Plains' ice storm cuts power again

　　Ice and snow across the southern Plains on US since Sunday have brought down power lines and cut electricit y to more than 590,000 homes and businesses. In some pl aces, people had no telephone or water service either; the ice storm brought down telephone lines, and the pow er outages disabled municipal water pumps.

　　The cold and ice have been blamed for 14 deaths sin ce Monday: four in New Mexico, nine in Texas and one in Missouri.

　　It is the second time around for this kind of situa tion. An ice storm knocked out power to nearly 250,000 customers in Arkansas on Dec. 12-13. Some homes were no t reconnected until last Friday.

　　The southern Plains see icy weather a few times eac h year, but seldom so much so often.

　　By Brian Skolofe