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More deaths in US ice storm
10/12/2007 21:25 - (SA)
Washington - At least 11 people have been killed as an ice storm swept the US on Monday, turning roads into slippery death-traps and leaving hundreds of thousands without power, officials said.
"According to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, there have been 11 confirmed fatalities in Oklahoma alone, due to weather-related traffic accidents," said Dave Nadler, a meteorologist at the regional operations centre covering the southern-central states.
"We've been dealing with 2.5-5.0cm of ice in parts of Oklahoma, and major power outages - there are 250 000 homes without power across the state of Oklahoma, and around 150,000 people without power in southern Missouri, the hardest-hit areas so far," Nadler told AFP.
Greg Carbin, a meteorologist based in Oklahoma City, said he had been without heat or electricity for nine hours.
"It's bad. We're without power, there are many trees down. It's about as bad as I've seen it in central Oklahoma and I've lived here for almost a dozen years," Carbin told AFP.
"There is up to an inch of icy glaze in places," he said.
"Roadways exposed to the air, such as bridges and overpasses, are very bad," he added.
The wintry weather, which began its onslaught at the weekend, was expected to move north later on Monday, but not before it had created more icy conditions in the central states around Oklahoma.
"The band of weather moving across Oklahoma should generate another quarter to half inch of ice before temperatures start to creep above freezing later today and tonight," Nadler said.
"Then it's all going to shift north. There is still quite a bit of ice and snow that is going to occur - it's just shifting north," he said.
Residents of Chicago were warned by the National Weather Service to brace for icy rain, sleet and snow, which could leave a half-inch film of ice on the roads, starting Monday night.
The ice storm was expected to continue to sweep eastward and hit Washington and New York, both on the Atlantic coast, by the end of the week.
- AFP
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