Oklahoma snow given warm shoulder
ABOVE-FREEZING TEMPERATURES HELP PREVENT ACCUMULATION ON ROADWAYS

Emergency management officials said their biggest concern was that plunging overnight temperatures could freeze the wet roads, making travel dangerous this morning.

The snow began overnight in northwest Oklahoma and reached the Oklahoma City area early Monday. However, the roads were mostly wet by afternoon, officials said.

"Everything is clear,” said Mills Gotcher, spokeswoman for the state Transportation Department. "We did have some problems this morning, but the snow was cleared and it hasn’t refrozen. We were worried around noon, but the temperature has been our biggest ally.”

Forecasters expected as much as 5 inches of snow in the Oklahoma City area and 6 inches in the northern part of the state. But with temperatures hovering just above freezing across most of the state through the afternoon, the precipitation melted on the roadways.

Mike DeGiacomo, Oklahoma City’s street maintenance superintendent, said crews put some salt on roads in the area as the snow fell in the morning, but weren’t finding many slick spots.

DeGiacomo said crews would work 12-hour shifts through the night to prevent refreezing.

Michaelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the state Emergency Management Department, said there were no requests for state assistance Monday.

"We just had a conference call with local emergency managers as well as a number of other partners that we always depend on during disasters,” she said.

"The only situations reported were travel problems.”

Although Monday’s snow didn’t contribute to major problems, about 4,700 customers in southwest Oklahoma remained without power after the Jan. 28-29 winter storm, officials said.

Lloyd Colston, Altus emergency management director, said crews were working to fix about 50 utility poles in the area. However, most of the remaining outages are because of damage to people’s homes, not the electric grid. Damage to residential connections must be fixed by electricians, not the power company.

"There are still some people who don’t have power, and the electricians are going a mile a minute to get it restored,” he said. "This has been a devastating disaster for the city and the county.”

Kyla Rapp, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross of Central Oklahoma, said shelters that were opened following the January storms have all closed, though the group was still feeding some people in the southwest part of the state.

More winter precipitation is expected later in the week. The National Weather Service is predicting a chance of snow late Wednesday and all day Thursday.

Colston said the continued poor weather is frustrating.

"My spring storm spotter training is Feb. 25,” he said. "In 90 days we’re in spring storm season and I still have damage to my city, to my communications. It’s tough.”

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