conditions.         

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423