Winter storm blamed for 51 deaths in nine states

ROCHESTER, New York (AP) -- Power lines were down, highways were treacherous and spring-like temperatures were only a memory Tuesday in parts of the Northeast in the wake of the storm that earlier had plastered the Midwest and Plains with a heavy shell of ice.

The death toll reached 51 in nine states.

About 450,000 homes and businesses in several states were still without electricity Tuesday after the storm brought ice, snow, flooding and high winds to a swath of the country from Texas to Maine.

The weight of the ice snapped tree limbs, shorted out transformers and made power lines sag, knocking out current to about 145,000 customers in New York state and New Hampshire on Monday, though service had been restored for roughly half of them by Tuesday morning.

"If you live here long enough, you just know the power's going to go out twice a year, at least. You don't worry about it," said Scott Towne, owner of Rondac Pet Services near Saratoga Springs, New York, where portable generators provided light and heat for about two-dozen dogs. "You make all the plans in advance that you can."

Scores of schools canceled classes or opened late Tuesday in New Hampshire and upstate New York in the Northeast and Oklahoma and Texas on the southern Plains.

The storm had largely blown out of New England by Tuesday, but forecasters expected more freezing rain to hit parts of Texas, perhaps even Houston, on Wednesday night, said Dennis Cook of the National Weather Service. Gusty winds were forecast to make the Northeast bone-chilling cold through Wednesday night before warming Thursday.

A wave of arctic air trailed the storm, dropping temperatures into the single digits as far south as Kansas and Missouri. The 7 a.m. temperature Tuesday at Kansas City, Missouri., was just 2 degrees, while Bismarck, North Dakota, had a reading of 16 below zero, with a wind chill of 31 below, the National Weather Service reported.

Cold air also was moving into the East, where temperatures have been far above normal in recent weeks and the ground has been bare of snow. Instead of skiers, the unseasonable weather has drawn out golfers and bicyclists.

Icy roads cut into Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observances from Albany, New York, to Austin, Texas, where officials moved Texas Gov. Rick Perry's inauguration indoors Tuesday and canceled the traditional inaugural parade.

More power outages were possible in New Hampshire as wind battered ice-laden branches. "We are restoring some and adding more," Public Service Co. spokeswoman Mary-Jo Boisvert said Tuesday morning. Some New York customers might have to wait until Thursday, the utility National Grid estimated.

In Missouri, the utility company Ameren said it would probably not have everyone's lights back on until Wednesday night. As of Tuesday afternoon, about 210,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity.

The White House said Tuesday that 34 Missouri counties and St. Louis had been declared a major disaster area, making federal funding available. A similar federal disaster declaration was approved Sunday for Oklahoma.

About 92,000 homes and businesses were still waiting for power Tuesday in Oklahoma, some of them waiting since the storm's first wave struck on Friday. Ice built up by sleet and freezing rain was 4 inches thick in places. The Army Corps of Engineers assigned soldiers to deliver 100 emergency generators to the McAlester area.

Customers in some rural parts of Oklahoma might have to wait until next week for service, said Stan Whiteford of Public Service Co. of Oklahoma. "There are a lot of places where virtually everything is destroyed. In some cases, entire electric services will have to be rebuilt," he said.

More than 200,000 customers in Michigan also lost power and about 86,000 of them were still blacked out Tuesday. Many customers were also without power in central and western New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Waves of freezing rain, sleet and snow since Friday had been blamed for at least 17 deaths in Oklahoma, nine in Missouri, eight in Iowa, four in New York, five in Texas, three in Michigan, three in Arkansas, and one each in Maine and Indiana.

Elsewhere, Washington state's Puget Sound area, known for off-and-on drizzle rather than freezing winter weather, was hit by another round of snow Tuesday, snarling traffic and closing schools for more than 380,000 students. The Oregon Legislature delayed hearings and sessions until afternoon because of the weather.

In California, three nights of freezing weather had destroyed up to three-quarters of the state's $1 billion citrus crop, according to an estimate issued Monday. Other crops, including avocados and strawberries, also suffered damage. (Full story)

"This is one of those freezes that, unfortunately, we'll all remember," said A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Warm spell in Russia wakes up the bears

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - Winters in Russia are always tough, but rarely like this — so warm that bears aren't hibernating and so gray that humans are having trouble waking up.

Much of the European part of Russia has been gripped by an uncharacteristic warm spell this winter, with temperatures generally well above freezing and little if any snow.

It's an astonishing contrast to last year, when it was so cold that even Russians inured to frigid winters complained about temperatures that lurked around 30 below zero for days at a time.

This year, they'd probably be happy for the cold to come back.

The bears in the Leningradsky Zoo in St. Petersburg certainly would be. Two of the zoo's five bears have come out of hibernation already, weeks ahead of time.

On Saturday, visitors were surprised when, despite a sign reading "The bears are in their den; they are hibernating," a bear named Varya ambled out into view for a snack.

Some of the zoo's hedgehogs also are waking up.

"They can't sleep because of the weather," said zoo assistant Lyuba Astakhova, who added that they nod off when the temperature falls below freezing.

Humans, meanwhile, are complaining about the seemingly endless days of heavy cloud cover that reduces what little light is available to Russians at this time of year, when the sun clears the horizon for only about seven hours a day.

Average temperatures throughout European Russia have mostly been above freezing in December and January, some 11-15 degrees higher than normal, Roman Vilfand of Russia's Hydrometeorological Center said Tuesday.

"Short-term fluctuations have occurred before, but such weather persisting for a whole month is a previously unseen phenomenon," the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted him as saying.

But Vilfand held out some hope, predicting the temperature will fall to 14 in about a week.