photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

A semi-truck and trailer blocks U.S. Highway 56 in southwest Douglas County on March 5, 2025.

UPDATED 4 P.M. MARCH 5

It was slick, it was windy, and at times, completely sideways for Douglas County motorists on Wednesday due to winter weather.

A semi-truck and trailer on U.S. Highway 56 that slid across the road and blocked traffic for several hours on Wednesday morning may have been the most high-profile weather disruption on area roadways following an overnight snowstorm that was slight in terms of accumulation but featured heavy winds of 50 miles per hour or more.

From about 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. motorists who were planning to travel the route in southwest Douglas County had to find a detour through the area. The incident was at the intersection of U.S. 56 and East 900 Road near the small community of Worden. The area is about 3.5 miles west of the U.S. Highway 56 and U.S. Highway 59 intersection.

Motorists throughout Douglas County awoke to slick roads on Wednesday. The area was in a blizzard warning Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning as a light snow and strong winds created dangerous conditions overnight.

By about 10:30 a.m., the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office had responded to five crashes around the county, including one injury accident.

The injury accident occurred east of Baldwin City on U.S. Highway 56 at about 7:30 a.m. Two vehicles crashed, and medics transported two motorists with injuries that were not believed to be life threatening.

Spokesman George Diepenbrock also said that multiple motorists had reported standing water on a portion of the South Lawrence Trafficway — also known as Kansas Highway 10 — west of Iowa Street. Diepenbrock said a motorist was involved in a non-injury accident around 6 a.m. when their vehicle spun in standing water that had accumulated on the highway. The specific location of the standing water was on the portion of the highway that is just east of where Kasold Drive would intersect with the SLT, if that intersection still existed.

The Lawrence Police Department said it also had responded to a “handful” of non-injury accidents. Many of those came during the morning rush hour when motorists seemingly had not yet realized how slick the roads had become, LPD spokeswoman Laura McCabe said.

The department also responded to about a dozen overnight calls involving obstructions in city streets. Those often were branches and limbs, some of which were large enough that city crews had to be called to remove them, she said.

Some residents also lost power overnight. At about 11 a.m., electric utility provider Evergy reported that about 2,300 Lawrence customers were without power. The outages were scattered throughout the community. By about 4 p.m. the number of Lawrence customers without power had dropped to about 150.

The power outage did cause Deerfield Elementary in Lawrence to cancel classes on Wednesday. All other Lawrence public schools held classes as scheduled.