Jan Wesner Childs
Hundreds of thousands of people remained in the dark in Oklahoma Wednesday morning after a winter storm coated trees with as much as an inch of ice that snapped powerlines, snarled traffic and left people stuck in elevators.
More than 350,000 homes and businesses were still without power as of about 10:30 a.m. CDT, according to poweroutage.us.
Conditions will continue to improve there, but the storm will bring dangerous ice and snow to the southern Rockies and into parts of the southern Plains Wednesday.
The system, named Winter Storm Billy by The Weather Channel, is also leaving parts of Texas frozen. About 45,000 power outages were being reported in the Panhandle region. The National Weather Service in Amarillo said snow and ice covered trees and roads.
In Oklahoma, most of the power outages were in Oklahoma City and surrounding areas. Video from KOCO-TV showed crews working on ice-covered power lines Wednesday.
In some places, power poles were snapped in half by the weight.
The city's fire department responded to 676 emergency calls in a 24-hour period ending at 7 a.m. Wednesday. Emergency personnel handled responded to multiple vehicle accidents and incidents of downed power lines, as well numerous calls for people stuck in elevators when the power went out.
Officials reminded people to stay away from downed power lines and anything they are touching, and to follow proper safety procedures when using generators.
The storm also damaged the city's Survivor Tree at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, dedicated to the 168 people killed in the 1995 bombing. The tree survived the bomb's blast, earning it the moniker. A crew used poles to knock ice off the tree and support limbs.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt declared a state of emergency for 47 counties.
Oklahoma City schools were closed, but that didn't mean students got a snow day. Instead, they were told to log in for virtual learning. Several other school districts around the state also shut down, as did universities, businesses, churches and government offices.
Officials in Kansas say the weather played a role in a deadly traffic accident Monday night, according to KAKE-TV. The station cited the state highway patrol as saying a car moving slowly due to weather conditions on Highway 50 near Newton was hit from behind by a pick-up truck. The truck rolled several times and its driver was ejected and killed. The driver of the car was transported to a hospital in Wichita with serious injuries, according to the KAKE report.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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