Three people were killed in Oklahoma as a winter storm dumped up to 12 inches of snow in some parts of the state, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokesman said. The capital Oklahoma City received about six inches of snow and is likely to have its first White Christmas in over 25 years.

"We're digging ourselves out now. We had a lot of cars banging and bumping into each other," an Oklahoma Highway Patrol Officer said.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for large parts of southern Missouri and sections of Illinois. It said the storm will likely head east-northwest toward and cities such as Indianapolis, Cleveland and Detroit could see about three inches to six inches of snow.

The winter storm pummeled a swathe from the central plains to the Ohio River valley with up to a foot (30 cm) of snow, triggering hundreds of traffic accidents on clogged roads and highways.

"The crews are out trying to keep the roads clear but it's falling faster than they can plow it," said Susie Stoner of the Emergency Management Agency in Missouri, where as many as eight storm-related traffic deaths were reported since snow began falling on Monday afternoon.

The storm was also blamed for at least three fatalities in traffic accidents in Kansas where a travel advisory urging curtailed nonessential travel was in effect.

The snow slowed down air transport, snarled traffic on highways and delayed the journey of hordes of people trying to be home with their families for the Christmas holidays.

One person was killed in New Mexico as up to 10 inches fell on the northern part of the state. An off-duty police officer was killed near Albuquerque when his car slid off a frozen interstate.

Freezing temperatures in large parts of the Southwest mean the snow will stay on the ground through Christmas.

The snow blanketed the Texas Panhandle, dumping about five inches on Amarillo and causing several dozen fender benders among drivers with little experience maneuvering their vehicles through snow.

Residents of Northwest Arkansas awoke to a winter landscape as up to 10 inches fell in that part of the state. Even Dallas saw a few flakes, but no accumulation.

TORNADOES IN SOUTH

In parts of Georgia and Alabama, a tornado and strong thunderstorms brought a not-so-merry Christmas Eve on Tuesday when at least 10 people received minor injuries, officials said.

In southern Alabama, a tornado that touched down around sunrise injured eight people, said meteorologist Bob Goree at the National Weather Service's Tallahassee, Florida, office.

The tornado destroyed mobile homes and barns and flipped small airplanes. Goree said the town of Haleburg in Alabama's Henry County was hardest hit.

Severe thunderstorms from the same weather system damaged scores of homes in southern Georgia and injured at least two people, officials said.

The bad weather reached metropolitan Atlanta, where heavy rains swelled rivers and clogged sewers. Fifteen homes along Peachtree Creek in northwest Atlanta were flooded, forcing some residents to leave, local news reports said. The National Weather Service projected up to 2.5 inches of rain would fall in the metropolitan Atlanta area.

The tornado and thunderstorms were part of a storm system that was expected to move north and bring wintry weather to the U.S. Northeast by Christmas Day, Goree said.

(China Daily December 25, 2002)