Ice Storm Paralyzes Arkansas, Oklahoma

L I T T L E   R O C K, Ark., Dec. 27, 2000 -- A deadly storm of ice and snow assaulted themid-southern United States today, paralyzing Arkansasand Oklahoma with widespread power outages and dangerous,ice-coated roadways.

“It’s really the equivalent of having a nuclear device gooff, without the mushroom cloud or radioactivity,” Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabeetold reporters by cellular telephone. “Virtuallyeverything is shut down. We have 11 or 12 counties where everysingle person has lost power, phone service and water.”

At least 562,000 people had no electricity as a coating ofice up to 2 inches thick toppled trees and snappedpower lines from New Mexico to Arkansas.

Police said 16 people had died in weather-related accidentssince the storm started in New Mexico on Christmas Day. As thesystem moved east, it dumped a record 20 inches of snow onnorthern Texas.

Arkansas, still recovering from a fierce ice storm twoweeks ago, appeared hardest hit, with highways closed aroundthe state and 300,000 people left without power. In westernArkansas, newspaper offices closed down for the first time intheir history and despite its pledge to defy sleet, snow anddark of night, the U.S. Postal Service suspended maildelivery.

Even the Governor Is Cut OffThe devastation in Arkansas was so widespread that Huckabee used his authority as governor to dispatch National Guard troops in all-terrainHumvees to search for people stuck in frozen buildings anddisabled vehicles. Huckabee shut down state governmentWednesday, extending a state holiday, and asked for federal help torestore electricity.

Even the lights and telephone were out at the triplewide mobilehome that serves as the state’s temporary Governor’s Mansion.

“The people of Arkansas are being typically resilient andneighborly during the most trying times we’ve ever faced,”Huckabee said. “Let us all pray for warmer weather and for thesafety of those who must travel and work in these very tryingconditions.”

Brigades of chainsaw-wielding civilians cleared trees fromstreets and houses, while many of the displaced headed formakeshift shelters.

Too Cold to Stay, No Way to Leave“The temperature in the house is 50 and dropping, so it’sgetting to the point where it’s going to be too cold to stayhere,” said Pat O’Connor, stuck along with his family in Little Rock.“But if we can’t get anywhere on the streets, then who knows whatwe’ll do.”

In Sallisaw, Okla., Opal Harbeston walked 3 miles to ashelter after her power went out Tuesday. The 62-year-old describedherself as a tough “country girl.”

“Normally I don’t walk anywhere,” she said as the shelterprepared to serve breakfast Wednesday. “I knew where I could finda nice warm place to stay. It’s just like one big happy family.”

The Little Rock airport reopened this afternoon after beingshut down since Monday. At Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City,Jim Williams and his wife, Kimberly, were 80th in line at the TWAcounter.

“I’d take Alaska Airlines at this point just to get ussomewhere but here,” Williams said.

Hundreds of flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.Amarillo International Airport closed Tuesday afternoon afternumerous cancellations.

‘Stay Out of Oklahoma’

While Arkansas’ state government closed down for thesecond time in two weeks because of ice, Oklahoma reopened itsstate offices. Nonetheless, officials warned residents to stayoff treacherous roads that had already claimed three lives.

“Tell everyone to stay out of Oklahoma. We have poweroutages throughout the state, we have crashes everywhere,”state trooper Brett Wallace told Reuters.

In Tulsa, Okla., city officials put out a plea for moresand and salt to pour on icy roads as supplies are running short.

Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the state’s emergencymanagement department, said authorities were shipping water toseveral towns in southeastern Oklahoma because power outageshad knocked out local electricity-driven water systems.

Worst May Have PassedWeather forecasters said the worst of the storm had movedeast and turned to rain over Alabama and Mississippi, but thatpockets of wintry precipitation persisted in parts of Texas andwere expected to move later into Oklahoma and Arkansas.

As the ice and snow tapered off, utility companies saidthey were pouring thousands of workers into the region torestore electricity.

Airports in the region were shut down during one of thebusiest holiday travel periods of the year. American Airlines,which had canceled 738 flights Tuesday at its hub inDallas-Fort Worth Airport, said another 73 were groundedtoday.

Weather Services Corp. forecaster Wayne Barnes cautiouslypredicted milder conditions after the first week of the newyear, saying a pocket of warmer air in western Canada couldedge across the continent.

But Arctic air kept the Midwest in the deep freeze, withlow temperatures in the single digits Fahrenheit, while up to afoot of snow was dumped on Great Lakes communitiesfrom Michigan to New York.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.