CelticKing
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Ice storm consumes Plains, Midwest; 18 killed</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p>
DES MOINES, Iowa - Much of the nation’s midsection was in the icy grip Tuesday of a tree-snapping, flight-canceling, roadway-closing deep freeze that spread from the frozen Plains.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">The National Weather Service posted ice and winter storm warnings Tuesday for parts of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">About an inch of ice was expected over parts of Iowa, followed by up to 5 inches of sleet and snow. “It’s a pretty good ice-maker,” said Frank Boksa, a weather service forecaster.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">The waves of frozen rain left at least 18 dead in Oklahoma and Missouri, with 15 of them killed on slick highways. Officials in Kansas and Oklahoma declared states of emergency.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">Rain that started falling Monday evening was causing slushy conditions in the Kansas City metro area and farther south, where temperatures hovered around freezing.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">“The predictions were pretty grim, and they’re still not good at all,” said Noelle Runyan, a weather service meteorologist. “With ice accumulations of more than half an inch, that could easily cause limbs to break, power lines to come down. It’s going to be across a fairly wide area.”</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">At Kansas City International Airport, most incoming flights scheduled after 8 p.m. Monday were canceled, as were a few dozen departures.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">Hundreds of thousands without power
Westar Energy, Kansas’ largest electrical provider, said outages started spiking as temperatures dropped after 10 p.m. Monday. Some 25,000 were without power.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">Spokeswoman Gina Penzig said the company was prepared for the worst, calling in hundreds of line workers from states like Colorado and Nebraska — farther away than the utility normally goes to get additional help.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">Oklahoma utilities said Monday that 500,000 customers were blacked out as power lines snapped under the weight of ice and falling trees — the biggest power outage in state history. Utilities in Missouri had more than 100,000 homes and business without power.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">“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.”</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">Schools across Oklahoma were closed and some hospitals were relying on backup power generators. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers sent 50 generators and three truckloads of bottled water from Texas to distribute to blacked-out areas of Oklahoma.</div></p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p>
DES MOINES, Iowa - Much of the nation’s midsection was in the icy grip Tuesday of a tree-snapping, flight-canceling, roadway-closing deep freeze that spread from the frozen Plains.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">The National Weather Service posted ice and winter storm warnings Tuesday for parts of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">About an inch of ice was expected over parts of Iowa, followed by up to 5 inches of sleet and snow. “It’s a pretty good ice-maker,” said Frank Boksa, a weather service forecaster.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">The waves of frozen rain left at least 18 dead in Oklahoma and Missouri, with 15 of them killed on slick highways. Officials in Kansas and Oklahoma declared states of emergency.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">Rain that started falling Monday evening was causing slushy conditions in the Kansas City metro area and farther south, where temperatures hovered around freezing.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">“The predictions were pretty grim, and they’re still not good at all,” said Noelle Runyan, a weather service meteorologist. “With ice accumulations of more than half an inch, that could easily cause limbs to break, power lines to come down. It’s going to be across a fairly wide area.”</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">At Kansas City International Airport, most incoming flights scheduled after 8 p.m. Monday were canceled, as were a few dozen departures.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">Hundreds of thousands without power
Westar Energy, Kansas’ largest electrical provider, said outages started spiking as temperatures dropped after 10 p.m. Monday. Some 25,000 were without power.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">Spokeswoman Gina Penzig said the company was prepared for the worst, calling in hundreds of line workers from states like Colorado and Nebraska — farther away than the utility normally goes to get additional help.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">Oklahoma utilities said Monday that 500,000 customers were blacked out as power lines snapped under the weight of ice and falling trees — the biggest power outage in state history. Utilities in Missouri had more than 100,000 homes and business without power.</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">“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.”</p>
<p class="textBodyBlack">Schools across Oklahoma were closed and some hospitals were relying on backup power generators. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers sent 50 generators and three truckloads of bottled water from Texas to distribute to blacked-out areas of Oklahoma.</div></p>
