Lights coming back on in Arkansas; East digs out

Sunday, December 31st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ As the lights slowly came back on in thousands of Arkansas homes, Gov. Mike Huckabee, who himself had lost power after a Christmas Day ice storm, urged residents to be patient.

About 46,000 Arkansas homes and businesses remained without electricity on New Year's Eve. At its peak, the storm had knocked out power to about 315,000 Arkansas customers.

On Sunday, the number of people in northeast Texas still without power stood at about 7,400 _ down from more than 23,000 customers on Friday. Texarkana has the bulk of those affected by the outage with nearly 7,000 residents.

Americans Airlines said it canceled 120 flights in and out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Sunday night due to the snow, but expected operations to return to normal on Monday.

The East was also dealing with its own holiday mess.

A powerful snow storm dumped more than 2 feet of snow Saturday on New Jersey, closed every major airport in the New York City area for much of the day and forced Philadelphia to declare a snow emergency.

Officials at Newark International Airport on Sunday evening said planes were moving in and out without problems. Most trains were reported running with minimal delays.

Jennifer Roe, 27, a high school math teacher in suburban Houston who was in New York City for the holidays, said she was considering renting a car and driving to Texas after a Sunday morning in which she tried to get on about a half-dozen planes as a standby passenger.

``I have a job, and people depend on me,'' Roe said after she heard there might not be room for her on a flight until Wednesday _ the day students are scheduled to return to school in her district.

Allen Morrison, a Port Authority spokesman, said the agency provided 200 cots and 500 blankets to stranded passengers at La Guardia International Airport's main terminal ``and they were all put to good use.''

Back in Arkansas, Huckabee told state legislators in a conference call that he believed the storm was the worst in state history. ``A lot of folks are under an extreme amount of stress,'' he said. ``Tempers are frayed and people are angry after going without electricity for a week.''

Snow fell in most of the state Sunday as thousands spent a seventh day in the bitter cold without power. Many in the hardest hit parts of the state also were without running water because water plants didn't have electricity.

``The big problem is that the storm affected major electric transmission lines. It has destroyed the infrastructure of the state's distribution system,'' Huckabee said.

Sheila Yount, spokeswoman for Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, said workers were struggling to repair damage in remote areas. ``One of our cooperatives had 2,000 poles broken by the storm,'' she said. ``It has caused extensive damage to our system.''

Last week, President Clinton issued an emergency declaration for 52 counties, making aid available to local governments. He also declared 22 counties disaster areas, making financial help available to property owners.