Icicles hang from a a statue of Abraham Lincoln in front of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library in Springfield, Ill., Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007. The Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington canceled several flights, and the Illinois Department of Transportation reported slippery conditions on Interstates 55, 74, 39 and 57. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
Fourteen dead as ice storm sweeps U.S. Plains (click here)
(Updates deaths, power outage tallies, adds Missouri governor quote, changes in bold)
By Carey Gillam
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Dec 10 (Reuters) - A deadly ice storm sweeping through the U.S. Plains left more than 400,000 people without power as temperatures plunged and was blamed for at least 14 deaths, authorities said on Monday.
The icy blast downed tree limbs and power lines, leaving more than 311,000 people without power in Oklahoma and shutting down electricity service to more than 90,000 people in Missouri, more than 10,000 people in Illinois and more than 4,000 in Kansas.
Conditions were expected to only worsen Monday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service, which predicted the potential for damaging ice accumulations as a cold air mass stalls over the region.
Ice storm warnings were issued from Texas up through Oklahoma and Kansas and east across Missouri into Illinois, with up to an inch of ice accumulation possible in some areas. Iowa and Arkansas were also affected.
"We expect a lot more, especially with another round of freezing precipitation that will be making its way through this afternoon," said Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Michelann Ooten. "We are getting ready to deploy some generators to some communities that requested them, and we may be calling on the National Guard for transport."
Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency on Sunday, calling out the state's National Guard to aid communities hit by the storm.
"We are only just beginning to see the devastation from this series of storms," Blunt said on Monday....
