Category Archive

Just when it looked like we’d only have a few tornadoes to worry about this winter (we never thought we’d say that particular sentence), nature decided that a tornado in the middle of January wasn’t enough and gave Springfield another big ol’ helping of ice storm. Frankly, we would have preferred mashed potatoes.

While not as devastating as last year’s, this ice storm was enough to cause just over 11,000 outages, closing some businesses (your friendly neighborhood Marlinites were only out of commission Monday) and causing others to go without power for several days. It was also the cause of some minor earthquakes as kids jumped for joy with no less than three days off school. Actually, with all of those kindergarteners running around town and businesses closed, we’re surprised there wasn’t more looting.

Now that it’s over we’re hoping we’ll get a break from the natural disasters for a while. We could do with a few months where the biggest weather concern we have is whether or not our raincoats go with our new galoshes (yes, in case you were wondering, and quite nicely at that). At least until nature decides to hit us with some sort of super ice tornado…that can shoot lasers…and talk. Sounds like a summer blockbuster to us.

January 12th–14th has officially gone down in the books as the worst ice storm ever to hit Springfield. Trees snapped all over Southwest Missouri and, along with them, power lines. By some counts, over 90% of the town was out of power for several days. Many Marlinites were off the grid for nearly two weeks. Amazing what a little frozen water can do.