An ice storm that coated Lawrence and much of the state with as much as an inch of ice overnight, left hundreds of area residents without power and made driving treacherous this morning.

About 1,200 homes were without power this morning in Lawrence, according to Gina Penzig, a spokeswoman for Westar Energy. Penzig said the power would be restored by the end of the day.

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Statewide, about 78,000 people are without power, Penzig said. The worst hit area in the state is in Wichita and in southeast Kansas, where officials are predicting it could take a week to restore power.

Lawrence Police dispatchers said that overnight they received 48 calls of reports about arcing power lines, 18 calls about branches blocking roadways and 19 calls of downed power lines. The calls kept Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical crews busy through the early morning hours.

Lawrence’s downtown post office was without power this morning, but postal workers were working, sorting mail in the dark.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ office said this morning that state employees who are considered non-essential do not have to go in to work today.

Kansas University has implemented its inclement weather policy today, which says KU employees who normally come in during the morning will work today, but will have an extra hour to make it to work. If they are going to take longer than an hour, they are supposed to contact their supervisor. For information about the status at KU’s Edwards campus, they can call 864-8499 and for more information about the inclement weather’s impact on KU, 864-SNOW.

Jennifer Schack, 6News meteorologist, said Lawrence was expected to get an inch of snow atop the inch of ice. The city was still getting sleet about 7 a.m., with the temperature at 25 degrees.

“That heavier system stayed off to the south of us,” she said. Most of the heavier freezing rain was in the Garnett area in southeast Kansas, she said.

Winds will be from the north at 12 to 18 mph today, with temperatures dropping to 5 degrees tonight. Thursday’s high will be 20, with the overnight low falling to 10 by early Friday morning, with wind chills as low as minus 5. Friday’s high will be 36.

Matt Sayers, 6News meteorologist, who was driving on highways east of Lawrence, including Kansas Highway 10 and Kansas Highway 32, said there was a lot of sleet on the highways, with three-fourths of an inch to an inch of ice in most areas.

“All the roads that I’ve been on are snow-packed and ice-packed,” Sayers said. He saw one car this morning in the ditch on K-10.

Other reports this morning were that that roads were passable, but that drivers were going slow, about 40 to 45 mph.

Tim Reith, 6News meteorologist, who was driving roadways west of Lawrence, said that overall, roads were still in fairly good condition and passable, although it was somewhat difficult to see the road markings.

“If you keep it slow, keep it around 40 to 45 mph, you should not run into any problems,” Reith said. He said traffic on Interstate 70 was averaging about 45 mph.

Deanna Richards, a 6News reporter who was checking Lawrence city streets this morning, said early bird drivers were helping turn ice-packed roads to slush. Roads were passable and traffic was able to get through, Richards said.

“Based on what we’ve seen so far, people seem to be going about their business,” Richards said.

— Cody Howard, 6News director, and Dave Toplikar, World Online editor, contributed to this report. For more information, return to this Web site throughout the day, see the 6News reports at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sunflower Broadband’s channel 6 and pick up a copy of Wednesday’s Journal-World.