Ice-glazed Texas shivers, as winter storm's death toll rises to 60
Pastor Dale Morgan
Ice-glazed Texas shivers, as winter storm's death toll rises to 60*
Updated 1/17/2007 6:24 PM ET
By Michelle Roberts, Associated Press Writer
SAN ANTONIO — An icy storm blamed for at least 60 deaths in nine states
spread snow and freezing rain across Texas all the way to the Mexican
border Wednesday, closing the Alamo, glazing freeways and immobilizing
communities unaccustomed to such cold.
Accumulations were light by many regions' standards — the Dallas area
topped out at 3 inches of snow — but hundreds of airline flights were
canceled, tens of thousands of electricity customers lost power and a
300-mile stretch of Interstate 10, a major east-west highway that cuts
through the state, was closed overnight.
Marc and Courtney Unger, visiting San Antonio with their 3- and
7-year-old boys from Tallahassee, Fla., found most of their plans
wrecked by the cold weather and closed attractions.
Instead of visiting the Alamo, the Children's Museum or Sea World, the
boys amused themselves knocking icicles off signs and benches.
"We're very disappointed it didn't go those few extra degrees colder for
snow," Unger said, laughing.
Across the country, storms since Friday have cut off what had been an
unseasonably mild winter in many areas. Six deaths were blamed on the
storm in Texas.
In Oklahoma, the ice storm was blamed for at least 23 deaths, most from
auto accidents, and about 78,000 utility customers in eastern Oklahoma
remained without power.
In the mountains north of Los Angeles, a sudden snowstorm brought
traffic to a halt on busy Interstate 5. Snow mixed with hail also fell
at lower elevations of northern Los Angeles County, leaving some
neighborhoods with rare coatings of white.
California already had been suffering from an unusual cold snap that
threatened many of its winter crops and wiped out a most of its citrus.
In Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, roads were largely empty Wednesday
morning. Motorists unaccustomed to driving on ice took the day off after
waking up to light snow, trees sagging with ice and icicle-draped cars.
Many schools closed for the day or opened late.
Freezing rain and sleet were reported in Laredo and other communities
along the Mexican border.
Tree limbs laden with ice snapped and brought down electrical lines in
the San Antonio area, where as many 41,000 customers lost power overnight.
More than 200 flights out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport,
San Antonio and Houston were canceled as officials worked to de-ice runways.
About 50 motorists were stranded at a convention center in Ozona. The
jailhouse lent blankets and pillows to the emergency shelter.
"They have air mattresses and cots for everybody — and pizza and
doughnuts," said Joe Stokhaug, at the shelter with his pregnant wife.
In addition to the fatalities in Oklahoma and Texas, the storm was
blamed for nine deaths in Missouri, eight in Iowa, four each in New York
and Michigan, three in Arkansas and one each in Maine and Indiana.
Contributing: Associated Press writers Justin Juozapavicius in
McAlester, Okla., Liz Austin Peterson in Austin, Rasha Madkour in
Houston and Terry Wallace in Dallas contributed to this report.