Ice-Covered State Braces For Frigid Temperatures

Sunday, January 14th 2007, 1:06 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- An ice storm blamed for at least 15 deaths that blanketed the state with ice, sleet and snow pushed out of Oklahoma early Monday, but frigid temperatures remained across the state.

About 104,000 homes and business, mostly in eastern Oklahoma, remained without power Monday after heavy accumulations of ice snapped power lines and uprooted trees.

"The ice accumulation statewide has been anywhere from one-half inch to more than four inches of ice in some parts of eastern Oklahoma," said Sid Sperry, a spokesman for the Association of Electric Cooperatives, whose mostly rural members reported about 60,000 customers without power. "There are large limbs and even whole trees weighted down with ice that are toppling over and going through power lines."

The heaviest outages were reported in the McAlester area, where more than 14,000 homes were without power on Monday.

"Most all of the county is without power," said Pittsburg County Undersheriff Richard Sexton. "Emergency responders are having a hard time getting to residents where their services are needed because of trees and power lines in the road."

State highways 63 and 31 and U.S. Highway 69, all in Pittsburg County, were closed Monday due to high water and downed power lines, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation reported. State Highway 82 south of Red Oak in Latimer County and State Highway 10 near Tahlequah also were shut down Monday.

Other areas hardest hit with outages included Muskogee (9,956), Okmulgee (7,800) and Chouteau (5,493). More than 23,000 customers of Vinita-based Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative also remained without power Monday, Sperry said.

Late Sunday, President Bush approved Oklahoma's request for a federal emergency disaster declaration, which allows for federal reimbursement of 75 percent for emergency protective measures by local and state personnel.

Federal resources, including additional power generators and bottled water, were expected to start arriving Monday, said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. The supplies were to be sent to a staging area in McAlester and then redistributed to affected communities across eastern Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said 12 people died as a result of collisions on ice-slickened highways since the first round of storms pummeled the state on Friday. Seven people were killed before dawn on Sunday when the minivan they were riding in hit a slick spot on Interstate 40, crossed the median and slammed into an oncoming tractor-trailer. The names of the victims -- six men and one woman -- still had not been released Monday pending notification of next of kin.

Kevin Rowland, chief investigator for the Medical Examiner's Office, said the bodies of three people were found in Oklahoma City, Chickasha and Tulsa on Saturday, the apparent victims of hypothermia.

Temperatures remained below freezing across the state and were expected to drop into the teens and single digits overnight as another wave of Arctic air pushed into the state early Monday, said Ty Judd, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norman.

"We're going to drop below freezing every night this week," Judd said. "And we'll be below average on temperatures all the way through the weekend."

Freezing temperatures also were expected to refreeze slush and water on roads and highways, and ODOT officials strongly discouraged travel.

"Crews are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with some roadways becoming cleared but with patchy slick spots remaining," said ODOT spokeswoman Brenda Perry. "Motorists should remain cautious while driving and as night falls be wary of black ice, which is a thin layer of ice that appears as wet pavement."