Round Three Of Winter Weather Pushes Through Oklahoma Sunday

Thousands of Oklahomans are without power this morning because of a winter storm that has blanketed the state with freezing rain and ice. <br/><br/>Authorities say at least 117,000 electrical customers

Sunday, January 14th 2007, 7:43 am

By: News On 6

Thousands of Oklahomans are without power this morning because of a winter storm that has blanketed the state with freezing rain and ice.

Authorities say at least 117,000 electrical customers are without power. Most of those customers are southeast and northeast Oklahoma where ice-covered tree limbs have crashed through power lines.

PSO is reporting 24,000 customers are without power in McAlester, Checotah, Grove and Broken Arrow. OG&E says it has 18,250 customers without power. Most of those customers are in Muskogee, Porum and Warner.

Several eastern Oklahoma electric cooperatives also are reporting outages. In all, 53,000 customers are without service. Those utilities include NorthEast Oklahoma Electric, Lake Region Electric, East Central Electric and Kiamichi Electric.

More wintry weather is forecast for Oklahoma Sunday, with sleet, snow and freezing rain likely. The National Weather Service says an ice storm warning is in effect through Monday for southwestern, central and eastern Oklahoma.

A winter storm warning is in effect through Sunday evening for the Oklahoma Panhandle and northwestern Oklahoma and a flash flood watch is in effect through late Sunday night for southeastern Oklahoma.

There is also a warning this morning for some people in Craig County. People who live in Vinita, White Oak, Big Cabin and Centralia are being asked to cut-back on their water usage. Pump problems are causing a shortage there. There's no word on what's led to the problems.

The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management says it's working with other state agencies to deliver generators to McAlester, Checotah and Calvin in southeastern Oklahoma to keep water treatment plants online due to power outages.