Spreading Cold Wave Gnaws at South and East

The record cold wave pressed southward and eastward Saturday, threatening crops in the South and covering highways with deadly sheets of ice across the plains and Midwest.

At least 22 deaths have been blamed on the cold weather since Tuesday, the majority in traffic accidents on slippery roads.

Utilities fought to restore electricity and gas service to thousands of shivering customers as temperatures fell to more than 40 degrees below zero in some spots.

Charities dealt with standing-room-only crowds in homeless shelters and with calls from families freezing in their own homes.

“We’re way over capacity here,” said Ruth Wynne at Oklahoma City’s Jesus House.

In North Dakota, an Amtrak passenger train carrying 300 people was stuck near the town of Devils Lake for three hours Saturday morning when the fuel in the engines froze, a Burlington-Northern Railroad spokesman said.

Welders were called in to help thaw out the engines. The temperature was 20 below and the wind chill factor was 50 below.

Denver, which has had below zero temperatures since Wednesday evening, hit a record low Saturday of 25 below zero.

The arctic air pushed eastward through the Chicago area during the night, sending temperatures tumbling from the 40s Friday evening to the teens Saturday morning, and highways throughout Illinois and Wisconsin were icy.

Bitter cold was reported in Southern Texas, with up to a half-inch of ice on some streets. In the Rio Grande Valley, citrus growers still reeling from a late winter freeze a year ago were braced for another damaging frost.