Mayor Kinder said the City Council of Cape Girardeau opened its Jan. 6 meeting with updates on the city's response to a weekend ice storm that left hundreds temporarily without power and prompted extended public-works and emergency operations.

The update matters because crews across departments continued restoration, tree removal and road treatment while warming centers remained open for residents affected by the storm.

Mayor Kinder said the city saw as many as roughly 800 customers without power at the storm's peak and that the number had fallen to about 80 by the time of the meeting. She urged residents to stay away from downed power lines and report outages to Ameren or 911.

City staff reported specific department activity: airport crews deiced and kept runways clear beginning at 2 a.m. Sunday, the Cape Fire Department responded to multiple calls including arcing or live-wire incidents and two building fires, and the Cape Police Department logged a small number of weather-related crashes. Public works pretreating of hills and primary streets, salt operations and responses to 16 calls for downed trees and limbs were also described.

The Osage Center and the Shawnee Center were opened as warming or "safe and warm" sites to provide shelter and warmth, and public works crews continued salting into the following midday to limit refreeze. Staff noted Alliance Water responded to a 6-inch water main break earlier in the week but did not believe that break was weather-related, and a Perryville booster pump station lost power but continued operating on its backup generator.

Mayor Kinder and council members repeatedly thanked city employees and volunteers for their work during the storm. The mayor also offered condolences to the Rust family for the death of Gary Rust.

Council members and staff reminded residents that line hazards can cause serious injury or death, and repeated the call to report outages and avoid downed lines; officials noted Ameren provides an online outage map and text updates for customers.

Council did not take legislative action related to the storm at the meeting but discussed continued monitoring and the operational steps departments are taking to clear streets, restore services and assist affected residents.