PSO Having Fewer Problems With Trees Falling On Power Lines

By Tara Vreeland, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- The weight of ice on tree branches causes them to snap and often fall into power lines and that can cause power outages.

Tulsa has come away almost entirely unscathed by limbs crashing into lines.

PSO attributes that to preparation. They say they had a fleet of more than 1,000 outside resources come to Oklahoma to help.

"2007 was a lot worse. The ice was a lot thicker. Everything was broken. The power was out everywhere. It doesn't seem as bad here this time. Just a lot more snow really," said Michael Evans, Asplundh Tree Experts.

Winter weather is not stopping tree trimmers.

"It's not very fun but somebody's got to do it," Evans said.

PSO says they only had one power outage caused by trees falling into power lines. Most of the trees were already scheduled to be cut.

"I don't think there is such thing as over prepared," said Stan Whiteford, PSO.

As of Friday afternoon, PSO says less than 150 customers in Tulsa were without power. The Lawton and Chickasha areas were not so lucky.

"It's a completely different story over on the other side of the state, out in southwestern Oklahoma upwards of 68,000 customers who are out," Whiteford said.

Falling trees limbs aren't the main reason for the outages.

"We have quite a lot of work to do out there. A lot of transmission structures collapsed under the weight of the snow and ice and with the gusty winds that they had yesterday really hurt things," Whiteford said.

PSO says it could take several days to get the power back on to those customers due to the magnitude of transmission outages.

However, we are not out of the woods yet.

"We're still getting snow today and while snow is typically not a big issue for causing power outages, it can and on top of the ice it could cause some more," Whiteford said.