Northeast could see double winter whammy

'I'm not the only one'
Sonya Kendrick, who spent Monday night at one of several American Red Cross shelters set up in Oklahoma City, said a tree ripped the electrical box off the side of her house, and she needed a warm place to take her three children until repairs could be made.

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"When I got in here yesterday, I was totally distraught. I was like, 'Why me? Why me of all people?' I look at it this way, too: I'm not the only one," Kendrick said Tuesday. "There's other people here that I got to know in less than two days, literally. All of them have been through the same thing, and everybody here just understands everybody."

The storm also caused extensive travel problems. More than 550 flights were canceled at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on Tuesday, and hundreds of other flights were delayed up to an hour by nighttime, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokesman Gregg Cunningham.

Not everyone minded the winter weather.

Lynette Lamblez, an inventory controller from Waukesha, Wis., said her bus ride to work took 30 minutes longer Tuesday but she was grateful for the snowfall.

"Four weeks ago, it was 60 degrees out," she said. "I really think it's beautiful."

Emergencies declared
Officials in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma had declared states of emergency. President Bush declared a federal emergency in Missouri on Wednesday, ordering government aid to supplement state and local efforts. He had done the same for Oklahoma on Tuesday.

Tulsa and Oklahoma City each had more than 100 reports of fires since the storm began, mostly from tree limbs crashing into live power lines, authorities said.

High temperatures should reach the 40s on Thursday with no additional rainfall expected, Burke said. But by late Friday, another storm could bring 2 to 4 inches of snow to areas north of Interstate 44, he said.

The 27 deaths blamed on the weather include 16 in Oklahoma, four in Kansas, three each in Missouri and Michigan and one in Nebraska.

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