school, other delays
ALTUS - The brunt of the freeziing rain and ice storm that hit the state this weekend was east of Altus.
Altus City Superintendent of Electric, Dan Scott, said that Sunday storms did cause brief power outages across the city, but power was restored almost immediately in most areas.
Around 9 p.m. lightning blew the lid off a transformer at Bradford causing a 3-hour power outage for seven customers. About the same time trees fell into a primary on Willard caused a brief outage.
“A couple of trees iced up about 1:15 a.m. this morning and moved into the primary at Blain causing a fuse to blow,” Scott said.
Although Altus Schools delayed the start of school by one hour this morning and Altus Air Force Base allowed a delay for all non-essential personnel, Police Chief Mike Patterson said there weren't any major problems or accidents as of this morning within the city limits. An Altus woman, Aruna Patel, died after an early-morning accident Sunday east of town that was caused when another driver hit a patch of ice and lost control of their vehicle.
Elsewhere across the state, power was out to more than 300,000 homes and businesses, disrupting flight operations and leading to traffic accidents that killed 12 people.
Freezing conditions also led to the hypothermia death of a 46-year-old Oklahoma City transient, the state medical examiner's office said.
Most of the outages were in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa areas. Schools across the state were closed. Ice-laden trees crashed into homes and power lines.
Most morning flights at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City were canceled. Only one of the airport's three runways was operational. The other two were iced over.
Freezing conditions hampered crews who were battling a fire at Jones High School. Nobody was injured in the early morning blaze, but firefighters said most of the school would be destroyed.
On Interstate 40 west of Okemah there was “one huge cluster of an accident” involving 11 vehicles, including a tractor-trailer rig, that killed four people, Sunday evening, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph said. All 11 vehi- cles burned.
Authorities were on the scene Monday morning of a crash in Tulsa in which a man's car struck a power pole and he was electrocuted, said Kevin Rowland, chief investigator for the state medical examiner's office.
Other fatality accidents were reported in Tulsa, Canadian and Tillman counties and two people died in separate accidents in both Oklahoma and Beckham counties. Troopers had worked at least 100 traffic collisions since Saturday night.
“With precipitation falling throughout the day, we're discouraging travel statewide,” Randolph said. “If you have to get out, we want you to go slow. All the roadways throughout the state are going to be slick in spots.”
Oklahoma Gas & Electric, the state's largest utility, reported nearly 140,000 outages Monday morning, mostly in the Oklahoma City area, while Public Service Company of Oklahoma reported more than 140,000 outages in northeastern Oklahoma, including Tulsa.
Other, smaller power providers also reported outages, including Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives, which was reporting 25,000 outages.
“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.”
Another round of ice was expected to move northward across the state and continue dropping freezing rain throughout the day Monday.
“There's actually more that's developing this (Monday) morning southwest of Oklahoma City,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Scott Curl in Norman.
“The storm system is still hanging off the southwestern part of the U.S. and will work its way slowly east the next 48 hours,” Curl said.
Curl said temperatures should begin warming above freezing by Tuesday afternoon, although rain was expected to continue in the state through Wednesday.
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