TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas transportation officials have reopened some roads leading from southwestern Kansas into the Oklahoma Panhandle.

The Department of Transportation said Monday evening that U.S. 56 at Elkhart, U.S. 54 west of Liberal and Kansas 25 in Stevens County were reopened to southbound traffic after winter storm conditions in Oklahoma improved.

But parts of several other south-central and southwest Kansas highways -- including some leading into Oklahoma -- remained closed Monday night because of blowing and drifting snow.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported one storm-related fatality Monday, in the northwestern part of the state.

The patrol says 21-year-old Carlos Esqueda of Kansas City, Kan., died when the SUV he was driving hit an icy patch and overturned on Interstate 70 in Sherman County around 9 a.m. Esqueda was thrown from the vehicle.