Sapulpa Brings Out Heavy Equipment To Clear Roads

Monday, December 10th 2007, 9:35 am

By: News On 6

Fallen tree limbs blocked dozens of roads and created travel problems in Sapulpa. Many had trouble just getting out of their neighborhoods. The News On 6â€™s Ashli Sims reports Sapulpa city workers from all departments were deployed to help get all of this out of the streets.

Where cars couldn't go, a bulldozer did. More than 150 Sapulpa city workers took to the streets to do some heavy lifting. Ice-covered trees split almost to the base were a road hazard for many.

"It's terrible. We have trees all over. In fact, we were woke up early this morning with trees falling on the house and limbs falling. And our streets are covered with trees just everywhere," said Melissa MacArthur.

And the cracking and snapping continued throughout the day.

"Oh yeah, about every ten seconds," said Cory Sontag.

Sontag watched as his neighborsâ€™ tree continued to disintegrate over his own house.

"Yeah, I hope it doesn't fall through. Luckily, I have homeowners," said Sontag.

Across the street, Cory Sontag's neighbor was living his nightmare. An old tree smashed into her home, punching through the roof of the porch.

The limbs that spared homes showed no mercy for power lines. Sapulpa's outages are spotty, but thousands are in the dark.

Melissa MacArthur says she and her three girls had a sleepless, power-free night. They bundled up their nerves, some clothes, and headed to the shelter at First Baptist Church for the night.

"It was getting later, so I went to the hotel and there were no vacancies. There were some people selling generators, but they were really, really expensive. So, I stopped by the fire department, and they told me to come here," said Melissa MacArthur.

"Really, there's no need to stay at home and suffer. There's plenty of shelters set up. I know there are some setup in Broken Arrow, Tulsa, and here. The Red Cross and the Baptist Disaster Relief organizations are making sure that there's food available," said Doyle Pryor with First Baptist Church of Sapulpa.

Water in Sapulpa is in short supply, but that's about to change. Several back-up generators are on their way from Texas. That should get the city's water treatment plant back on line by Tuesday morning

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