Oklahoma Prepares For Another Winter Blast

Wednesday, January 17th 2007, 3:57 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- The number of customers without electric power dropped by about 18,000 Wednesday, but 74,000 thousand others still were waiting for the lights to come on again as Oklahoma braced for another major winter storm.

Governor Brad Henry visited three towns hit hard by last weekend's storm. During a stop in McAlester, he said it looked like bombs had exploded throughout the town of 18-thousand.

More than 10,800 customers in McAlester remained without power Wednesday, although that number had dropped from 14,000 a day earlier.

Henry also made unscheduled visits to emergency workers in Muskogee and Eufaula. Muskogee still has almost 9,300 customers without power.

The ice storm has been blamed for at least 23 deaths statewide, most from motor vehicle accidents.

Forecasters say another storm will bring up to eight inches snow and other winter precipitation to the state, starting by late Friday and continuing through early Sunday.