On December 9-11, 2007, the biggest, meanest ice storm in the history of Tulsa, Oklahoma left 234,000 homes and businesses without electric power. Freezing rain coated the power lines, poles, and trees with layer after layer of ice until the weight of the ice was too great for the trees and the wood fell. The trees dropped their ice-laden branches on power lines causing the power lines to break and hit the ground. Houses and cars were not spared either. It was a frightening sound, the poping and cracking of broken limbs descending to earth. Then as quickly as it came, the ice melted leaving our city in the dark.
The aftermath was mind-blowing, streets filled with downed trees, dark and cold. The first job was to clear the streets and make them open for traffic. Many people needed a warm place to stay and a hot meal. Here the churches responded by setting up shelters to provide these things. Next came the convoys of out-of-state linemen and tree workers, 8000 of them from 14 different states made their way into the city. It was a welcome sight to see the trucks moving through the city in groups of five to fifteen guided by a local city worker. A truly massive effort was underway. It was common to see as many as 35 trucks in staging areas across the city. The army of workers were housed in the old IPE building on the fair grounds, a huge building about the size of seven football fields. They are still here working hard, but now most of the city has electricity. We can’t thank them enough. I took some photos and posted them HERE.
© 2007, Lekatt. All rights reserved.
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