Icy Storm Causes Deaths, Delays Packages

An icy winter storm that left thousands without electricity or heat and contributed to more than a dozen deaths this week is also delaying the delivery of holiday packages, with a shipment backlog stretching from Chicago to Dallas.

FedEx temporarily suspended its money-back guarantee for Thursday deliveries and it was too early to tell how long the suspension would last, said Cornell Christion, a spokesman for the Memphis, Tenn.-based parcel handler.

“Some shipments may be on time, others may not be depending where they are,” he said.

The company’s Express service, which promises next-day delivery by 10:30 a.m., handles 3.2 million packages on a normal day. Last December, the service handled 4.5 million packages at its peak a few days before Christmas, Christion said.

Bad weather also delayed UPS shipments in the Southwest, said John Manning, a spokesman in Dallas. In Oklahoma, heavy snowfall and ice prevented some workers from getting to work, he said. The UPS money-back guarantee does not apply to weather delays.

The wintry weather also left thousands without power as ice-laden branches fell off trees, toppling power lines and tangling limbs around poles, light fixtures and other electric equipment.

Residents were left without electricity and heat, forcing many to seek warmth from below-freezing temperatures in Red Cross shelters.

The Red Cross shelter in Marshall, Texas, which was without power for a time Wednesday, moved its operations Thursday to East Texas Baptist University, where it was expected to house as many as 100 people.

“As long as they need us, we’re going to have shelters open,” said Red Cross spokeswoman Christy Stennis-Ball.

Burton Stansbery of Longview, Texas, said the small gas heater he owns has been a lifesaver for him and his wife.

“That’s kept us from freezing to death,” said Stansbery, 83. “I think this is the worst we’ve ever had it here. These great trees are just falling over. It woke everybody up, popping and banging. The dogs were just howling.”

About 130,000 customers in East Texas lost electricity Wednesday. By midday Thursday, power had been restored to about 24,000, but tens of thousands more could be without electricity for days.

“It’s very widespread,” said AEP/Southwest Electric Power spokeswoman Ali Davis. “They are calling it a seven-day storm because it could be next Tuesday evening before power is back to everyone.”

In Arkansas, about 148,000 customers remained without power, down from about 250,000 the previous day.

The weather also was blamed for more than 10 deaths since Tuesday, including five in Indiana.

A pregnant Ohio woman died from her injuries when high winds knocked a 200-foot tree onto her trailer home. Doctors weren’t able to save her unborn child.

Three family members were killed in Indiana on Wednesday when their car spun out of control and hit a garbage truck, and a 5-year-old girl was killed when her mother’s van slid into the path of a train. Another man died when his Jeep Cherokee crossed the median on snow-covered Interstate 65 and slammed into a tractor-trailer.

A Kansas man died when his carport collapsed under the weight of the snow, and a New York man died in raging wind Tuesday as he tried to saw off a tree branch and was struck by another part of the tree. One death also was reported in Texas, one in Missouri, two in Oklahoma and two others in Arkansas.

In New Hampshire, the pilot of a two-engine plane crashed into dense woods after laboring to fly in heavy snows. He was hospitalized in serious condition.

The ice and snow, much of which had turned to dirty slush by Thursday, kept dozens of schools across southern Illinois closed for a second day. Although most of the main roads were clear, side streets remained difficult for school buses to pass. The weather also forced hundreds of schools to close in Ohio, Michigan, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Louisiana.

Air travel in St. Louis and Chicago was creeping back to normal after heavy delays a day before. United Airlines said it had canceled 82 of its 438 flights by midday, compared with 117 Wednesday and 300 Monday. TWA, whose hub is in St. Louis, had canceled 40 flights by early Thursday.