They're beautiful as their colors begin to change and they light up the sky with shades of red, yellow and purple. But once the leaves start to fall, they become a colorful problem.

Tuesday's high winds and rain stripped a great number of leaves from their limbs and deposited them on streets where they added to the already rain-slicked roads and clogged storm drains.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department responded to 25 accidents Tuesday in the city, 17 of which could be partially blamed on the weather.

"Anytime you add leaves to moisture you'll have a slippery condition," Cape Girardeau Police Sgt. J.R. Davis said. "Weather was a factor in most of Tuesday's accidents. It was a factor because people did not adjust their driving to compensate for the conditions."

Davis, who is in charge of the traffic department for the city's police department, said many people drive the same way during wet weather as they do when the streets are dry. They follow too closely or drive too fast and cannot stop in time.

"They don't adjust their driving enough to avoid an accident," he said.

Neither Davis or Cape Girardeau Police Capt. Steve Strong could blame the accidents on Fall leaves in the road, but both said it is a factor.

"When you have a slick pavement and you add leaves you increase the likelihood that you will slide and lose control of the vehicle," Strong said. "Drivers have to be more careful when you have a heavy downpour and a layer of leaves."

The leaves present a smaller problem for motorists when they clog storm drains and flood the streets. Strong said it is possible that motorists driving through deep standing water could lose control of their vehicles.

Steve Cook, environmental services coordinator for Cape Girardeau's Department of Public Works, said crews automatically go out during a Fall rainstorm because they know the storm drains will be clogged.

"It's part of the routine maintenance of the streets," Cook said. "It's just like sending out crews for snow removal. It's so we don't actually have problems from the drains backing up."

Director of Public Works Doug Leslie said the city's leaf pickup program, which starts in a section of the city south of William Street Nov. 11 and continues in rotations to Dec. 16, is also structured around preventing problems from autumnal deposits.

"The city has had a leaf pickup program since 1969," Leslie said. "It is beneficial to the city because it keeps the leaves out of the storm sewer system."

The city uses a type of vacuum cleaner to sweep piled leaves off the curb line along residential routes. The leaves, limbs and other organic compounds are taken to compost sites. The compost is then distributed free of charge to residents and farms and used in the city's parks. This year the city is offering citizens the option of dropping off leaves at a site on South West End Avenue themselves.

The pickup program also discourages the burning of leaves within the city, something acting Cape Girardeau Fire Chief Max Jauch is grateful for.

"People have to be extremely careful about burning leaves," Jauch said. "We have had fires start when someone was burning leaves and a wind came along and blew some of the leaves into a bush. That set the bush on fire, which set the house next to it on fire."

Jauch added that people have to be certain they are burning the leaves in the proper place as well as during the legal hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"If they're going to burn leaves they have to make sure they are burning them on their property, not the city's right-of-ways," he said. "Most people burn their leaves in the ditches along the road. That's a bad place, for one thing because it's usually city property, but it's better than in the streets."