Midwest US ice storm: 600,000 without power, 14 dead

Drewcifer · Post by **Drewcifer** » 2007-12-11 03:10am

Reuters wrote:KANSAS CITY, Mo., Dec 10 (Reuters) - A vicious ice storm sweeping through the U.S. Plains left more than 600,000 people without power as frigid temperatures plunged and contributed to at least 14 deaths, authorities said on Monday.

The icy blast downed tree limbs and power lines, leaving more than 500,000 people without power in Oklahoma, where shelters opened throughout the region for those driven from cold and dark homes, and national guardsmen and volunteers were transporting food and water to hard-hit areas.

"This particular storm is now the worst in company history in terms of customers affected," said Brian Alford, spokesman for Oklahoma Gas and Electric.

Crews were sent from Texas, Louisiana, Indiana and Mississippi to help repair power lines, which snapped seemingly as quickly as they could be repaired.

The storm also shut down electricity service to more than 102,000 people in Missouri, more than 11,000 people in Illinois and about 5,000 in Kansas.

In all, ice storm warnings were issued from Texas up through Oklahoma and Kansas and east across Missouri into Illinois, with up to an inch (2.5 cm) of ice accumulation possible in some areas. Iowa and Arkansas were also affected.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency, calling out the state National Guard to aid communities hit by the storm. "We are only just beginning to see the devastation from this series of storms," he said.

Ice-slicked roads contributed to the deaths of 12 people in Oklahoma during the weekend, state officials said. One Oklahoma man died of hypothermia. A Missouri motorist died when he stopped to help another driver and was hit by a car skidding on ice.

Parts of several highways and interstates were closed and hundreds of flights were canceled at major airports in Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis and Oklahoma City.

The National Weather Service office predicted another icy blast on Tuesday night, with more significant ice accumulations possible. (Reporting by Ben Fenwick in Oklahoma City and Carey Gillam in Kansas City, editing by Doina Chiacu)

A State of Emergency is in effect for all 77 counties in Oklahoma, and the state is requesting Federal assistance.

In anticipation of similar problems in Kansas, the governor has signed a State of Emergency declaration and put the Kansas National Guard on alert.

Luckily, this storm is a result of tropical moisture overriding arctic air rather than a frontal boundary, so there's not much wind involved, or the situation would be much worse. (isentropic vs. frontogenetic, for the weather geeks out there)

Spanky and gang, heads up! Iowa is in line for this mess today (Tuesday).

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2007-12-11 03:13am

I feel sorry for you guys. We had some pretty nasty snowfall near where I live, and the cable was fading in and out, but nothing that bad.

I wonder if it will strand any of the Presidential Candidates?

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2007-12-11 03:19am

Woah... Oklahoma has SEVENTY SEVEN counties?! That seems high.

I don't think it'll affect elections, we're still a few weeks out from the caucus.

Zadius · Post by **Zadius** » 2007-12-11 05:18am

It's hitting us right now. I just went outside and absolutely everything is iced over and the rain is still coming down. Looks like I'm not going anywhere for a while. Luckily, I haven't lost power.

CaptainChewbacca wrote:Woah... Oklahoma has SEVENTY SEVEN counties?! That seems high.

Seems about right to me. Iowa has 99 counties.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2007-12-11 06:56am

So far we're only getting rain here - we got a small ice coating on the last storm.

Have food in the house, including stuff that doesn't need cooking, and backup lighting just in case.

Warsie · Post by **Warsie** » 2007-12-11 07:56am

I live in Chicago; it's been raining all night

The ice disturbance west and south explains some of this. though here it's above the freezing mark; and such seems to be melting some of the ice...

ysesterday there was some freezing rain I believe here.

Medic · Post by **Medic** » 2007-12-11 04:50pm

CaptainChewbacca wrote:Woah... Oklahoma has SEVENTY SEVEN counties?! That seems high.

I don't think it'll affect elections, we're still a few weeks out from the caucus.

If you've seen a map of any midwestern state you'd not be surprised, their counties look like endless rows of squares, though Kansas has some more exotic shaped counties.

By week's end I'm going back to that shithole, Northeast Kansas.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-12-11 05:38pm

We've been getting hit with snow in Denver. So far nowhere as bad as Oklahoma, but a light-rail train did crash into a Union Pacific train that derailed, apparently. Seems that nobody was seriously hurt at least.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2007-12-11 05:40pm

CaptainChewbacca wrote:Woah... Oklahoma has SEVENTY SEVEN counties?! That seems high.

I don't think it'll affect elections, we're still a few weeks out from the caucus.

Iowa, a smaller state than Oklahoma has 99 counties.

Arizona has only 13 counties. Some of our counties are bigger than some states.

Phantasee · Post by **Phantasee** » 2007-12-11 06:16pm

If you look at a map of the US with it's counties, it looks like they start out all regular and methodical, evenly spaced, and then the planners just said, "Fuck this" and started drawing bigger to fill up the space faster.

Kinda like how kids writing their first essays just jack up the font as they get to the end so it fills up the last page.

ALSO: HAHA suckers, enjoy your freezing misery! If this doesn't change my friends mind, I don't know what the hell will...

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2007-12-11 06:23pm

To Phantasee: I think Counties were laid out regularly along the railroads, but further out things got a bit more tricky and open to interpretation.

California only has about 40 counties.

Oni Koneko Damien · Post by **Oni Koneko Damien** » 2007-12-11 10:37pm

Aren't county-lines also determined by population density? So naturally there would be more smaller counties near the east coast, rather than in the vast, emptiness west of the Mississippi. Iirc, when I lived in Nevada, we had a total of five counties there, all roughly corresponding and named after the native tribes that used to be there.

