Much of America's centre was in the icy grip of a deep freeze today that has been blamed for the deaths of at least 18 people and left more than 600,000 homes and businesses without power.
Trees snapped, flights were canceled and roads closed as the National Weather Service posted ice and winter storm warnings today for parts of the five states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.
The waves of frozen rain left at least 18 dead in Oklahoma and Missouri, with 15 of them killed on slick highways. Officials in Kansas and Oklahoma declared states of emergency.
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Cold snap: A truck battles its way through trees felled by ice in eastern Oklahoma
Icy web: Emergency services were attending a fire at a school that could not be put out because of power outages
About an inch of ice was expected over parts of Iowa, followed by up to 5 inches of sleet and snow. "It's a pretty good ice-maker," said Frank Boksa, a weather service forecaster.
Rain that started falling last night was causing slushy conditions in the Kansas City metro area and farther south, where temperatures hovered around freezing.
"The predictions were pretty grim, and they're still not good at all," said Noelle Runyan, a weather service meteorologist. She warned that with ice of more than half an inch (1.25 centimetres) accumulating, power lines could come down across a wide area.
At Kansas City International Airport, most incoming flights scheduled after 8 p.m. Monday (0200 GMT today) were canceled, as were a few dozen departures.
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A fireman walks among the ice and rubble at the burned school in Oklahoma
Dinner: An Oklahoma man grills some chicken for his family after the Oklahoma power outages
Westar Energy, Kansas' largest electrical provider, said outages started spiking as temperatures dropped after 10 p.m. Monday (0400 GMT today). Some 25,000 were without power.
Spokeswoman Gina Penzig said the company was prepared for the worst, calling in hundreds of line workers from states like Colorado and Nebraska - farther away than the utility normally goes to get additional help.
Oklahoma utilities said Monday that 500,000 customers were blacked out as power lines snapped under the weight of ice and falling trees - the biggest power outage in state history. Utilities in Missouri had more than 100,000 homes and business without power.
"This is a big one. We've got a massive situation here and it's probably going to be a week to 10 days before we get power on to everybody," said Ed Bettinger, a spokesman for Public Service Company. "It looks like a war zone."
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No through way: Power lines and trees are dragged down over an Oklahoma road under the weight of the ice
Schools across Oklahoma were closed and some hospitals were relying on backup power generators. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers sent 50 generators and three truckloads of bottled water from Texas to distribute to blacked-out areas of Oklahoma.
Tulsa International Airport had no power for about 10 hours and halted flight operations for the day, and most morning flights at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City were canceled because of icy runways. Greyhound bus passengers were stranded overnight at a shelter in a church in Tulsa, and were joined by some local residents who had no heat.
Parts of two major roads were shut early yesterday afternoon in Oklahoma City after ice-laden power lines collapsed and fell into the roadways.
The sound of branches snapping under the weight of ice echoed through Oklahoma City neighborhoods. "You can hear them falling everywhere," Lonnie Compton said Monday as he shoveled ice off his driveway. A large elm tree in his front yard had crashed onto his wife's sport utility vehicle. At O'Hare International Airport, about 200 flights were canceled by late yesterday, with delays of up to 45 minutes, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Karen Pride. Fewer than a dozen flights were canceled at Midway Airport, and a handful of flights were delayed for up to an hour, she said.
'This is a big one': US Midwest braces for ice storm that has already killed up to 18 | the Daily Mail
US Midwest braces for ice storm that has already killed up to 18
,yes it is yuck !
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