4 Die in Missouri As Temperatures Plunge
Pastor Dale Morgan
4 Die in Missouri As Temperatures Plunge*
Monday December 4, 2006 3:46 AM
By BETSY TAYLOR
Associated Press Writer
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Frigid temperatures contributed to four deaths Sunday,
pushing the toll from a devastating ice and snow storm to 19 as hundreds
of thousands waited another day for their electricity to be restored.
As temperatures rose into the 20s, Tawana Jean Cooper and her family sat
at a Red Cross warming center in St. Louis, which they reached a day
earlier from her suburban home after roads were cleared of ice, downed
power lines and broken tree limbs.
Her three young grandchildren joined her at the shelter.
``They know this is not home. They know this is a disaster,'' Cooper
said as she cradled her sleeping 5-month-old granddaughter in her arms.
``The American Red Cross has been a God's blessing,'' she said. About
six dozen others also spent the night at the shelter.
Missouri National Guardsmen had been sent into the area to knock on
doors and make sure people were safe. By early afternoon Sunday, the St.
Louis temperature had reached only about 22 degrees, the National
Weather Service said.
Two men, ages 37 and 35, died after they tried to burn coal in a cooking
wok to stay warm. Fire officials found deadly levels of carbon monoxide
in their home. A 56-year-old man may have suffered hypothermia, and an
81-year-old man was found dead at the bottom of his home's stairs.
``This is not over. As long as the power is still out, there are still
people at risk,'' St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said.
Thursday's storm spread ice and deep snow from Texas to Michigan and
then blew through the Northeast late Friday and early Saturday.
Thousands of travelers were stranded by canceled flights, highways
clogged by abandoned vehicles and stalled trains.
By Sunday afternoon, about 350,000 customers of St. Louis-based Ameren
Corp. had no electricity in a roughly 300-mile swath from Jackson, Mo.,
northeast to Pontiac, Ill., paralleling the track of the storm.
Spokeswoman Susan Gallagher said about 200,000 were in Missouri and
about 150,000 in central and southern Illinois.
The utility said Sunday it would not estimate when power will be totally
restored.
Trees throughout the region were glazed with a thick coat of ice that
reflected the sunlight and also snapped tree limbs, bringing power lines
down with them.
``It's slow,'' said Ameren repairman Bernie Kutz, after completing a job
in south St. Louis. ``The tools are freezing somewhat, and nothing wants
to work right.''
At the peak of the outages Friday, 510,000 customers were without power,
Gallagher said. Hundreds of thousands also lost power in the other
states hit by the storm.
In Peoria, Ill., fire officials urged homeowners to check their roofs
after a nursing home ceiling collapsed, injuring four residents.
In Belleville, Ill., 20 miles east of St. Louis, most of the 100 cots at
Westhaven Elementary School had been in use as a Red Cross shelter since
noon Friday.
For much of the region, it was a reminder of the widespread outages
caused by severe thunderstorms in July, when 948,000 in Missouri and
Illinois were blacked out.
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Associated Press writers Ashley M. Heher in Chicago and Jim Suhr in St.
Louis contributed to this report.