Crews still working to restore power

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- Utility crews are working today to restore power to the more than 500 homes and businesses still without electricity after the Christmas Day winter storm.

A State Department of Civil Emergency Management spokeswoman says all the customers still without power are in southeast Oklahoma.

Michelann Ooten says the customers are all members of rural electric cooperatives, whose utility poles and power lines were snapped by the freezing rain and ice.

The Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives estimates the storm has cost the rural co-ops between $35- and $50 million dollars. Officials say the federal government will reimburse the co-ops for most of the damage.