12/7/2009
By MICHAEL STRAND Salina Journal
"Slick," "really slick" and "very slick" were the common phrases heard over emergency radio channels Sunday afternoon, as temperatures dropped throughout the day, and bridges and overpasses suddenly turned slick, resulting in numerous rollover and multivehicle wrecks across the area.

According to the weather station at Salina Municipal Airport, temperatures hovered around 31 and 32 degrees overnight Saturday and steadily dropped throughout the day Sunday.

Around 3 p.m., calls of vehicle rollovers and slideoffs started coming in, and emergency workers in Saline County alone were dealing with at least three rollover accidents and several vehicles sliding off roads in various places. There also was one pileup involving at least five vehicles near the Bridgeport exit on Interstate Highway 135.

Several other wrecks were reported on I-135 south of Salina and into McPherson County, with traffic backed up for much of the evening.

"What I can tell you is roads are slick," said a dispatcher with the Kansas Highway Patrol.

And while bridges and overpasses were the first to ice over, by early evening, roads in general had become slick as well.

"From our understanding, it's pretty much everything," the dispatcher said.

Temperatures were forecast to continue to drop overnight Sunday and stay below freezing for the next few days, with snow expected to start sometime this evening.

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.