Post last updated at 2:51 p.m. Monday, Jan. 6:
After closing all highways in northeastern Kansas Sunday in response to the blizzard that brought nearly a foot of snow to Lawrence, state roads and highways are beginning to reopen Monday, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation.
As of just before 10 a.m. Monday, the stretch of U.S. Highway 40 between the west leg of the South Lawrence Trafficway (Kansas Highway 10) and Topeka remained closed, according to KanDrive.
KanDrive, an app and website from KDOT, has info on road conditions statewide. (Read more about it at this link.) It showed that many highways are still slippery and covered in snow.
Update:
• Lawrence still cleaning up after blizzard; answers to some FAQs as efforts continue, Jan. 7, 2025
“We encourage folks to limit travel, if possible, to give road crews time and space to work. They’ll be out working to clear the roads for as long as necessary,” Kate Craft, a spokesperson for KDOT, said via email Monday.
Within Lawrence, main roads are mostly clear but snowpacked, and side streets and neighborhood streets may be difficult to navigate, according to the Lawrence Police Department.
“There are abandoned cars all over the place, homages to the people who failed to navigate the snow. Don’t hit them,” LPD wrote in a tweet Monday morning.
In an update shortly after 2 p.m. Monday, police said the main roads are “looking pretty decent. Side roads are improving, neighborhood roads are still swallowing some vehicles.”
The city’s snow response map includes traffic cameras to get a look at road conditions in realtime or close to it:
Another city map shows routes snow plows have traveled, and how recently. That’s at this link. The city also has a map that shows some road temperatures and conditions as recorded by three sensors across town; that’s available at this link.
As of Monday morning, LPD had worked three minor injury crashes and 56 noninjury crashes throughout the storm, according to another tweet from the department. Police had also helped 140 stranded motorists.
Douglas County public works crews worked through the night to make progress clearing county roads, according to a tweet from the county.
Road conditions are still not good, and folks are encouraged to stay where they are as much as possible.
As cleanup gets underway, Lawrence property owners are responsible for removing snow and ice from public sidewalks adjacent to their property. “Removal must be done within 48 hours after the ice forms or the snowfall ends,” according to the city. If it’s impossible to remove ice, the property owner is required to place sand on the sidewalk within 48 hours.
See the latest coverage of the weather at this link and a list of Monday closures and service changes at this link.
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Severe weather resources
Get warm in Lawrence:
• See this page for locations to get warm during the day and overnight, where to get help for pets and more.
National Weather Service local office (Topeka):
• Find the latest weather forecast info and severe weather advisories for the Lawrence area at this link.
• In the event of rapidly changing severe weather, such as tornadoes, the NWS posts frequent updates on Twitter, @NWSTopeka. You do not need a Twitter account to see tweets from NWS.
• NWS is also on Facebook, facebook.com/NWSTopeka.
• Call 785-234-2592 to hear the forecast.
City of Lawrence snow info:
• The city has snow information and a map at lawrenceks.org/snow that shows information about road conditions and where snowplows have been. The city typically begins snow and ice control for residential roadways when 2 or more inches of snowfall or icing occurs.
Douglas County Emergency Management:
• Follow @DgCoEM on Twitter or Douglas County, KS- Emergency Management on Facebook, facebook.com/dgcoem.
• Sign up to receive emergency alerts at dgcoks.org/emalerts.
• Find lots of tips on severe weather and other emergency preparedness on DgCoEM’s website at douglascountyks.org/emergency-management.
• Report storm damage (for non-emergencies only, and after storm danger has passed) by calling the nonemergency dispatch line at 785-843-0250 or 785-832-7509.
Evergy outages:
• Check the status of power outages on the Evergy outage map, outagemap.evergy.com.
• Report a power outage at evergy.com/report-outage, or call 800-544-4857.
• For down powerlines, call Evergy’s emergency line, 800-383-1183, if above-ground lines are arcing or making contact with trees or vegetation. Call 911 immediately if overhead power lines are on the ground or a fire starts.
Air quality:
• Check the current air quality index in Lawrence and elsewhere through AirNow, airnow.gov.
This post is by the Lawrence Times news team.
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August Rudisell/Lawrence Times
August Rudisell/Lawrence Times
