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Deadly ice storm knocks out power to 500,000

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GrnMarvl14

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OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (AP) -- Roads were treacherous Monday from the Plains into parts of the Northeast as a storm spread a coating of ice and freezing rain that blacked out more than a half-million homes and businesses.

At least 13 traffic deaths were linked to icy roads.

Winter weather warnings and advisories were posted along a cold front that stretched from Texas to New Hampshire. The wintry weather was expected to continue through midweek.

The winter-like weather prompted a state of emergency for the entire state of Oklahoma, said Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Management. Fifty industrial generators and three truckloads of bottled water were to be shipped to blacked-out areas. Missouri had declared an emergency on Sunday and put the National Guard on alert.

Oklahoma utilities said some 400,000 customers were blacked out as power lines snapped under the weight of ice and falling tree branches, and utilities in Missouri said more than 100,000 homes and business had no power there. Roughly 11,000 were blacked out in southern Illinois.

The sound of branches snapping echoed through Oklahoma City neighborhoods.

"You can hear them falling everywhere," Lonnie Compton said Monday as he shoveled ice off his driveway.

Ice was as much as an inch thick on tree limbs and power lines in parts of Missouri.

Schools across Oklahoma were closed and some hospitals were relying on backup power generators.

Tulsa International Airport had no power and halted flight operations, and most morning flights at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City were canceled because of icy runways.

Greyhound Bus service was disrupted, stranding passengers, some of whom spent the night in a shelter in a church in downtown Tulsa. They were joined by some local residents who had no heat.

There was no way to estimate when power might be restored, said Oklahoma Gas & Electric spokesman Gil Broyles.

"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."

The Oklahoma City suburb of Jones, a town of 2,500 people, had very low water pressure because there was no electricity to run well pumps, and firefighters said an early morning fire destroyed most of the local high school.

The icy weather stretched into the Northeast, where many schools across upstate New York were closed or started late because of icy roads.

On ice-covered Interstate 40 west of Okemah, Oklahoma, four people died in "one huge cluster of an accident" that involved 11 vehicles, said Highway Patrol Trooper Betsey Randolph.

Eight other people also died on icy Oklahoma roads, and Missouri had one death on a slippery highway. In addition, a transient died of hypothermia in Oklahoma City, the state medical examiner's office said.
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And I'm...right in the middle of it all. The major electrical company in the area is calling it the worst storm in their company's history with 200,000 of their customers without power. The mayor of OKC is saying "the majority of people in the city are without power." And, good news and bad, we've got wind coming tomorrow (which means frozen limbs moving, possibly snapping), but the temperature's going to rise above freezing.

I've also heard that the University of Oklahoma (easily the biggest university in the state) is almost completely without power. Local news site with more detailed information (if anyone cares). We've also had a state of emergency declared for the entire state.

We had three brief (second or two long) power outages in the course of a couple of hours earlier. We even had thunder freezing rain with green lightning. May upload some pictures later. Don't have anything really amazing, though.
 
Freaky. D:
My power just went out about half an hour ago but only for like 30 seconds.
But the weather isn't nearly as bad here as what you described.
 
That's bad for those expecting finals in the coming week, that is, if they already haven't taken them. Ice Storms look cool after leaving streaks of glassy surfaces on everything, but it becomes a frozen hell to clean up :/
 
Yeah. It's Tuesday and pretty much every school is still closed (though a few are just opening late). But now (for us, at least) the temperature's above freezing and it's raining (an...above-freezing rain). The constant sound of limbs and ice chunks falling is...not...a fun sound. Noticed last night that the people across my street (up and down the street) are completely without power.

Attached some pictures of the ice. Was going to throw in one of the house behind mine, but the part of the tree that's leaning on the house is so big it just looks like it's a close tree.
 
:produces whistle noise: Yeah, those are some amazing ice pics there GrnMarvl.
 
That storm which struck you is just beginning to hit here in Southern Ontario. It's nowhere near as bad for us as for you though, just a pretty constant and heavy above-zero rain at the moment. I'd hate to see what it's like tomorrow though if this keeps up (which it's supposed to) and it freezes overnight (which it's not, but the Weather Network has been wrong often enough about that recently so we'll see).
 
Yeah, it's definitely not been fun for anyone it's hit so far. And it's DEFINITELY a storm people will remember (at least around here). Though, with any luck, the worst of the storm's gone for good and you guys (and anyone else hit) will just get a less-powerful version of it.
 
It's definitely much less powerful now. It stopped raining a while ago, and there's only a couple cm of snow expected tonight. Just an average snowfall really, even for outside the "snow belt".

I remember back in 1998 we had a horrible storm, the Quebec Ice Storm I think it's called, which was pretty similar to what you've just had. Power was out everywhere, and there were a couple of cm of ice everywhere, and trees were down all over the place. It's lucky that these types of winter storms don't happen all that often.
 
GrnMarvl13 said:
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And I'm...right in the middle of it all. The major electrical company in the area is calling it the worst storm in their company's history with 200,000 of their customers without power. The mayor of OKC is saying "the majority of people in the city are without power." And, good news and bad, we've got wind coming tomorrow (which means frozen limbs moving, possibly snapping), but the temperature's going to rise above freezing.

I've also heard that the University of Oklahoma (easily the biggest university in the state) is almost completely without power. Local news site with more detailed information (if anyone cares). We've also had a state of emergency declared for the entire state.

We had three brief (second or two long) power outages in the course of a couple of hours earlier. We even had thunder freezing rain with green lightning. May upload some pictures later. Don't have anything really amazing, though.
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buddy last year in the mid-west a storm hit and knocked out like 700,000 without power and it was way badder then your lil winds and ice dude so don't give me that stuff.
 
What's up with all these power outages and blizzards? They happen like every year. They're getting to be the rule, not the exception.
 
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