Icy Weather Leaves Thousands Without Power

Sunday, December 9th 2007, 8:39 pm

By: News On 6

Communities in Tulsa are cleaning up after ice knocked down trees, and knocked out power, to thousands of homes. PSO reports that more than 25,000 customers in the Tulsa metro area were without electricity on Sunday. The News On 6â€™s Chris Wright reports most areas survived the first round of this storm without any major damage, but residents hope things don't get worse during tonight's second round.

After waking up and finding his yard littered with downed tree limbs, Melvin Wilson went right to work.

"It's been pretty rough going. I woke up this morning to this about 2:30. I heard the ice, and said man I'm gonna have a day," said Tulsa resident Melvin Wilson.

Myona Golver also had a long day. Neighboring horses came over to check out her fence, which was ruined by falling limbs.

"Been a whole lot of cracking. Limbs are coming down from everywhere. Everything is broken down, my back fence, it's just a disaster today," said Tulsa resident Myona Golver.

By early Sunday afternoon, tree cutting crews were already out in force, trying to take care of problem limbs before they became a problem for residents.

On top of broken branches, many homeowners had to deal with power outages. PSO says an estimated 25,000 people in the Tulsa area were without electricity at some point on Sunday. Officials expect that number to jump as the freezing rain continues to fall.

"If they get any heavier, if the precipitation sticks, we could start to see more outages, and it could take longer as the day goes on to get customers back," said PSOâ€™s Andrea Chancellor.

Melvin is not looking forward to that prospect. He says this is already one of the worst ice storms he's ever seen hit North Tulsa.

"This right here is doing it everywhere. Electric lines, and roofs, you see the yard, it's everywhere, just everywhere," said Melvin Wilson.

PSO says it may be Wednesday before everyone's power is restored. The company has also called in crews from neighboring states to help with the effort.

Watch the video: Tulsa Weighed Down With Ice