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Central U.S. braces for more ice, snow

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 19, 2007

DALLAS - Areas of the central United States still cleaning up downed trees and restoring power after recent snow and ice storms scrambled to stock up on sand and de-icing chemicals Thursday as another cold blast approached.

Much of Oklahoma and parts of Missouri were forecast to get 6 inches of snow today to Sunday, even as utilities in those states worked to restore electricity to more than 170,000 customers who lost it in the last storm.

In Texas, the wintry weather due today was expected to be less severe than the pelting of snow and freezing rain that paralyzed much of the state this week and left San Antonio, Austin and Houston with icy conditions rarely seen there.

Those cities were expected to avoid the worst of the incoming storm, but to the west in El Paso, officials prepared for bad weather by announcing county offices would be closed today. Freezing weather also was expected in northern parts of the state, including Dallas.

Sand and de-icing chemicals used on roads will be rationed in West Texas this weekend. In other parts of the state, bridges and overpasses will probably get the highest priority, but icy roads that would normally get treatment might not if supplies are in question, officials said.

At least 70 deaths related to winter weather have been reported in nine states in the past week, including 23 in Oklahoma and 12 each in Texas and Missouri.

Texas airports largely grounded by freezing rain earlier this week resumed mostly normal schedules Thursday. Formerly ice-slicked roads also reopened, including a 300-mile stretch of Interstate 10 from Fort Stockton to San Antonio that had been shut down since Tuesday.

In Oklahoma, Gov. Brad Henry requested a federal disaster declaration, which would make people in hard-hit counties eligible for housing grants and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses.

Ice snapped hundreds of power poles and transmission lines in eastern Oklahoma; more than 63,000 people remained without power Thursday, six days after freezing rain began to fall and more than 1,000 people remained in shelters.

In Missouri, more than 108,000 homes and businesses were still without power Thursday.

Along with the fatalities in Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri, the storms were blamed for eight deaths in Iowa, four each in New York and Michigan, three in Arkansas, two in North Carolina and one each in Maine and Indiana.

[Last modified January 19, 2007, 01:27:15]