Residents Tired Of Ice

Winter Storm Warnings were posted for several Northeastern Oklahoma counties on Monday afternoon.  That includes Ottawa County, parts of which were already coated in ice by Monday morning's storm.  The News On 6's Chris Wright reports people in Ottawa County say that, so far, they are taking this round of winter storms in stride.  But they admit they are getting a little tired of dealing with ice.

People in Picher woke up to a thin layer of ice Monday morning.  It covered the nearby chat piles, road signs and chain link fences.

The storm also knocked out power to 500 people in the area for several hours.

"Three, four hour's maybe.  It went off, came back on.  We don't know if the ice caused it or not," said Picher resident Shirley Sharbutt.

Still, Sharbutt was ready to fire up her generator.  She says she went a while without power during December's ice storm, so she was delighted to see the lights come back on so quickly.

"After having being without it for a week the last time, it was a little scary, but we're more prepared this time," said Sharbutt.

Ice is still covering tree limbs left over from the last ice storm.  The roads are a little slick, but residents say this is nothing compared to December.

"We used to take a month every year, and go to Colorado camping out.  Wife and I, I told my wife we're just having a cheap vacation," said Picher resident John Mott.

Mott also endured more than a week without power in December.  The 80-year-old claims he was not fazed by that experience, so just a few hours with no lights was a breeze.

"We had a wonderful adventure, even this winter, it's no problem.  We just enjoy it, whatever," said Mott.

Empire District Electric Company, which provides power for Ottawa County, says it is not sure exactly what caused Monday's outages.  But officials say a lightning strike during the storm may be responsible.