Oklahoma braces for another round of winter weather

Oklahomans braced for a new round of winter weather Tuesday as utility crews rushed to reconnect dozens of homes and businesses still without electrical power and telephones following a Christmas Day ice storm that ravaged the southeastern corner of the state.

A winter storm that moved into the Oklahoma Panhandle Monday night was expected to dump up to 6 inches of snow in the far western Panhandle and northwest Oklahoma, but forecasters said it would not pack the same wallop as the ice storm that disrupted power to 170,000 Oklahomans.

"This is not near as significant of a storm as that one was,"

said Todd Lindley, a student meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norman. "We've had some isolated sleet showers, but a lot of the precipitation isn't really making it to the ground."

Weather service meteorologist Ken Gallant said precipitation in southeastern Oklahoma will be mostly rain.

"It doesn't look like we'll see the ice situation we've had,"

Gallant said.

Predictions that the snow storm would deposit measurable precipitation across the state were downgraded Tuesday morning. A winter storm warning for northwest Oklahoma was reduced to a winter weather advisory, and advisories for the north central part of the state were dropped.

"Most of the snowfall today has been across the northwest Texas Panhandle and northwest Oklahoma," Lindley said. He said dry air sweeping over the northern and central part of the state will limit snowfall although some frozen precipitation was possible by Wednesday morning.

A total of 60 homes and businesses were still without power in southeastern Oklahoma Tuesday more than three weeks after the ice storm struck, said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Civil Emergency Management. All of the remaining outages are customers of Kiamichi Electric Cooperative, Ooten said.

In addition, 650 homes and businesses in the southeastern corner of the state are still without telephone service, she said.

President Clinton declared 39 of Oklahoma's 77 counties major disaster areas due to widespread power outages. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said the first disaster housing assistance checks have already been mailed to some of the victims of the storms.

"We've issued 149 checks for disaster housing payments, totaling $118,409," said C. Michael Butler, FEMA's federal coordinating officer. "They're in the mail, and may have already been received."

Butler said other checks will be mailed out to those eligible for disaster assistance under federal and state programs.

"Those victims who have already paid for expenses, such as home repairs and temporary accommodations, may be reimbursed with paid receipts," said State Coordinating Officer Fred Liebe.

FEMA and state officials opened a disaster recovery center in Ada Tuesday and will open another in Wilburton on Thursday. Four other centers were already operating in Eufaula, McAlester, Idabel and Poteau.

Representatives of state, federal and other agencies are available at the centers to answer questions about assistant available under the presidential disaster declaration.

U.S. Forest Service officials said they are still assessing damage to the Ouachita National Forest in southeast Oklahoma, where downed timber, leaning and hanging trees and loose tree limbs have closed trails and recreation sites.

Forest Supervisor Alan Newman said local trail users have offered to help clear the trails, but officials do not want to expose volunteers to the dangerous conditions.

Contracts are being prepared to begin the cleanup but it is not known how long it will take to fully restore hiking trails and other facilities.

Meanwhile, the latest winter storm may bust the state Transportation Department's budget for snow and ice removal.

The agency 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.

Gallant said a winter mix of rain, sleet and snow is in Friday's forecast. But the department said it is prepared to adjust priorities and "face whatever the weather brings."

"We are prepared for this," said Terri Angier, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation. "But it is a concern that we don't get too many more of these type storms."

The bulk of the agency's removal costs, $5.6 million, came in December. That's more than double the amount spent last winter.