Tens of thousands of Kansas utility customers are without power Saturday as an early spring blizzard buried parts of the state in snow and ice.

Westar Energy says 14,700 customers don't have power, down from 19,000 earlier in the day. In addition, the Kansas Adjutant General's Department says six rural electric cooperatives are reporting extensive power outages and were seeking help from other utilities.

Most of the utility problems are in south-central Kansas, where up to an eighth of an inch of ice was causing tree branches to snap and knocking down power lines.

Much of the rest of the state was dealing with heavy snow and a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain.

The National Weather Service said the heaviest snow had fallen in parts of southwest Kansas, including 28 inches in the Pratt area with six-foot snow drifts.