Some snow-buried states brace for another round

[February 09, 2011]  TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Struggling to dig out from a snowstorm that buried the nation's midsection last week, several states in the South and Midwest closed schools and warned residents to stay home Wednesday as another blizzard moved in.

Heavy snow began falling late Tuesday in parts of Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma, where up to 10 more inches of snow and brutally cold temperatures were expected. All of Arkansas -- which often goes an entire winter without a major snow or ice storm -- was bracing for its fifth episode of severe winter weather in a month.

In northeast Oklahoma, Sandra Barrows was stuck at a Salvation Army shelter after running out of money for hotel rooms. She was hoping to get a bus ticket out of Tulsa, where she got stranded a week ago on her way to a new job in St. Louis, before the third storm in a week hit the area.

But after the record 14-inch snowfall that kept students out of school for at least six days, halted garbage pickup and kept some roads impassable, the city of 390,000 was fearing the worst. Tulsa is just inches from breaking its winter snowfall record of 25.6 inches that was set in the 1923-1924 season.

"You're trapped," the 47-year-old Barrows said Tuesday. "Depressed."

State lawmakers only in their first week of the legislative session canceled their work until next week in anticipation of the storm. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol was discouraging all travel statewide.

Road crews in Arkansas were treating the streets Tuesday in anticipation of snow that forecasters warned would choke highways, disrupt workdays and likely extend the stretch of canceled school days in northwest Arkansas to nearly two weeks. Some educators fear that the missed days are eating into time they need to prepare students for annual state benchmark exams in April.

"We're all very antsy to get back in class," said Gravette Public Schools Superintendent Andrea Kelly, whose 1,757-student district last held classes Jan. 31.

But the brunt of the latest storm was expected to hit western and central Arkansas, with 6 inches of snow anticipated.

School districts across northwest Kansas called off classes Tuesday and several universities closed early. Up to 11 inches of snow was expected in central parts of the state but with calmer winds than those that came with last week's blizzard.

"If there is any silver lining to the storm, it is that we have not had any ice before it started -- it has been all snow," said Robb Lawson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wichita.

In Oklahoma, several inches of snow remained unplowed in many Tulsa neighborhoods Tuesday, and abandoned cars and trucks still littered local roads. As some of the snow melted over the weekend, dozens of water mains broke throughout the city, causing flooding and even more street closures.

There was progress, though: Mail delivery and city buses had returned to many neighborhoods, and trash collection began again Monday. Supermarkets that were picked clean earlier had bread, milk and juice on the shelves again.

City workers kept up their 12-hour shifts working to clear the mess from last week's storm. Plows were dispatched to residential neighborhoods to haul away snow, and fire trucks were ordered to drive through neighborhoods to pack down snow. The city, which had been criticized for its response to the storm, also announced that it was bringing in contractors to help speed up snow removal.

Meals on Wheels of Metro Tulsa provided some help for homebound people who might be affected by Tuesday's storm, delivering a week's worth of food to a couple hundred of the program's most vulnerable residents.

"I think when people did get out," city spokeswoman Michelle Allen said, "they realized the severity of the snow we received."

[Associated Press; By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS]

Associated Press writers Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kan.; Tom Parsons in Little Rock, Ark.; and Rochelle Hines in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.