Barnyard Bob Surveys Ice Damage

Friday, January 26th 2007, 9:53 am

By: News On 6

The power is coming back on in communities hit hard by Oklahomaâ€™s recent ice story. A tree farmer in Coweta got his power back Thursday night, just short of two weeks after he lost it in the ice storm. News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says now heâ€™s wondering whatâ€™s going to happen with his tree farm.

We paid a visit to an old friend of the News on 6, Barnyard Bob. He's a tree farmer out in Coweta, but these days much of his crop is hunched over, and Bob doesn't know how much all the ice damage will add up to be.

"I have no earthly idea, I just know it's a mess," Bob â€œBarnyardâ€ Sandford said.

Bob has had a lot of time to think about the downed limbs, broken tops and bent trees. For the last two weeks he's been without power, and after deciding the power might not come back soon, he bought a generator to get by. Thursday night the power company came through.

"I had already gone to bed, next thing I knew the lights came on, the fans came on and I said hey we got power back," he said.

Even though there has been a federal disaster declaration, the farmers are a lot like everyone else, no one knows if help for individuals is coming anytime soon. If that happened he might get some help to pay for that generator, and maybe for part of his crop losses.

Whatever happens, Barnyard Bob figures he'll bounce back, even though his trees probably won't.

There are still about 1,200 homes without power because of the ice storm, almost all of them are in rural areas, places like Barnyard Bobâ€™s tree farm.