Winter weather to linger over Oklahoma

The system hit the Oklahoma Panhandle the hardest, dumping as much as 7 inches of snow in Cimarron County by Tuesday evening, Mary Anne Burdo of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said. There were no immediate reports of fatalities with the storm.

There were several traffic accidents on slick roads in the Oklahoma City area Wednesday, but no serious injuries were reported. Schools remained open.

To the south and east, snowfall amounts were lighter because of warmer temperatures.

Oklahoma has been battling winter weather since November. The toughest blow came Christmas Day, when an ice storm coated roads, trees and power lines in southern Oklahoma.

Sixty customers of the Kiamichi Electric Cooperative still had no power on Tuesday, more than three weeks after the storm, which was blamed for 26 deaths in Oklahoma.

The active winter has left the state and its largest city scrambling for money to cover road-clearing efforts for the rest of the winter.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation budgeted about $6 million for the entire winter. But with two major winter storms in December, all but about $100,000 has been spent, the agency said Tuesday.

Oklahoma City officials promised to send 15 trucks, if needed, in a more concentrated effort to keep four major roads open.

Karen Farney, the city's director of public information, said road crews first will concentrate on Reno Avenue, an east-west route, as well as north-south routes Eastern-Martin Luther King Avenue, May Avenue and the Western Avenue- Classen Boulevard.

After those are handled, city crews will turn their attention to other main streets, moving from urban areas into more rural ones.

Recent storms have eaten up much of the city's supply of salt, sand and overtime hours, not to mention the public's good will.

Officials say they have done the best possible job of clearing city streets in a situation where three major storms have hit the city in as many weeks, but they also admitted that their snow-removal plan needs to be re-evaluated.

"This past storm was a very difficult storm to manage because it was continual," Farney said.

Forecasters said a mixture of light snow and light rain or drizzle was possible through Thursday.