Osage County Storm Victims Wait For Power To Be Restored

People who live rural Osage County have been without power since Monday night and are getting anxious.

Rachel Clark said she and her neighbors think a tornado blew through the area where she lives Monday night. The power went out at 9:20 p.m. Monday, September 1, 2014, as the storm raged and has been out ever since, she said.

Clark said the affected area is along Highway 99 where it branches off from Highway 60 north of Pawhuska. 

"We are all fine," she said. "Sure makes you appreciate the finer things in life (AC, lights, running water, showers)," she said in an email to News On 6.

"We are trying to save as much food as we can by using generators to keep a refrigerator going. Some of the neighbors have hauled out their refrigerators to their families' houses," Clark wrote.

Kimberly Loffer with Verdigris Valley Electric Cooperative said the utility has brought in private contractors to help repair the damaged poles. She said that as of noon Wednesday, 183 VVEC meters in the area were still without power. At the peak of the outage 488 customers didn't have power.

Loffer said the storm broke 32 poles in the area and the crews fixed 15 of them Tuesday night. She said the remaining 17 broken poles will be replaced and service restored to all customers by Wednesday evening.

Clark said she knows the utility crews are working hard. She said she and many of her neighbors are worried about their livestock and the outage and the drought have made for a real hardship.