Ice Storm in Okieland

[Jeff Cybulski]

Hope everyone in the OK, KS, MO area are doing allright. We've had the worse ice storm and power outage in history. No power since 3am Sunday in NE Oklahoma. For me it looks like no power till at least 12/16. I do have a small generator that allows us to run a spaceheater and keep the freezer going. This is not fun. Was working on a jewlery box for SWMBO x-mas. Hopefully I'll get it done. The upside is a lot of nice wood for turning to be had, but a shame to loose the tops of all the trees

Jeff

[Dennis Hatchett]

The upside is a lot of nice wood for turning to be had, but a shame to loose the tops of all the trees

Sorry to hear about all the destruction and inconvenience going on. This is the time when folks need to watch out for each other. Hope you get through it ok.

My folks are in Oklahoma City and we lost a pecan tree I grew up climbing. It must have been about 60 or 70 years old. But just like you, the upside is I should have some really nice turning blanks if I can get them to Oregon affordably. I've told dad not to chop it up until I arrive. I also have dibs on a walnut tree but I have to scheme on shipping to make it worth my while. I'll be there for Christmas so I hope to scope out some other salvaged wood.

[Brian Kent]

Hey, all you folks with no power, get on the internet and let us know how...
oh wait a minute:confused:!

[Jim O'Dell]

We have several friends and family in the OKC area, and in the Tulsa area without power. For those with a fireplace, they can at least stay somewhat warm, if they have wood. My niece and her new husband knew the storm was coming, stocked up on food, but now it is spoiling because they don't have power. I told my Mom they need to put it outside!!! She told them the same thing.:D
I've been through an ice storm back in 1968 in Ada, OK. To this day I can still hear the transformers exploding one right after another during the middle of the night. If my Grandparents hadn't had a house with a couple fireplaces, we would have been in big trouble. I also remember trying to ride my motorcycle on the ice!!:eek: :rolleyes: That didn't last too long. :D Jim.

[Bruce Page]

My SIL is caught up in that mess, lives not too far from Tinker AFB. She's not a happy camper.

[Mike Marcade]

Sorry for your pain, but I certainly hope it doesn't come any further south.

[Eddie Watkins]

I finally got my electricity back on last night (Wednesday) about 6. It had been off since Monday 3:00 am. We were able to stay warm using our fireplaces and ,since we are on a well, I caught rain water off the roof to flush toilets so it wasn't too bad. The roads never really iced up so we were able to go buy bottled water and food. Also, my neighbor is on Rural Electric Co-op and her power was back on Tuesday so I was able to run a 200' extension to run some lights, a TV, and keep my cell phone charged. I couldn't use it for the refrigerator because of the drop in amperage over that distance could have damaged the refrigerator. A friend whose a electrician told me not to do it, throwing out the food would be cheaper than replacing the frig.
Virtually every tree on my property has been broken to some degree, most totally ruined. My granddaughter's school is closed until next Monday so I am babysitting and am really sick of Dora the Explorer but that is better than piggyback rides at my age:D. LOML is in Washington, DC for the week so I am just hoping she can get home Friday. Bad weather anywhere affects flights everywhere. All in all life is good with the electricity back on.

Eddie

[Brian Patton]

In central Illinois last year , power was out for over 10 days. 1" of freezing rain and then temps into the single digits for the next two weeks ( so no thaw!)
I was one of the fortunate ones in that I have two wood stoves and a pond ( water source for toilets ) - sure was boring though- dark with only oil lamps . This summer the 15,000 watt LP generator gets installed.
The loml was lost without TV, and the PC !

Hope all goes well !
best regards,
JBP

[Steve Clardy]

Hope everyone in the OK, KS, MO area are doing allright. We've had the worse ice storm and power outage in history. No power since 3am Sunday in NE Oklahoma. For me it looks like no power till at least 12/16. I do have a small generator that allows us to run a spaceheater and keep the freezer going. This is not fun. Was working on a jewlery box for SWMBO x-mas. Hopefully I'll get it done. The upside is a lot of nice wood for turning to be had, but a shame to loose the tops of all the trees

Jeff


We were without power for almost three days.
Luckily I had a generator that I had ordered about 10 days before.
I went and got it after the first outage.
Its enough to run our water well, frig and deepfreeze and a few lights.
Power came back on yesterday afternoon finally.
We heat with wood mainly, and have LP gas for a backup, so staying warm wasn't a problem.



You all that still don't have power, take care of yourselves now.;)

[Greg Cole]

I live in KC and thankfully when much of the moisture came down, the air was stratified by temperature zones just enough so we got more rain than freezing rain. Still wound up with about 1/2".... my incoming power service line is on the ground with a 6" elm limb holding it to the earth, but thankfully power still works. I'm on the list, but since power is working, I'm waaaaaay down at the bottom. The folks on the other side of the same street have been w/out power for 2 days now....
I was in the shop Tuesday & Wednesday nights and I could hear an awful lot of branches & limbs coming down from the neighbors old 3/4 dead elms.... free fire wood for the fire pit on the patio I guess as I don't turn unless it's metal.
There are some small localized areas that are just obliterated with tens of thousands without power, phone etc....
I never understood-understand why all utilities aren't buried 'round here, they are in new developments for the most part..... But it's not like this hasn't been tornado alley for centuries & ice storms are far from new events either. The initial costs would be easily recovered after one big storm (or a couple F4's like in May a few years back here in KC) blows through and doesn't knock out all these lines etc, not too mention the labor costs for working around the clock for weeks to get the juice back on......

Thoughts and wishes for speedy restoration of services & clean up to all in the affected areas.
I do have to say that with the sun shining today, the ice on the trees and everything else is pretty neat but little consolation to those with no power.

Greg

[Jim McFarland]

We were lucky in that power company did a lot of power line tree trimming in our area this past summer -- we were only without power for about 30 hours (still 100,000+ w/o power in the Tulsa area). Thought I'd share a couple of photos from the view from my garage. We have ~350 trees (hackberry, elm, persimmon, ash, dogwood, redbud and pecan) on our 2.5 acre lot and 90% have at least some damage. I suspect I'll have to cut down 50+ trees from the damage. We planted some Northern Red Oaks when we moved here in 1992 and, thankfully, they have very little damage.

[Jeff Cybulski]

Jim, your yard looks like mine. I went up to Lowes in Owasso this morning at 7am and they got in 4 5000w Coleman generators. Needless to say I bought one $650 out the door. Now I can run 2 space heaters a light and TV. The temp inside the house is now 62F - was 57 yesterday. I'm going to talk to my electrician neighbor tomorrow and make up a pigtail so I can run my water heater. Believe it or not we still have luke warm hot water. We have a 40 gallon heater in the master bedroom closet so it's stayed warm. the one in the garage is now cold. We're suppose to get 2-4 inches of wet snow tomorrow night so round 2 is coming.

Jeff