By David Schmoll
Murray, KY – Heavy snow has caused some power outages across the area. West Kentucky Rural Electric has 56 residents without power in Calloway County, down from 200 an hour ago, and Pennyrile Electric has 25 substations down in Cadiz. West Kentucky Rural expects the rest of their area to have full service momentarily. Heavy snow and ice has weighed down power lines and is causing tree bends.
In Hopkins County, 2 school buses slid off the road as classes were canceled only a couple of hours after they began. No serious accidents have been reported. Emergency Management Director Frank Wright describes the road conditions.
"Our main highways are pretty well clear in the way of snow. There are still some slushy spots off and on, on all the roads."
Per the Kentucky Utilities website, there are no outages to report in their service to the Purchase area. Hopkins County will keep their warming stations on standby unless power outages begin. Emergency Management Director Frank Wright says he wouldn't be surprised if there were some outages by the end of the storm.
As temperatures are expected to fall below freezing tonight, Calloway County Director of Emergency Management Bill Call says crews are working to prepare the roads.
"We have trucks out scraping the streets now," he said. "We weren't able to pre-treat that much this time because of the forecast rain before the snow hit."
Both Call and Wright urge drivers to stay at home if possible. If they must drive, Wright implores the use of caution and reduced speeds on the roadways.