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Hutchinson residents need to stay off the streets.
Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson made the plea Saturday morning, saying stuck vehicles are making it hard for emergency vehicles to maneuver around.
Reno County Emergency Management Director Bill Guy says it will take more than a day for crews to make Hutchinson streets and Reno County roads passable for the average motorist.
He too is urging residents to stay home.
“Some people are venturing out and getting stuck and blocking streets, which slows down our street crews and our emergency crews,” he said. “It is slowing everything down. There is no reason to be out in this unless it is a dire emergency.”
As of about 8 a.m. Saturday, Hutchinson had received between 15 and 18 inches of snow, with drifts more than two feet deep, said Jerilyn Billings, National Weather Service meteorologist in Wichita.
Ambulances and police were having a tough time with the snow, Guy said.
“They are trying their best, but ambulances are getting stuck and some of our law enforcement out there is getting stuck,” he said.
And while city and county street crews were out clearing roads, they also were having some trouble.
“They are running into huge drifts in the roads, and that is hindering them a little,” Guy said.
The situation gets worse out in the county where crews are working to reach stranded motorists, Guy said.
And while Hutchinson did not experience any power outages that he is aware of, Guy said about 400 are without power in Pretty Prairie.
The National Weather Service says the biggest snow amounts fell across a large swath of southwest and central Kansas, with areas around Pratt reporting 28 inches.
Other areas reported snow drifts of up to six feet.
South-central and eastern Kansas was dealing with freezing rain with some areas reporting up to an inch of ice forming on power lines and trees. The Kansas Adjutant General's Office said 17,000 people are without power, more than half of those in Sedgwick County.
Nine counties have issued disaster declarations and said they may need state help to cope with the storm.
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