ROCHESTER, N.Y. – A storm blamed for at least 41 deaths in six states spread into the Northeast on Monday, coating trees, power lines and roads with a shell of ice up to a half-inch thick and knocking out power to more than half a million homes and businesses.
About 145,000 customers in New York state and New Hampshire were without electricity. Even in Maine, a state well-accustomed to winter weather, a layer of sleet and snow on roads shut down businesses, day care centers and schools.
In hard-hit Missouri, where more than 300,000 homes and businesses were without power, the utility company Ameren said it would probably not have everyone’s lights back on until Wednesday night. Overnight temperatures were expected to drop into the single digits.
Missouri National Guardsmen went door to door, checking on residents, and helped clear slick roads.
About 100,000 homes and businesses blacked out in Oklahoma, some of them since the storm’s first wave struck on Friday, also were still waiting for power Monday. Ice built up by sleet and freezing rain was 4 inches thick in places.
“Emergency responders are having a hard time getting to residents where their services are needed because of trees and power lines in the road,” said Pittsburg County, Okla., Undersheriff Richard Sexton.
The Army Corps of Engineers dispatched soldiers from Tulsa to deliver 100 emergency generators to the McAlester area. Fifty additional generators were being sent from Fort Worth, Texas, by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
About 106,000 customers were without electricity Monday in Michigan.
Waves of freezing rain, sleet and snow since Friday had been blamed for at least 17 deaths in Oklahoma, eight in Missouri, eight in Iowa, four in New York, three in Texas and one in Maine. Seven of the Oklahoma deaths occurred when a minivan carrying 12 people slid off an icy highway Sunday and collided with an oncoming truck.
Buy your limes now
Three nights of freezing temperatures have destroyed up to three-quarters of California’s $1 billion citrus crop, according to an estimate issued Monday by the state Department of Food and Agriculture.
Other crops, including avocados and strawberries, also have suffered damage in the cold snap, agricultural officials said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
