National Guard sent to help storm-stricken St. Louis area

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- National Guard units headed for St. Louis on Friday as the region's biggest electric utility warned it could be days before power is fully restored to residents left in the dark by a wintry storm blamed for at least three deaths in Missouri.

"This storm left a trail of snow and ice across the state, thousands without power and countless Missourians stuck at home," Gov. Matt Blunt said in a statement as he declared a state of emergency focusing on the St. Louis area, where 280,000 customers of Ameren Corp. had no electricity by Friday afternoon.

Blunt spokesman Brian Hauswirth said 25 to 30 National Guard members were sent Friday to St. Louis city and county and neighboring Washington County, with 200 more to be deployed in the area by Saturday morning. Fifty to 60 Guard members were going to Festus, Farmington and DeSoto, and 500 others were available to be deployed around the state if needed.

The soldiers were to deliver any help needed in any community -- be it going door-to-door to check on people, delivering meals to the homebound or providing generators, Hauswirth said.

In all, Ameren reported about 520,000 customers in Illinois and eastern Missouri without power after ice snapped power lines and tree limbs. Ameren vice president Ron Zdellar said it would be days before all customers had electricity again.

"We know a lot of people are going to have to leave their homes, probably over the next few days," he said.

A Missouri Department of Transportation snow plow passed abandoned cars on Interstate 70, east of Columbia, Mo. The interstate was closed for several hours after more than a foot of snow fell in parts of Missouri. (AP Photo/Columbia Daily Tribune, Gerik Parmele)

Utilities from Kansas City, which largely escaped the storm with just a few inches of snow, sent crews across the state to assist with Ameren's recovery.

But travel remained snarled in much of the state -- especially central and west-central Missouri, which received some of the heaviest snow. Eighteen inches fell at Sedalia and 16 at Columbia, where the University of Missouri canceled classes for the first time since 1995.

A 50-mile section of Interstate 70 that had closed for several hours early Friday was reopened before noon, but tow trucks struggled to remove stalled and abandoned cars. Huge backups were reported by late afternoon in eastbound lanes near Columbia.

Shelters and warm-up centers opened in the St. Louis area as temperatures remained below freezing and were expected to drop into the teens at night during the weekend.

Two St. Louis police officers escorted 89-year-old Francis Oldani on Friday afternoon to a warming center, where volunteers offered hot chocolate and free lunch. Oldani said she lost power Thursday night and called police in desperation Friday morning.

A car sits in the street covered with snow as Casey Harriston, right, removes the snow from his driveway after more than a foot of snow fell overnight in Columbia, Mo. (AP Photo/L.G. Patterson)

"It was miserable, I was so cold," Oldani said. "I just had to put on as many clothes as I could. I put a blanket around me and sat in a chair. I guess these people will provide for me. I really don't know."

An 87-year-old woman died in a storm-related house fire early Friday in the St. Louis suburb of Affton. An ice-laden tree limb fell on a power line in Arline H. Maze's backyard, causing a fuse box in her basement to short-circuit and starting a fire, Affton Fire Chief John Rauch said following a preliminary investigation.

Missouri's two other storm deaths both occurred Thursday on highways.

In Boone County, Carlos Ramirez-Barrera, 28, died when the blade of a snowplow struck his vehicle on U.S. 63. Ramirez-Barrera was identified as a Mexican citizen, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said, noting that the trooper who responded to the crash then apparently became stranded himself.

A five-vehicle wreck on Interstate 44 near Rolla killed Brian Gross, 40, of Davenport, Iowa, the patrol said.

Springfield and southwest Missouri woke up to the heaviest carpet of snow in three years and temperatures well below 20 degrees. Accumulations deepened to up to 16 inches northwest of Springfield and fell off southeast toward West Plains.

About 180 people remained without power Friday in Springfield, down from a peak of 15,000 Thursday. About 500 had no electricity in Joplin, down from a peak of about 6,500 Thursday.

The Missouri Department of Transportation deployed all 2,000 of its snowplows Thursday but had to pull them off the roads briefly overnight because drivers could not see through the snow, said state transportation director Pete Rahn.