RIVERMEN KEEPING EYES ON ICE FLOES

Ice in the Mississippi River means everything moves a little slower at Missouri Barge Lines and the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority. The directors of those two operations are hoping it isn't also a prelude to a shutdown.

Last year the river froze over outside Cape Girardeau for the first time in decades, shutting down river traffic and damaging structures along the bank. Port Authority Director Dan Overbey thought that was a fluke.

"I think what we have right now is probably not that bad," Overbey said. "But the real trick is, it's cold weather farther north and it stays cold down here. Then the ice that forms flows down.

"It would be nice if it turned warm for a little while and melt some of that stuff before it gets here."

Leo Steger, general manager of Missouri Barge Lines, said it won't take much at this point to produce uncomfortable amounts of ice.

"It takes about two or three nights of zero weather to create ice on the Mississippi River down this far," Steger said. "I'd say another two or three nights of zero weather and it would be close to stopping up.

"And the thicker the ice gets the slower the boats go."

With the National Weather Service predicting temperatures in the teens today and climbing to the lower 30s Tuesday, ice floes could omcrease over the next few days.

The weather service had not been notified as of Sunday of unusually heavy ice forming in the Mississippi or Missouri rivers.

Steger said river workers have to take special precautions during freezing weather. Decks freeze quickly and become slippery. Machinery doesn't work as well.

"Everything doesn't run as good during the cold weather as it does during the warm weather," he said.

Precipitation this year has kept the river high enough to keep the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from having to dredge, Overbey said.

"They did last January," he said. "But with the river forecast from what they had a month ago it looked like they weren't going to have to do that.

"If the forecast holds that means we won't have any problems getting barges in and out."