Search on for Stranded Drivers in Storm

Saturday, December 30th 2006, 5:00 pm

By: News On 6

DENVER (AP) _ A fleet of small planes canvassed snowed-out roads in southeastern Colorado searching for stranded travelers Sunday after the powerful winter storm that piled snowdrifts up to 10 feet high on the Eastern Plains.

Hundreds of motorists and others had already been rescued from the storm, which also buried the foothills west of Denver with more than 2 feet of snow. More than 650 people spent Saturday night in shelters around southern and eastern Colorado, state Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman Polly White said.

The storm that had once stretched nearly from Canada to Mexico was still spreading snow on Sunday from northern Minnesota to southern Kansas. One traffic death was blamed on the storm in Colorado and a tornado killed one person Friday in Texas.

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, who declared a statewide disaster emergency both for the latest storm and for the pre-Christmas blizzard a week earlier, flew over southeastern Colorado on Sunday.

``It's just completely covered with snow,'' Owens said during a phone interview from a state airplane. ``You can't see where certain state highways are, you can only tell because of the telephone poles.''

Northwest Kansas was blanketed with 15 to 30 inches, and drifts blew up to 15 feet high. Ice snapped tree limbs and power lines, leaving 20,000 homes and businesses without power. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius declared a disaster emergency.

``This is a very significant storm; it's in the record books,'' said Scott Blair, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The Oklahoma Panhandle measured up to 18 inches of snow, and major roads remained closed Sunday, officials said. About 5,000 customers of Tri-County Electric Cooperative customers were still without electricity.

``They don't have any reports of injuries or fatalities, however they haven't been able to get out to the outlying rural areas to check, but are now checking on the homes where they know there are elderly people or those with special needs,'' said Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

The Colorado Wing of the Civil Air Patrol planned to send a dozen small planes over the area to look for stranded vehicles, trapped motorists or stranded livestock, wing spokesman Steve Hamilton said.

``When you're spotting stranded vehicles, they're pretty easy to see from the air,'' he said.

The storm struck on Thursday, but by Sunday morning many roads in eastern Colorado were still closed, including eastbound Interstate 70 from Denver to Kansas and southbound Interstate 25 from Pueblo to New Mexico.

In Kansas, the storm closed all or portions of more than a dozen roads, and crews were working to clear the westbound lanes of Interstate 70, the state's main east-west corridor.

Once a stretch of road is cleared, snow drifts back over it, forcing crews to plow the road again, said Ron Kaufman, a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Transportation.

``Mother nature is in charge,'' he said. ``We can do what we can. We're trying.''

Al Butkus, spokesman for the utility Aquila Inc., said it could be a week before power is restored to all the utility's customers. in Colorado

``We've gotten 3 inches of ice on wires and connectors, and that ice stays there until it gets above freezing,'' Butkus said. ``And the temperatures aren't moving above freezing.''

Warmer weather is forecast this week.

The storm brought Denver to a virtual standstill and crimped holiday travel Thursday and Friday. The major carriers at Denver International Airport, which closed down for two days during a pre-Christmas storm, canceled about 20 percent of their scheduled flights on Thursday and Friday but were flying full or nearly full schedules Saturday.