Kansas City declared a state of emergency Feb. 21 at 9:00 a.m. due to heavy snow. Local media reported that Kansas City Mayor Sly James said the declaration would give officials the ability to evacuate areas that are a threat to public health.
The state of emergency will last until 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 22. Kansas City International Airport is closed because of the snow.
“It allows the city to hopefully provide the best services under the circumstances as possible, and to ensure public safety,” James told KMBC-TV. James is giving live updates with continuous tweets from his Twitter account, @MayorSlyJames.
At 3:00 p.m. local time, he tweeted, “It will stop snowing for awhile this afternoon. DONT GET BRAVE and venture out! Ice under the snow and more snow coming this eve & tonight.”
One Twitter user posted back, “thanks to @MayorSlyJames for the updates. I was dumb enough to consider going to target down the street, but not after reading your tweets.”
James Dornbrook, reporter with the Kansas City Business Journal, wrote, “I grew up in Wisconsin and consider myself an expert winter driver, but road conditions in the Kansas City area Thursday are about as bad as I’ve seen anywhere.”
“The Interstate 70 on-ramp at 13th street is extremely hazardous. The interstate itself has a plowed lane open, but it’s slick on the bridges and overpasses. I drove most of it in second gear to keep traction,” he wrote.
Dornbrook said that cars are stuck everywhere on the sides of the streets, and that exits are completely impassable and have not been plowed. When the roads were plowed, it pushed the plowed snow onto the exits, and drivers who attempted to use those exits now have their cars stuck there, he said.
He added that he was fortunate to get home by flowing a snowplow.
