Power outages continue in frigid Arkansas, Oklahoma

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Nation: Power outages continue in frigid Arkansas, Oklahoma

By KELLY WIESE, Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (January 2, 2001 1:06 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Freezing temperatures are keeping a week-old layer of ice on trees and power lines as crews struggle to restore electricity to thousands of customers.

Ice remaining on roads also delayed firefighters more than 4 hours as they tried to reach a blaze that killed two teen-agers.

The temperature fell to 14 degrees Tuesday in Little Rock and the forecast high was only near 30.

As many as 37,300 Arkansas homes and businesses remained without power, down from a peak of about 315,000 customers blacked out by the Christmas ice storm. Many of the remaining outages are in remote areas.

One of the state's utilities, Southwest Electric Cooperative, started offering loans of up to $700 Tuesday to customers who need to buy generators and space heaters while they wait for their lights to go back on in the Texarkana area.

"While we are working to restore power as quickly as possible, the damage is so extensive that progress in the restoration effort is moving slowly," utility president and general manager Wayne Whitaker said.

Some cooperatives say it could take as long as a month to restore power to some customers.

"When you get down to the bottom, you're almost beginning to work one house at a time. That's why it takes longer at the end of the storm," said Hugh McDonald, president of Entergy Arkansas.

Utility officials in neighboring Oklahoma said an estimated 35,750 customers were still in the dark there Tuesday.

"I don't really know specifics on when it will all be back to normal," said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management. "It's going to take a while."

For Texas, the outage total was 41,075 homes and businesses as of Monday.

Among the hundreds of utility crews at work around Arkansas, one worker was electrocuted during the weekend in De Queen, Sevier County Sheriff John Partain said.

On New Year's Day, two boys died in a fire at Fairview, Ark., that firefighters couldn't reach for 4 1/2 hours after two of their trucks slid on icy roads and blocked all traffic.

The home was destroyed by the time firefighters arrived at 7:30 a.m. Crews later found the bodies of James Cody Worth, 14, and Michael Adam Worth, 13.

"Due to the ice storm, the roads leading to the Worth residence were pretty much impassable," Marion County Sheriff Carl W. McBee said. But he said the boys probably would have died anyway.

The boys' parents and sisters, whose bedrooms were downstairs, were able to get out of the house. Their father put a ladder to the side of the house and tried to climb to the second floor, but the wall caved in, McBee said.

McBee said the fire may have started near a wood-burning stove. The home did have electricity.

Ice-covered pavement was blamed for an accident Tuesday in West Texas in which a bus overturned on Interstate 20, injuring at least 32 people. The Americanos line bus originated in Chihuahua, Mexico, traveled to El Paso, and was on its way to Dallas, company spokesman Al Penedo said.

http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/0,1038,500295470-500470289-503177017-0,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 02, 2001


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