Workers slowly restore power

01/02/2001 The Daily Oklahoman From Staff and Wire Reports

Crews working to restore power to thousands of Oklahomans spent their New Year's Day atop cranes and trudging through thickly wooded problem areas — a week after a Christmas Day ice storm knocked out electricity to much of southeast Oklahoma.

Snow photo gallery Cold opens 2001 across Deep South Road Conditions | Flight schedule Tuesday's closings

Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management, said electric crews were managing better Monday than they did the day before when up to 8 inches of snow fell across the state.

"I think the snow is continuing to cause some problems, but not like yesterday," Ooten said Monday night. "There's going to be pockets where they can't get through, but we're bouncing back from yesterday."

The number of homes and businesses without power declined to about 42,860 Monday night, Ooten said. That's down from about 70,000 who were without power Sunday morning.

A total of 11,000 Oklahoma Gas & Electric customers were still without power early Monday, authorities said. Another 6,160 customers of American Electric Power were without power, and rural electric cooperatives were working to restore electrical service to more than 25,000 customers.

Still, Ooten had only guesses about when power might be restored to all Oklahomans.

"I don't really know specifics on when it will all be back to normal," Ooten said. "I know it will be longer for people whose meters were damaged or pulled off their structure or if people's electric line was pulled from their home.

"It's going to take a while."

She said thick forests were part of the problem in restoring power. She said the small rural cooperatives, from which many Oklahomans get their power, have neither the staff nor infrastructure to deal with widespread outages effectively.

Ooten said 22 emergency shelters and six feeding centers were open across the state, down from 50 on Saturday. Shelters have closed as power in each area is turned back on.

In McAlester, 800 homes and businesses remained without power Monday night, City Manager Randy Green said. Crews were expected to have the power back on to McAlester residents by Thursday, he said.

But electricity problems weren't the only difficulties bringing pause to New Year's Eve celebrations in Oklahoma.

Officially, the deaths of 15 people have been attributed to the Christmas Day winter storm.

At least five people were killed on slick highways in the state on Sunday and Monday after a second storm blanketed the state with snow.

Hayden Barnoski, 54, of Vian was killed Monday when the pickup he was driving lost control on Interstate 40 in Sequoyah County and was hit by a semi-trailer, authorities said.

Meanwhile, 39 counties in Oklahoma have been designated as eligible for federal disaster aid.

"I think it would be safe to say that in the recent memories of people who I've been around here, this stands out as one of the worst," Ooten said. "Personally, I've lived in Oklahoma most of my life, and I don't ever remember anything like this."

Despite the bad weather for the New Year's Eve Opening Night party in downtown Oklahoma City, festival organizers were pleased with the crowd.

About 20,000 people showed up Sunday night to welcome 2001, said Valerie Aubert, Arts Council of Oklahoma City spokeswoman.

"It was a lot of fun. There were people out dancing in the snow," Aubert said.

About 50,000 people attended Opening Night to celebrate 2000.

Oklahoma City rescue crews responded to 28 injury accidents from 6 p.m. Sunday until 6 p.m. Monday.

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), January 02, 2001