The death toll from a winter storm that affected residents from Texas to New England rose to 51 Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
The storm, which had nearly exited off the East Coast by Tuesday, brought high winds, snow, ice and flooding to areas of the country from Oklahoma to Maine. Approximately 400,000 homes and businesses still did not have electricity Tuesday, including 92,000 in Oklahoma, according to the AP.
"There are a lot of places where virtually everything is destroyed," said Public Service Company of Oklahoma spokesman Stan Whiteford. "In some cases, entire electric services will have to be rebuilt."
The storm caused at least 17 deaths in Oklahoma, with additional fatalities occurring in Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New York and Texas. The White House designated the state of Oklahoma, St. Louis and 34 Missouri counties as disaster areas, making federal funding available.