Anyways, southern WI has been drifting back and forth between freezing rain, sleet, and snow for the past day or so. Pretty nasty when it first hit, but now the plows and salters are out in force and things have been pretty much under control.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-12-11 10:39pm

My power went out sometime in the morning today and was out until mid-late afternoon.

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2007-12-12 12:10am

Some tree limbs came down and we were without electric power for several hours. And while this ice storm appears to be worse overall than the one we had last year, it didn't do nearly as much damage to the specific area I live in. That one had us without electricity for days and whole trees came down. On top of houses.

Socar15 · Post by **Socar15** » 2007-12-12 12:27am

Yeah this isn't too fun. I've been without power at my apartment since early Monday morning, and our electric company is telling us that a lot of people will most likely be without power up to 10 days. Luckly I still have the option of going on campus (which for a while was the only damn thing in town that had power) if I need to do anything important (we're in final exam week, though Monday's was cancelled).

My parents who live on the other side of the state are also without power. They had to put their cat in a shelter. Their trees have also pretty much been completely destroyed. More icey rain on the way. Blah.

Zadius · Post by **Zadius** » 2007-12-12 12:33am

I was out of power for much of the day. It finally came back on around 3:30pm.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2007-12-12 05:45am

Oni Koneko Damien wrote:Aren't county-lines also determined by population density?

No, they're not.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2007-12-12 05:46am

Darth Raptor wrote:Some tree limbs came down and we were without electric power for several hours. And while this ice storm appears to be worse overall than the one we had last year, it didn't do nearly as much damage to the specific area I live in. That one had us without electricity for days and whole trees came down. On top of houses.

Last year's probably did enough "tree trimming" that the trees most likely to come down in an ice storm have already been eliminated.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2007-12-12 07:56am

How often do these states actually get weather featuring ice and snow? Is it just a lack of preparedness on the part of these states for this kind of weather or is this storm particularly brutal even by, say, Canadian standards?

Post by **Broomstick** » 2007-12-12 09:35am

These states get ice and snow every year the problem is the quantity of pure ice happening all at once.

This isn't a foot (or 30 cm) of snow. It's 3-5 cm of SOLID ICE on everything, which is quite a bit of weight. Unlike snow, which can blow off or fall off before tree branches or powerlines break, this ice is solidly welded onto whatever it touches.

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2007-12-12 11:34am

Lagmonster wrote:How often do these states actually get weather featuring ice and snow? Is it just a lack of preparedness on the part of these states for this kind of weather or is this storm particularly brutal even by, say, Canadian standards?

Several news reports yesterday stated that many people were not prepared for the severity of this storm. Everyone knew it was coming, but apparently didn't think it would be this bad.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » 2007-12-12 11:56am

Oh, man, I lived 13 days without power in Missouri in the ice storm of 2007. That sucks.

And no, no one was prepared for the storm. Especially not the warzone that greeted us the next day. Trees down everywhere. Walking home at night was creepy, since all the lights were out, even the street lights.

And I learned more than I wanted to know about weather heads. The weatherhead is where the power from the mains comes into your house. It's a metal pole sticking about a foot and a half out of the roof, with a u-turn pipe at the top so water doesn't get in.

Anyway, it is the line of demarcation between what you are responsible for and what the company is responsible for. If your weatherhead is bent or damaged in any way, the company won't reconnect to it. You have to get a licensed electrician to check it.

Phantasee · Post by **Phantasee** » 2007-12-12 11:58am

Lagmonster: Remember the ice storms in Quebec in what, 1998? They can get way bad, which is why I'm not mocking anyone for being unable to handle it, unlike a snow storm.

J · Post by J » 2007-12-12 12:39pm

You might want to fill up your gas tanks as the Cushing, Oklahoma Oil Terminal has gone down.

Link

CORRECTED - UPDATE 1-Largest oil terminal shut at NYMEX oil delivery hub
Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:08am EST

NEW YORK, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The largest crude oil terminal at the delivery point for NYMEX crude oil futures at Cushing, Oklahoma, and two major pipelines at the hub were still shut Tuesday after an ice storm hit the area Monday, a spokesman for the terminal said.

Enbridge Energy Partners LP's (EEP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 16.7 million barrel crude oil terminal and the Spearhead and Ozark crude oil pipelines operated by parent company Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) were shut Monday, Enbridge spokesman Larry Springer said.

"They went down about 1:00 (Central Time)," said Springer.

Spearhead transports 125,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from the Chicago area to Cushing. The Ozark line can carry approximately 200,000 bpd from Cushing to Wood River in southern Illinois.

Springer said that the crude oil terminal at the Cushing was also closed due to power outages.

Springer said Enbridge was working with the local power company to restore power after ice storms knocked out power to more 500,000 customers.

Three oil products terminals on the Magellan pipeline were also shut Monday by the storm.

A spokesman to TEPPCO Partners LP, which operates approximately 4.5 million barrels of crude oil storage at Cushing, said its operations were unaffected by the storm.

Officials at other companies with assets at Cushing were not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Janet McGurty and Robert Campbell, editing by Matthew Lewis)

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2007-12-12 02:23pm

Phantasee wrote:Lagmonster: Remember the ice storms in Quebec in what, 1998? They can get way bad, which is why I'm not mocking anyone for being unable to handle it, unlike a snow storm.

Exactly, the Ontario/Quebec ice storm in January 1998 destroyed so much infrastructure simply because the it couldn't handle so much ice. It was designed to handle Canadian winters (although alot of it was later found to be improperly constructed/designed or faulty) but we'd never had a storm like that before. Hell every high tension tower between Renfrew and Ottawa was collapsed as well as the power poles. The same thing was repeated all across Eastern Ontario and large swatches of Quebec. Army units had to literally bash their way into schools to setup an HQ and barracks for the boys.