ST. LOUIS — An ice storm grounded hundreds of airline flights and knocked out power to thousands of customers from Oklahoma to Illinois on Sunday.
Five traffic deaths were blamed on icy roads in Oklahoma.
More than 130,000 customers lost power in Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas, utilities reported.
Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard.
Some communities in Missouri reported ice as thick as three-quarters of an inch, the National Weather Service said. Ice as much as a half-inch thick coated roads and tree limbs in parts of extreme southeast Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma.
Stormy weather, which started Saturday, was expected to continue through midweek.
An additional three-quarters of an inch of ice was possible by late today in some areas of Oklahoma, the National Weather Service said.
Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, one of the nation’s busiest, canceled more than 400 flights. The airports in Kansas City, Mo., and St. Louis also canceled several flights.
Utilities in Oklahoma reported nearly 37,000 homes and businesses without electricity during the afternoon Sunday. In central Illinois, the utility Ameren reported about 14,000 of its customers were without electricity.
Roads in all but the southeastern corner of Oklahoma were considered slick and hazardous, the state Department of Transportation said.
Chicago officials used the city’s emergency phone system to deliver recorded warnings to about 2,700 elderly residents that sidewalks were icy and slippery.
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