Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing on Tuesday sent a message to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, expressing his sympathy for the casualties and damages seen across six US states in the current barrage of ice storms.

Since last Friday, waves of freezing rain, sleet and snow have so far claimed 41 lives across Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, New York, Texas and Maine, US media reported.

The weight of the ice snapped tree limbs, popped transformers and weighed down on electricity cables making them sag, knocking out power to about 145,000 customers in New York and New Hampshire on Monday.

The heaviest snowfalls were predicted for western and northern Maine, with the weather service reporting up to 12 inches with the storm was expected to abate on Tuesday morning.

The storm provided a stark contrast to recent weeks in the East, where temperatures have been far above seasonal averages and the ground has been bare with a lack of snow. The unseasonable weather has even drawn out golfers and bicyclists this month, who usually abandon their hobbies aside for the duration of the winter months.

In hard-hit Missouri, the utility company Ameren said it electricity would not likely not return until Wednesday night. As of Monday afternoon, around 312,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity.

Missouri National Guardsmen went door to door, checking on residents, and helped clear slick roads. Drury University, in Springfield, announced the closure of its campuses until Jan. 22, citing fallen trees and a lack of power at some residence halls.

About 100,000 homes and businesses that were blacked out in Oklahoma, some of them since the storm's first wave struck on Friday, are still awaiting power. Ice built up by sleet and freezing rain lay 4 inches thick in places.

"Emergency responders are having a hard time getting to residents where their services are needed because of trees and power lines in the road," said Pittsburg County, Okla., Under-Sheriff Richard Sexton.

The Army Corps of Engineers dispatched soldiers from Tulsa to deliver 100 emergency generators to the McAlester area. Fifty additional generators were being sent from Fort Worth, Texas, by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

At the height of the storm, almost 200,000 customers in Michigan suffered from power outages. As much as a half-inch of ice covered trees, roads and power lines in southern Michigan, with the central Lower Peninsula under 5 inches of snow.

More than 160 flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport with educational authorities closing the University of Texas and Austin public schools Tuesday.

At a Blockbuster video store in south Austin, Texas, long lines snaked through the store as customers prepared to stay in for the night. At a nearby grocery store, soup shelves were nearly empty after shoppers had stockpiled provisions.

A wave of arctic air trailed the storm and was expected to push temperatures into the single digits in some areas. Oklahoma officials strongly discouraged travel, saying the frigid weather would refreeze slush and water on roads.

Waves of freezing rain, sleet and snow since Friday have been blamed for at least 17 deaths in Oklahoma, eight in Missouri, eight in Iowa, four in New York, three in Texas and one in Maine. Seven of the Oklahoma deaths occurred in one incident when a minivan carrying 12 people slid off an icy highway Sunday and hit an oncoming truck.

In California, three nights of freezing temperatures have destroyed up to three-quarters of the state's US$1 billion citrus crop, according to an estimate issued Monday. Other crops, including avocados and strawberries, also suffered damage.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily via agencies January 17, 2007)