The Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY – A blast of cold air turned rain into a freezing drizzle Monday, blanketing the state in ice, contributing to at least 15 deaths and blacking out a half-million homes and businesses in the biggest power outage in state history. A wintry storm left ice up to an inch thick in areas. Thirteen people died in car accidents on slick roads, and a 46-year-old male transient died overnight from hypothermia, the state medical examiner's office said. Officials in Tulsa said one person died from smoke inhalation in a fire caused by the storm. A state of emergency was declared for the entire state. More than 426,000 customers of Oklahoma Gas & Electric, the state's largest utility, and Public Service Company of Oklahoma were without power Monday afternoon, many in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa areas. Thousands more customers of smaller utilities also were without power Monday as ice weighed down power lines and sent tree limbs crashing into wires. Utility officials said the outage total easily surpassed previous power disruptions. "If you do the math, probably one out of three Oklahomans has no electricity at this point," said Gil Broyles, a spokesman for OG&E. Utility officials said it could be a week or more before power is fully restored. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sent 50 generators and three truckloads of bottled water from Texas to distribute to blacked-out areas. Most flights at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City were delayed or canceled, and flight operations at Tulsa International Airport were halted Monday when the airport lost power for about 10 hours. "The best-case scenario is that they'll resume operations Tuesday morning," said Tulsa airport spokeswoman Alexis Higgins. Some hospitals were operating with backup power generators. Portions of Interstates 35 and 44 were shut down early Monday afternoon in Oklahoma City after ice-laden power lines collapsed and fell into the roadways. The icy weather stretched into the Northeast. Winter-weather warnings and advisories were posted along a cold front that stretched from Texas to New Hampshire. The wintry weather was expected to continue through midweek. The National Weather Service posted ice and winter-storm warnings today for parts of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. Ice was up to an inch thick on tree limbs and power lines in parts of the region. Missouri declared an emergency Sunday and put the National Guard on alert. In Oklahoma, emergency-response officials urged residents not to go outside their homes to move fallen tree limbs because of the dangerous conditions. Some areas were without water or had low water pressure because there was no electricity to run well pumps. In the Oklahoma City suburb of Jones, a fire destroyed the community's high school. In Oklahoma City, about 100 people milled around in the lobby of the City Rescue Mission, where outside more than a dozen bicycles were locked together in a block of ice. Matt McQuay, 37, a resident at the mission, said more than 500 people spent the night Sunday evening to escape the bitter cold. "I camped out a few times at a place down by the river ... but when the weather gets this bad, you'll find them here," he said. A couple dozen people took shelter in the First Baptist Church in downtown Tulsa overnight; some were stranded passengers from the nearby Greyhound bus station, others were residents without power who needed a warm place to stay. Tawona Davis of Fort Worth was traveling to visit her mother near Canton, Ohio, but her trip stalled in Tulsa on Sunday night when the bus was unable to travel on frozen roads. She was thankful that the American Red Cross set up a shelter in the church. "If it wasn't for the Red Cross, we'd be laying on our luggage," she said. The sound of branches snapping under the weight of ice echoed through Oklahoma City neighborhoods. "You can hear them falling everywhere," Lonnie Compton said Monday as he shoveled ice off his driveway. A large elm tree in his front yard crashed onto his wife's sport utility vehicle overnight. Some relief was expected last night as warmer air continued to push north across Oklahoma, the National Weather Service said. The Associated Press