State emerges from sweeping storms

There were fewer problems on Kansas roads Monday, a day after a winter storm led to several accidents and resulted in at least one death.

Kansas Highway Patrol dispatchers said Monday that most of their accident calls involved cars sliding off the road, some with minor injuries. Sgt. Phil Morrell, of the Topeka Police Department, said area roads seemed generally clear, with some patches of ice. His department received 11 accident reports since midnight Sunday, none of them with injuries.

Kansas AAA had received 212 calls for assistance by 11:30 a.m. Monday, said Amanda Wiltz, a spokeswoman. Most involved frozen locks and fuel lines, and lockouts. Wiltz said that was not as many calls as might be expected.

“We’re seeing about a 20 percent increase, which isn’t huge. People are really making the extra effort to be cautious,” Wiltz said.

However, some areas of the state continued to feel the effects of ice storms that moved into the state Saturday night.

In western Kansas, evening drizzle turned to ice on Kansas Highway 156 overnight from Garden City north to Interstate 70, while accompanying high winds caused whiteout conditions in some areas along the highway.

The strong north wind also caused several tractor-trailers to jackknife on I-70 between Hays and Salina and limited most traffic to a single lane.

The interstate remained mostly snow-covered and slick at daybreak west of Abilene.

In Manhattan, concerns about the weather prompted Kansas State University to postpone Monday’s scheduled Landon Lecture by Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, of South Dakota. Kansas State spokeswoman Cheryl May said the school would reschedule the lecture.

Ice covered the street signs at the corner of Winterbrook Drive and Winterbrook Circle in Lawrence. An ice storm, snow and single-digit temperatures swept through Kansas on Saturday and continued through Monday.

Morning lows in the state swung between the low teens and low 20s.

Central and eastern Kansas contended with snow and blowing snow throughout the day, and the day’s highs didn’t get past the 20s. Overnight lows were predicted to be in the single digits.

A winter weather advisory remained in effect until 9 p.m. Monday in northeast Kansas. That part of the state could get between 3 and 8 inches of snow by then, the National Weather Service said.

There was at least one weather-related traffic death Sunday in the state.

The Kansas Highway Patrol said Alan L. Carnill, 42, of Aurora, Colo., died when the car he was in went out of control on an icy bridge on Kansas Highway 183.