Storms Leave Texas and the Plains States Staggering Under a Blanket of Ice

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Winter Blast Leaves Thousands in the Cold
Icy storm blamed for at least 60 deaths in nine states spreads snow and freezing rain across Texas all the way to the Mexican border on Wednesday, closing the Alamo, glazing freeways and immobilizing communities unaccustomed to such cold.

AUSTIN, Jan. 17 -- A series of winter storms blanketed most of Texas and the south-central Plains on Wednesday, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and causing as many as 60 weather-related deaths in nine states.

The fronts -- a fast-moving mass of dry arctic air from Canada and a lumbering line of warm, moist air coming off the Gulf of Mexico -- collided on the meteorological battlefield between California and Missouri, spewing sleet, snow and ice and leaving destruction in their wake.

"Looks like the cold air won this one," said Walt Zaleski, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service's Southern Region Headquarters in Fort Worth. "And it will have the upper edge for the next seven to 10 days."

What had been called an unseasonably warm winter in many areas of the country abruptly changed this past weekend. California's citrus crop succumbed to the cold snap and even parts of northern Los Angeles County were dusted with snow. The ice storm was blamed for at least 23 deaths in Oklahoma, where almost 80,000 households in the eastern part of the state remained without power. A 300-mile stretch of Texas's major east-west artery -- Interstate 10 -- was closed overnight Wednesday because of dangerous icy conditions. The state's major cities, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, were virtually shut down by a blanket of ice.

Almost the entire town of McAlester, Okla., with a population of 18,000, lost electricity because of the storm, which started there this week with six inches of freezing rain. The resultant ice snapped trees and utility poles, leaving the town looking "like a war zone, like bombs went off everywhere," said McAlester's assistant city manager, Bart Van Nieuwenhuise. All the businesses were shut down and almost all residents remained indoors for the week. "No streetlights; just pitch black," he said. By Wednesday, only a few thousand households were back on line and Van Nieuwenhuise said the area is expected to have full restoration of electricity in 10 to 20 days. "We're hopeful that we don't get hit again," he said.

Missouri officials opened 85 shelters across the state to accommodate residents left without power and in the small city of Buffalo, for instance, without any services at all. No stores, no gas stations, no restaurants and for more than 24 hours, no running water. "I've talked to residents who have lived here 50 years and nobody can remember it ever being this bad," Mayor Jerry Hardesty told the Associated Press. Springfield, Mo. -- a designated Tree City USA -- lost most of its beloved showcase of stately, mature trees because of the ice storm. The weight of thick ice snapped branches in half, filling the city with snap-crack and whoosh sounds for days as limbs broke and hit the ground.

"It looks like a frozen tornado hit my beautiful city," said Jenny Fillmer Edwards, a spokeswoman for the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management. To say that Springfield will not look the same is an understatement, she said. "The entire landscape has changed."

Staff writer Matthew C. Wright contributed to this report.