Snow started falling early this morning in Liberal, reducing visibility.

Emergency officials and residents spent much of Friday preparing for the worst of a potential spring snowstorm.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning that remains in effect until 7 p.m. today for the Lawrence area.

Lawrence grocery stores were buzzing with business, as people stocked up on the essentials.

“I don’t plan to be at the store the rest of the weekend, so just getting a few things,” said Janet Fike, of Lawrence.

Fike and many others filled their shopping carts up with fresh produce, dairy products and meat, as they planned to stay inside their homes most of the weekend.

“Just going to spend the weekend cooking,” said Mary-Elizabeth Debicki, a shopper at Checkers, 2300 La.

Meanwhile, city road crews spent Friday prepping trucks for snow removal, in anticipation of up to 10 inches of snow falling in Lawrence by the time the storm moves out this afternoon.

“We have everything ready to go, all the equipment’s ready to go, so we’re prepared for it,” said Tom Orzulak, street division manager.

Orzulak said 44 city workers would be working around the clock in 12-hour shifts to clear the road of any snow that falls.

“We’re going to have our hands full this weekend, if we get (10 inches), so people can go to school and go to work on Monday,” he said. “It’s going to be a big challenge.”

City and state officials urged residents to stay home over the weekend if road conditions are unfavorable.

Mike Epler, an area agriculture and extension agent with Kansas State University, said the winter weather could pose a problem for blooming plants.

At midnight Friday, a drizzle of rain was falling but the temperature was above freezing. Epler said if the temperature drops to 28 degrees, there would likely be a 10 percent loss of blooms on ornamental and fruit trees. If the temperature drops to 25 degrees, that loss jumps to 90 percent.

Any flowers that are blooming shouldn’t be in danger unless temperatures dip to the lower 20s, and even temperatures in the teens “wouldn’t kill them,” Epler said. “Pansies probably wouldn’t be hurt at all.”

A cover of snow, however, might actually protect the plants, because of the insulation it would provide.

Southwest and south-central Kansas got the worst of the weather that began blowing in from southeast Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle early Friday. The far southwestern towns of Hugoton and Ulysses both reported 14 inches as of Friday night. Satanta, also in the far southwest, had 12 inches of snow and drifts of 4 to 6 feet at midafternoon.

Slightly to the northeast, Garden City had 16 inches as of 9 p.m.

About 1,600 customers in the Cowley County town of Arkansas City lost electricity as ice snapped branches and power lines. Outages were also reported in El Dorado and Salina as well as Wichita County in western Kansas, but durations and numbers of customers affected weren’t available.

The Kansas Department of Transportation said several highways were closed in southwest Kansas because of poor visibility and blowing snow, including long stretches of such major routes as U.S. 83, 183 and 283; U.S. 54; U.S. 50; and U.S. 56.

Interest in the weather outlook and road conditions was so high on Friday that the Kansas Department of Transportation was experiencing technical difficulties with its road closing information hot line and Web site from high demand.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.