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February 21, 2013

State readies for more wintry weather

By Ken Miller Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma emergency management and road officials said they were bracing for a second round of wintry weather Wednesday night after an initial storm with snow, ice and rain moved across the state and led to a traffic fatality.

Cody Alexander, 18, of Alex was killed Wednesday morning when his pickup truck skidded into oncoming traffic on a slushy State Highway 19 west of Alex and was hit by another truck, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.

Numerous car accidents also were reported in northeastern Oklahoma, said Oklahoma Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kenna Mitchell in Tulsa.

“We’ve got a lot of work zones, a lot of corridors that are narrowed, not a lot of wiggle room” for automobiles, Mitchell said.

She and Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Keli Cain said both agencies were on standby and awaiting a storm the National Weather Service forecast for late Wednesday through mid-morning today. It’s expected to bring more snow to the state as well as sleet and possible freezing rain.

“Temperatures are going to be hovering right around freezing, so mostly elevated surfaces are where we’re going to see ice,” said Ryan Barnes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norman.

“Farther north, closer toward the Kansas border and northwest Oklahoma, we’re looking for some snow this evening, and that’s a 100 percent chance of snow,” said Barnes, adding that up to 6 inches of snow is possible in an area from Woodward to Enid in northwestern Oklahoma.

He said the “heaviest precipitation is going to occur right around sunrise” today.

Cain said the emergency management agency has an employee available 24 hours a day to take calls from any city or county that needs assistance.

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