Oklahoma Struggles to Recover from Storm

by Brian A Kennedy | December 18, 2007 at 05:58 am

1608 views | 8 Recommendations | 27 comments

It's been over a week, and parts of Oklahoma are still fighting to get back on their feet. Eight days without power for some people.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Rebeca Rascon bundled up her two children against a brisk wind as she arrived to report power at her south Oklahoma City home was still off more than a week after an ice storm battered the state.

Although Rascon spoke little English, her 7-year-old son, Josue Velasquez, described the house Monday as "very cold."

"We've got eight days without lights," the boy said while his mother zipped up his jacket. "We just sit on the couch and wait for the lights to come on."

More than 91,000 homes and businesses remained without power early Tuesday. Overnight temperatures in the state in the past week have dipped into the teens.

Residents struggling to get by have a new problem to rival dwindling temperatures: dwindling bank accounts. Many have depleted their money on food that has now spoiled, or on hotels.

Some stocked up on food before the storm, while others used money to stay in a hotel, thinking power would be restored within a day or two.

"We've had people using generators who ran out of money for fuel to operate the generators," said Vince Hernandez, chairman of the American Red Cross of Central Oklahoma.

Hundreds of people found a place to sleep and hot meals over the weekend at a temporary shelter established at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma Gas & Electric, the state's largest electric utility, set up temporary walk-up stations in nine central Oklahoma cities for customers to report power failures. Officials are projecting crews to have restoration completed by late Wednesday or Thursday.

Margy Knight, who owns several rental and commercial properties in south Oklahoma City that are without power, said she's getting frustrated with the lack of progress. "I'm trying real hard not to be tacky," Knight said. "I think they're doing the best they can, but they need more manpower."

Jerry Odom said he's tried to make the best of the situation, attending a Blazers hockey game at the Cox Center and taking a walk through the nearby Oklahoma City Botanical Gardens.

"I'm trying to make a vacation out of it," Odom said. "I'm dealing with it the best I can."

The state medical examiner's office said the ice storm that struck the Midwest and Northeast last week hit Oklahoma hardest, contributing to at least 27 of the 38 total deaths.

In Kansas, where six deaths were blamed on last week's storm, about 24,000 customers remained without power, and some of those in rural areas might not see electricity restored for a week or more. The reason is another winter storm expected later this week, said Larry Detwiler of the Kansas Electric Cooperatives.

"We all hope for everybody to be back on by Christmas," he said. "I'm not sure that's a realistic goal."

While the Plains struggled to put power back on, a swath of the country from the Great Lakes to New England dug out from a weekend storm that dumped 18 inches of snow in some places. At least eight traffic deaths were reported.

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cynthia yoo

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 09:57 on December 18th, 2007

Rob Peters

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:12 on December 18th, 2007

Eight days without power is rough. There's only so much zoodles and ravioli one can eat.

DScott28604

at 11:20 on December 18th, 2007

My parents' land near Skiatook, Oklahoma looks as though a tornado has traveled through, destroying everything in its path. We have hundreds of trees on our property and so far, it looks like only one escaped severe damage. Many were split right down the middle, and the road was unpassable for days. It's now been 10 days without electricity and it doesn't look like they'll have power restored any time soon. Luckily, we have a generator and a fireplace.

DScott28604 has contributed a photo to this story.

legalsec

at 11:23 on December 18th, 2007

We lost our power Monday, December 10th at about 4:30 a.m. It came back on Sunday, December 16th at about 7:00 p.m. We didn't suffer too much considering we had a fireplace, gas oven and gas hot water heater. But, nevertheless, I was extremely happy to have our electricity back!!!

legalsec has contributed a photo to this story.

ComWired

at 11:29 on December 18th, 2007

The ice storm in Oklahoma City was bad for us we lost power for 7 days. I never want to live through that again :)

ComWired has contributed a photo to this story.

thatothrgirl

at 11:29 on December 18th, 2007

This was just one of the trees hanging down into the road on the way out to Jones, Oklahoma, to see the burn High School that was destroyed durning the ice storm.

thatothrgirl has contributed a photo to this story.

cynthia yoo

at 11:39 on December 18th, 2007

From the photos, the devastation was clear, but also some of the photos were beautiful and I think the people taking the photos knew it too.

ryan

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:48 on December 18th, 2007

Brian A Kennedy, great footage - thanks for all the photos!

timat10

at 11:56 on December 18th, 2007

Beauty behind the beast

timat10 has contributed a photo to this story.

timat10

at 11:59 on December 18th, 2007

The photo was taken by Teresa & Fish of Cleveland, OK. who were without power for about 7 days. Might as well enjoy the beauty!

Planet Protector

at 11:58 on December 18th, 2007

It is amazing how something so beautiful can cause so much devastation.

Planet Protector has contributed a photo to this story.

