BY MARY JANE FARMER

HERALD DEMOCRAT

TxDOT Assistant Area Engineer Noel Paramanantham said three road crews worked 12-hour shifts, concentrating on U.S. Highway 75 and U.S. Highway 82, because of the traffic volumes on those two roadways. They began around 6 p.m., working primarily bridges and overpasses. At 6 a.m. Friday, fresh crews replaced those and worked throughout the morning until the bridges and overpasses were free of ice patches.

Paramanantham said the sand/ salt combination used, called chad, is usually effective in melting ice until about 50 cars have gone by, with the air motion scattering chad to the sides of the roadway. With Thursday night's excessive winds, chad was blown to the sides after an estimated 25 vehicles passed, and TxDOT crews were extra diligent about timeliness in re-sanding the pavement.

Visibility was also hampered for motorists, as snow covered highway pavement markings and disguised road edges, blending them in with medians and pastures.

Motoring on U.S. Highway 75 between Durant, Okla. and Van Alstyne, vehicles of all sizes, including one jack-knifed tractor-trailer, dotted the sides of the roads. Tow trucks were assisting some and police cars with their flashing overhead lights were seen with others. About two out of every three stranded vehicle was seen without help. Oklahoma Department of Transportation said it was difficult for emergency crews to reached stranded motorists and rescues often took several hours.

One motorist stated she hit ice coming north on U.S. Highway 75 at the Grayson County line. Her Ford SUV was sent into a skid, then into a spin until it came to a stop facing southward. No one was near that vehicle, and none of its occupants were injured. When all had calmed down inside, the driver slowly continued the journey.

Others on State Highway 289 took refuge in motels, some for two nights, until roads were clear enough for them to continue to their Christmas destinations.

The National Weather Service now has issued flood watches for counties to the east, from the Red River through the southeast coastal counties, the result of melting snow.

ODoT stated Thursday that Interstate 40 between U.S. Highwaty 75 and the Arkansas state line was closed due to low visibility. U.S. Highway 69 north of the Canadian River was also closed. Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry declared a state of emergency.

At 6 a.m. Friday morning, ODoT reported that snow was continuing its deluge, but was tapering off. Those two major corridors were still closed, partially because of a thick layer of ice beneath the snow. In areas of Oklahoma were the blowing snow had stopped, ODoT was able to bring in snow plows and to apply chad on bridges.

Even as late as Christmas night, ODoT warned against the possible dangers of black ice to motorists.

Crews were working to restore power to thousands of customers in Oklahoma,

Jonathan Cannon, Herald Democrat reporter, was spending Thursday night at a Baptist church in Goldsby, Okla., after being stuck for several hours on I-35. He left Sherman a little after noon Christmas eve hoping to join his wife in Edmond, Okla. -- a trip that usually takes about three hours.

Cannon said about 200 people -- plus the dogs many travelers had with them in their cars -- were in the church Thursday night, with more possibly on the way. He wasn't sure at the time if he would be able to finish his journey on Friday.

"This is mine and my wife's first Christmas together, so she's not very excited," he said.

Cannon said he left the church Christmas morning and joined his wife Kimberly in Edmond by about 7:45 a.m. after a difficult drive that he said took twice as long as it should have.

About 100 passengers and the same number of workers were stuck at Oklahoma's largest airport, which closed Thursday afternoon after several inches of snow clogged runways. At least 70 flights were canceled at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. Director Mark Kranenburg told The Oklahoman that the airport re-opened Friday morning, with one of three runways operational, though many flights remained delayed or canceled.

Other stranded motorists took shelter at a high school gymnasium. Eric Adams, a U.S. Mail contractor from Memphis, Tenn., sought shelter at the Flying J Travel Plaza in Sayre in far western Oklahoma after strong winds caused his tractor-trailer to sway.

Oklahoma City had received 14 inches of snow by Thursday night, breaking a record set back in 1914 of 2.5 inches. Winds gusted to 50 mph in central Kansas, while winds gusting at up to 65 mph in Texas drifted the snow as deep as 5 feet in some areas.

The Star-Telegram said the Dallas-Fort Worth area was experiencing its first White Christmas in more than 80 years. While the area had a sprinkling of holiday snow in 2004 and 1997, the last time it experienced "a true, New England-style dose of snow on Christmas Day was Dec. 25, 1926," the newspaper reported.

Local statistics on vehicle crashes will not be available until public information officers return to work Monday.

The National Weather Service predicts the possibility of snow mixed with rain is about 30 percent for Tuesday as another winter storm is expected to hit the area. It does not indicate whether or not that snow is expected to stick to pavements, as temperatures will run between 25-40 degrees that day.

Numbers to call in Texas and Oklahoma to check on weather conditions before making a trip are: (Texas) 800-452-9292 and (Oklahoma) 888-425-2385.