Winter blast causes fatal conditions from Plains to Northeast
Cheyenne Williams naps in the basement of the First Baptist Church which is functioning as the Red Cross shelter for Tulsa, Okla., during an ice storm Sunday. Williams and her grandmother are waiting for a bus to Joliet, Ill. The Associated Press
January 16, 2007
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – A storm blamed for at least 41 deaths in six states spread into the Northeast on Monday, coating trees, power lines and roads with a shell of ice up to a half-inch thick and knocking out power to more than half a million homes and businesses.
Icy roads cut into Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observances from Albany, N.Y., to Fort Worth and Austin, Texas, where officials also canceled Gov. Rick Perry’s inauguration parade Tuesday because another round of ice was expected overnight.
The weight of the ice snapped tree limbs and took down power lines, knocking out electricity to about 145,000 customers in New York state and New Hampshire.
Even in Maine, a state well-accustomed to winter weather, a layer of sleet and snow on roads shut down businesses, day care centers and schools.
In hard-hit Missouri, the utility company Ameren said it would probably not have everyone’s lights back on until Wednesday night. Overnight temperatures were expected to drop into the single digits. As of Monday afternoon, about 312,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
Missouri National Guardsmen went door to door, checking on residents, and helped clear slick roads.
About 100,000 homes and businesses blacked out in Oklahoma, some of them since the storm’s first wave struck on Friday, also were still waiting for power Monday. Ice built up by sleet and freezing rain was 4 inches thick in places.
“Emergency responders are having a hard time getting to residents where their services are needed because of trees and power lines in the road,” said Pittsburg County, Okla., Undersheriff Richard Sexton.
The Army Corps of Engineers dispatched soldiers from Tulsa to deliver 100 emergency generators to the McAlester area. Fifty additional generators were being sent from Fort Worth, Texas, by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
About 106,000 customers were without electricity Monday in Michigan.
More than 160 flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Authorities closed University of Texas and Austin public schools Tuesday.
Before dawn Monday, a car slid into the path of a dump truck on an icy New York highway in Sennett, 20 miles west of Syracuse, killing the car’s driver and two passengers.