Lynnola

at 12:00 on December 18th, 2007

Shamrock,Oklahoma

Lynnola has contributed a photo to this story.

cimarroncat

at 12:01 on December 18th, 2007

I had this dream of a beautiful, park-like landscape and planted hundreds of trees and shrubs for the past 12 years. My dream, my very own masterpiece of a garden did not escape this ice storm's wrath and took major damage. We had no power, had no heat for one full week. But I had a camera. And even though this storm had been so destructive, it was beautiful. Very beautiful. The first photograph is of a very large Hollyberry tree, at first glance appearing severely damaged and collapsed. But walking up to it I saw how stunning it looked with a multitude of icicles dripping down from its branches. It looked like a most beautiful Christmas tree.

cimarroncat has contributed a photo to this story.

melodrama maniac

at 12:38 on December 18th, 2007

This is the second day of the ice storm that struck Oklahoma. The town of Collinsville looked like a war zone. As the days progressed it only became worse. This is my brothers home. Today he marks 9 days without power.

melodrama maniac has contributed a photo to this story.

rockwed2004

at 13:15 on December 18th, 2007

This is a picture of an Oklahoma Red Bud tree on the night that the ice came through Oklahoma city. You can see the weight of the ice taking it's toll on the 26 year old tree.

rockwed2004 has contributed a photo to this story.

dontbesojumpy

at 16:51 on December 18th, 2007

on nw 17th in okc

dontbesojumpy has contributed a photo to this story.

oklahoman

at 17:36 on December 18th, 2007

The ice storm necessitated a trip for supplies and a gasoline powered chainsaw because, like so many in Oklahoma, we had no electricity for a week.

oklahoman has contributed a photo to this story.

cosmicautumn

at 18:03 on December 18th, 2007

One of many broken trees.

cosmicautumn has contributed a photo to this story.

PEP

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 18:35 on December 18th, 2007

Brian A Kennedy, thanks for following up on this. It'll be awhile before things get settled down here.

Scissortailed

at 20:38 on December 18th, 2007

In Purcell, OK, around 35 miles south of Oklahoma City, we were spared the major catastrophe of the recent ice storm. However there were still minor accumulations on vegetation, such as this on a juniper in my yard.

Scissortailed has contributed a photo to this story.

cosraifoto

at 08:28 on December 19th, 2007

We were the lucky ones. We never lost power- it just flickered a few times. And our trees received only minimal damage. For us, it was just some time off from school for the kids.

cosraifoto has contributed a photo to this story.

twig73010

at 20:41 on December 19th, 2007

From Blanchard Oklahoma
On the 15th after about three hrs or so just after all this started,I stepped outside on the front porch, to take a quick look outside,and I heard tree limbs popping in the distance, and that sounded like small arms fire. It was just one right after another,and an hr or so later I had limbs falling on and around our house, which did minor roof damage such as a few shingles knocked off, and a broken riser on our electric meter. That was caused by broken tree limb's landing on the wire. The next day I went across town and saw trees and limb's down everywhere! They blocked roads, driveways, caused at least on house fire here in town and of course a lot of overall damage.

twig73010 has contributed a photo to this story.

PDBigham

at 19:25 on December 20th, 2007

The ice storm caused significant damage but there's no question that it created some beautiful scenes too. The silence caused by the lack of power was eerie and was only interupted by the occasional crash of a falling ice covered branch or emergency vehicle siren.

PDBigham has contributed a photo to this story.

Cali2Okie

at 09:36 on December 21st, 2007

My inlaws (where my photos were taken) went 10 days before power was restored, and my mom in law is now baking like a crazy woman for the piles of family that are coming in this weekend for the Holidays. She and I would not be able to do this without the hundreds of workers that have been going 24/7 since this mess hit us. She is in Collinsville and I am in Skiatook. I would like to take this time and space to say thank you to all the men and women that left thier families and promised to stay until the lights were back on for those of us that got hit with this. Crews came in from too many states to list here, and I say from the bottom of my heart THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! May the generosity you have shown come back to you 10 fold. And thank your families for all of us that made it ok for you to leave them just before the holidays. We appreciate you more than you will ever know!

sleepsurveyor

at 12:10 on December 21st, 2007

I moved away from Oklahoma City nearly 5 years ago. I now live in sunny Huntington Beach, CA. I was just visiting when the ice storm hit, and I was delayed flying out for 2 extra days. I had begun taking beautiful weather for granted! OKC looked like a tornado hit it. I don't miss the cold weather, and am happy to be home in CA.

GodfreyPixton has contributed a photo to this story.

foy0613

at 18:21 on December 22nd, 2007

Taken Monday morning of the storm, after the whole neighborhood had lost power and I was off to seek warmth at a friend's house. I could hardly find a street that was clear of trees to exit from. This was in the median on Shartel in Crown Heights near Westminster. So sad to lose all of the old growth trees to such an extent!

foy0613 has contributed a photo to this story.