100,000 remain without electricity in SE Oklahoma

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Hope appears as ice thaws

The Daily Oklahoman 12/30/2000 By Ron Jackson and Jay Grelen Staff Writers

McALESTER — Hope came in a helicopter Friday as Gov. Frank Keating and his emergency-management team choppered over a mammoth sheet of ice left by a storm that paralyzed much of southeastern Oklahoma, leaving at least 12 people dead in its aftermath, including three children.

The thaw has been slow. The sun has melted ice and cleared streets during the day, only to have everything refreeze at night.

As of Friday, an estimated 104,300 Oklahomans remained without electricity, according to the state Department of Civil Emergency Management. That number included 38,000 Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. customers, 17,090 Public Service of Oklahoma customers in southeastern Oklahoma, and 60,000 rural electric cooperative customers.

Crews worked through Thursday night to restore service to about 3,000 Public Service of Oklahoma customers, mostly in the Talihina and McAlester areas.

“If we can keep from having any more transmission outages, we should be able to continue making progress,” public service spokesman Stan Whiteford said.

While smaller towns including Atoka and Wright City could have electricity by this morning, parts of McAlester likely will be without power the next five to 10 days, he said.

“Those estimates are based on current resources and nothing else bad happening,” Whiteford said.

Oklahoma is expected to receive more snow today when skies will be mostly cloudy with highs ranging from the lower 20s to about 40, the National Weather Service said.

Forecasters said there is another chance of snow Sunday, when highs will be in the lower 20s to lower 30s. Sunday night will dip to near 10 in some parts of the state.

Keating’s inspection of the wreckage in the icy terrain — an area President Clinton has designated for emergency disaster relief — sent the message that help is here and more is coming for thousands of folks who have been without heat, electricity and water since Christmas Day.

As Keating and his aides toured an American Red Cross shelter in downtown McAlester, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was sending 13 power generators from Fort Worth, Texas. Each generator produces enough electricity to run a town’s water system.

“We have a laundry list of requests for water systems,” said Albert Ashwood, state director of the Civil Emergency Management Department. “We don’t have any requests for hospitals yet, but we’ll add them as people inform us of their needs. We have already requested more generators, but we’re still assessing our needs.”

Keating inspected the damage with Ashwood and Billie Cathey, executive director of the Southeastern Oklahoma Chapter of the American Red Cross. Forty-five shelters are already open and more could be established, Cathey told the governor.

“In my 15 years, I’ve dealt with umpteen tornadoes,” Cathey said, “but I’ve never dealt with an ice storm before — certainly nothing like this. Our chapter covers 223,000 square miles, and every bit of it was hit by this ice storm.”

In Idabel, the Red Cross has sheltered about 125 victims a night and has served nearly 1,500 meals, she said. A shelter in Stigler has sheltered an average of about 78 people each night, many of whom were frozen out of their homes. They have served 750 meals.

By Thursday, McAlester looked like a ghost town. Only one gas station was doing business.

“When I came into town, I couldn’t believe what I saw,” said Dennis Elrod, a Red Cross volunteer. “It seemed like every car in town was trying to get gas. The line was a half-mile long.”

Electricity in McAlester — a hub for medical care and commerce in the southeast — was restored to half-capacity Friday morning. Water also flowed by mid-morning thanks to a temporary generator transported from Kentucky.

“We’re doing much better today,” McAlester Fire Chief Joe Benson said. “Yesterday, it was terrible. We had no power and no water.”

McAlester Union Stockyards will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, its normal sale days, because of the weather, owner Julie Grant said. “People normally come from all over the state for the sale,” she said. “We can’t even water the cattle.”

During his tour Friday, Keating learned that no Oklahoman in the disaster area is more than 25 to 30 miles from a shelter. “I have been very impressed with what I have seen,” Keating said. “Everything seems well-organized.”

Keating urged those affected by the storm to notify local authorities of their needs as soon as possible, and officials expect to hear from thousands of people in the coming days. People in rural areas may be without electricity for another 10 days.

“I would ask anyone in that situation to call and try to make arrangements to move to an area where they can get power and water until power can be restored,” Keating said. “We’re trying to get help to people as quickly as we can. We just have to be patient.”

The magnitude of the devastation, coupled with the whims of the weather, will make this a drawn-out affair. Oklahomans are suffering far beyond the boundaries of one town or even one county.

“We do know there are people who are still in the cold and still in the dark,” said Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management. “If you know someone who doesn’t have power, don’t assume they know where the shelter is,” she said.

Capt. Ken Johnson of the Salvation Army said the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma donated bottled water, which the Army delivered by truck to McAlester.

Two of the Salvation Army’s disaster canteens have been sent to the Arkansas-Oklahoma line. The Army has opened its Heart o’ Hills camp in Tahlequah to shelter storm victims, Johnson said.

“This has been a frustrating disaster because you know about people who are having difficulty. You know they have no power or heat, yet with the ice on the ground you can’t get to them,” he said.

The food bank donated 16 pallets of bottled water to McAlester and Eufaula, executive director Rodney Bivens said. “It’s wiped us out,” he said, but the agency can order water from Houston and Missouri if necessary.

Cathey has been overseeing Red Cross operations from the old McAlester High School gymnasium. “The National Guard has been very nice about bringing water trucks,” she said. “We have them in almost every community. And the National Guard has been running generators for shelters. We’re keeping people warm and fed and reasonably comfortable.

“Of course, everybody would like to take a nice hot bubble bath, but that’s not going to happen yet.”

News of the world, even weather forecasts, has been slow arriving at the shelter, she said. “I’ve been here since the 25th, and I’m not sure there is an outside world.”

Bob W. Cooper of Poteau lived in Alaska for six years and endured temperatures of 40 degrees below zero. He knows something about cold, and this storm has been one to remember, said the 80-year-old, who has been without electricity since Monday and didn’t have water for several days.

“In Alaska, it’s cold and it stays cold and you get used to it,” he said. “Here, the weather changes so much.”

For the last few days, he’s been milking his goat herd — and even helped deliver a baby goat — by candlelight.

“My neighbors across the road have power. I guess I’m just not on the right side,” Cooper said. “The wind has turned cold this morning — just cuts through you like a knife.”

CONTRIBUTING: The Associated Press

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), December 30, 2000


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