The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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December 17, 2007

Residents grow weary after more than a week without power

OKLAHOMA CITY — Rebeca Rascon bundled up her two children against a brisk wind Monday 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 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.”

Rascon was one of dozens of customers without power who reported their outage Monday to officials with Oklahoma Gas & Electric, the state’s largest electric utility. The company set up temporary walk-up stations in nine different cities across central Oklahoma.

Statewide, 91,423 homes and businesses remained without power late Monday. The state Medical Examiner’s office said the ice storm contributed to at least 27 deaths, 16 in traffic accidents, eight in fires, two from carbon monoxide fumes and one from hypothermia.

OG&E; reported more than 56,000 without power, mostly in the Oklahoma City area, while Tulsa-based Public Service Company of Oklahoma reported just over 24,000 outages. The Oklahoma Association of Rural Cooperatives reported 5,712 customers without power Monday, mostly from Verdigris Valley Electric Cooperative in Collinsville, which was working to repair damaged high-voltage transmission lines that move electricity from the power plant to the substations.

Powerless customers of Municipal Electric Systems of Oklahoma numbered about 3,900 and some 900 customers of Empire District Electric Co. had no electricity, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management reported.

Margy Knight, who owns several rental and commercial properties in south Oklahoma City that are without power, said she’s stopped by OG&E;’s station every day for the last week and acknowledges 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.”

Bill Smith, the president of Mid-States Wholesale Lumber in Oklahoma City, said his businesses has been without power for more than a week and it’s starting to affect his bottom line.

“It’s costing us money every day,” Smith said. “We can’t operate. We need some help.

“This time of year is pretty slow for us anyway, but this just makes it worse.”

Rick McCown, a field account supervisor for OG&E;, acknowledges some customers are anxious and disgruntled, but stressed the company is working overtime to restore power to its customers.

“We let them know that we’ve got people on the ground working to get power restored,” McCown said. “We try to be patient with them and let them know we understand their frustration and what they’re going through.”

Gil Broyles, a spokesman for OG&E; said officials are projecting crews to have restoration completed by late Wednesday or Thursday.

“We will still be doing a category of work called reconnects that have to do with people who had damage to their houses and have to retain the services of an electrician” before crews can restore electricity, Broyles said.

Meanwhile, 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. Officials reported 349 people stayed at the shelter Sunday night, down from more than 400 on Friday and Saturday nights.

The storm and resulting power outages has been particularly difficult for low-income families, said Vince Hernandez, chairman of the American Red Cross of Central Oklahoma.

Many people depleted their funds stocking up on food before the storm that went bad when the power went out, 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,” Hernandez said.

Trent and Lacey Boyer of Oklahoma City spent Monday morning playing dominoes with some other temporary residents of the downtown Oklahoma City shelter.

“We toughed it out at home for the first few days, but then it got too cold,” Lacey Boyer said.

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.”

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