Warm weather allows electric crews to make headway

Higher temperatures have meant easier going for crews working to restore power to about 7,839 homes and businesses in Oklahoma.

The mercury rose to 54 degrees Thursday in McAlester, one of the areas hardest hit by the Christmas ice storm. Even the colder northern areas of Oklahoma were into the mid-40s.

Officials at American Electric Power-PSO said they were able to cut the number of their powerless customers in southeastern Oklahoma from 2,200 Thursday morning to 739 by late afternoon. They partly credited the warming weather.

"Ice has played a major role in getting to some locations,"

said Stan Whiteford, company spokesman. "So the more it thawed, the more access it allowed.

"Plus, it just makes the overall working conditions more bearable."

The temperature in Oklahoma City topped 45 degrees for the first time since Dec. 23 Thursday, according to the National Weather Service in Norman.

"The snow has melted so rapidly in the last couple days that temperatures can now easily get back into the 50s," NWS meteorologist Dave Floyd said. "That's because we have a lot more bare ground, so now part of the sun's energy heats the ground, which in turn heats the air."

Meanwhile, officials with the Choctaw Electric Cooperative hoped to have most of its 1,200 powerless customers restored by the weekend.

"There will still be a few scattered outages after that, and those could take several more days because they are at remote locations," Choctaw Electric spokesman Tre Roberts said.

In Eufaula, temperatures in the 50s Thursday allowed cleanup crews to begin removing fallen tree limbs across town.

Officials said some stacks of limbs in town were more than 25 feet tall.

In the Pittsburg County community of Krebs -- next to McAlester -- officials used the break in cold weather to thank residents who helped powerless neighboring communities throughout the aftermath of the ice storm.

In all, Krebs assisted 1,500 residents as far away as Stuart in western Hughes County and Quinton in northeastern Pittsburg County when their respective water systems went out, Police Chief Dennis Cook said.

Residents from other towns who needed water showed up at the Krebs City Hall and Fire Department, many carrying cookie tins, soft-drink bottles and 55-gallon drums.

He said other assistance such as food, batteries, flashlights and other medicine was delivered.

"The outreach here," Cook said, "I've never seen anything like it."