Thousands Still Without Power In Eastern Oklahoma

Thousands still without power in eastern Oklahoma<br/><br/>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A second winter storm that pushed into Oklahoma over the weekend spared much of the state from heavy snow, but thousands

Sunday, January 21st 2007, 5:56 am

By: News On 6

Thousands still without power in eastern Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A second winter storm that pushed into Oklahoma over the weekend spared much of the state from heavy snow, but thousands of residents remained without power Sunday from last week's ice storm that ravaged the eastern part of the state.

About 25,000 homes and businesses in eastern Oklahoma were without power Sunday, but utility crews were continuing to work around the clock.

"We're coming down to what we expect to be very near the end of the restoration process," said Stan Whiteford, a spokesman for Public Service Company of Oklahoma, which reported about 4,000 customers without power, mostly in the McAlester area. "We think we're going to be pretty close to wrapping things up."

Authorities in Pittsburg and McIntosh counties implemented a nighttime curfew following reports of break-ins and the theft of generators powering railroad crossing guards.

The curfew is from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. in Pittsburg County and from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. in McIntosh County.

Twenty-six deaths have been attributed to the storm since wintry weather first inundated the state on January 12, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Highway collisions took 16 lives, 7 people died of hypothermia, 2 from smoke inhalation and 1 due to a fall.

Troopers report a total of 495 collisions on Oklahoma roads since January 12, and 3,073 people have been treated at Oklahoma hospitals for various injuries related to the weather, according to the Oklahoma Department of Health.

Oklahoma Gas & Electric, the state's largest electric utility, reported about 3,700 customers were without power Sunday, mostly in Muskogee. Officials there worked Sunday hooking up generators to all of the county's water plants, said Eugene Blankenship, the county's emergency management director.

About 6,000 meals a day were being provided at 13 sites across the county, and temporary shelters remained open in Warner and Muskogee, Blankenship said.

Since January 14, The Salvation Army has served more than 11,500 meals to residents of northeastern Oklahoma.

Saturday's winter storm blanketed much of north-central, western and northwest Oklahoma with up to eight inches of snow, but the rest of the state received mostly rain and some sleet.

The rain in eastern Oklahoma melted away much of the ice that blanketed trees and power lines, but caused a muddy situation for some of the crews working to restore power.

"Not all the work takes place on nice city streets," Whiteford said. "They have to get back in some pretty rough areas, and there's a lot of mud and muck to deal with.

"We had a couple of trucks get stuck."

In Woodward County, which received eight inches of snow on Saturday, some county roads and side streets remained impassable Sunday, but most of the highways and major roads were in good condition, said Matt Lehenbauer, the county's director of emergency management.

"This time we didn't get the freezing rain, and that obviously was our big concern," Lehenbauer said. "This time around, no power outages and no major problems."

Meanwhile, most of the state should have an opportunity to thaw out this week as temperatures return to daytime highs in the 40s and 50s, said Kevin Brown, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norman.

Two cold fronts are expected, one on Wednesday and another next weekend that could drop temperatures into the 30s, but no precipitation is forecast until next weekend, Brown said.