Ryan Enright tries to shovel snow from underneath his truck after it slid on ice and into a ditch on a parkway in Minneapolis, December 28, 2000. Snow falling at more than one inch an hour made roads icy and dangerous. The Twin Cities area received more than seven inches of snow Thursday, and is just short of a record snowfall amount of 30.8 inches for December.

December 28, 2000 8:11 pm EST 

By Steve Barnes  

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Reuters) - A winter storm blamed for at least 37 deaths kept an icy grip on the U.S. heartland on Thursday even as another frigid blast rumbled down the Great Plains from Canada.

A thick coat of ice stretching from New Mexico to Arkansas created a massive traffic jam in Texas and left hundreds of thousands of people without power as the effects of the Christmas storm lingered.

The U.S. Midwest was hit with high winds and blowing snow on Thursday as a fast-moving "Alberta Clipper" storm dropped down from the Arctic and drew a bead on the U.S. east coast. The blizzard-like conditions forced Northwest Airlines to cancel dozens of flights at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Weather forecasters said the storm was expected to dump up to a foot of snow on the Eastern Seaboard this weekend after sweeping across the Great Lakes region.

In the south, officials said 425,000 people were still without electricity on Thursday because of ice-damaged power lines and that many could remain in the dark for at least another week.

Entergy Corp., which had 174,000 customers in Arkansas without electricity, said it was sending in 8,000 repair workers to restore power.

"The whole state is crippled, with only a few exceptions. It could be Jan. 6 before everyone in our system is restored and that assumes no more damage," said Entergy spokesman James Thompson.

The ice storm combined with snows of up to 20 inches in some places. It turned highways into skating rinks and led to numerous storm-related deaths, officials said.

The death toll of 37 included at least 22 who died on Texas highways as the storm crossed the state, said Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger.

In Oklahoma, two of the storm victims included one boy sledding near a highway who slid into the path of a truck and another who fell through thin ice on a rural creek, officials said.

A stretch of Interstate Highway 20 east of Abilene, Texas, turned into a 20-mile traffic nightmare when trucks crashed during a heavy snowstorm on Wednesday evening and blocked the roadway.

A thousand vehicles were stranded on the road overnight and their occupants taken into nearby churches and stores for shelter until the jam finally cleared on Thursday afternoon.

"The people in Texas have been excellent. I've had a nice day, but I want to get the hell out of here," said Scott Fairbanks, a driver who got stuck in the mess while en route from California to Connecticut.

The highway havoc extended all the way up to Nebraska, where police said a Greyhound bus overturned on icy Interstate 80 near the town of Grand Island. Twenty-eight people were injured, none critically, they said.

The southern ice storm turned wet as its moved east, dumping up to four inches of rain in Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

In the ice-stricken areas, forecasters expected no more precipitation until Sunday, but said temperatures would remain cold enough to keep the ice around a while longer.

"The ice storm is officially over as of this morning, but several cold air masses will be moving in tonight and tomorrow, so we're not looking for a big thaw for the next couple of days," said John Lewis, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Little Rock.

Brenda Scurlock, a spokeswoman for the emergency management office in Texarkana, which straddles the Texas-Arkansas line, said the thaw cannot come too soon.

The city was paralyzed by ice that knocked power lines into streets and left residents without electricity and water. In the darkness, looters struck jewelry and convenience stores, which prompted officials to impose a nighttime curfew.

On Thursday, power and order were being restored.

"We think -- we pray -- the worst is over," Scurlock said.