News - Blogs - The debt weather causes governments

The debt weather causes governments
Published: 8/24/2011 7:00 AM
Last Modified: 8/24/2011 7:57 AM

Imagine getting trees cleared and utility poles repaired back in 2007, but not getting reimbursed four years later. Hopefully, this utility crew from Gable's Excavating Inc. that worked on this snapped power line laying across 36th Street North at Louisville back in December 2007 aren't still waiting too. Tulsa World File

As a kid, one thing that was not guaranteed, but that you really hoped for and expected, was recess.

Teachers could of course take it away if you misbehaved, or the weather could keep us students indoors so that we didn't get muddy footprints everywhere, but recess was on the schedule. Recess was something you stared at the clock waiting for. Recess was anticipated, expected and desperately needed for squirmy students like me.

Such is the case with local governments, apparently, waiting on non-guaranteed, but expected reimbursement from the state after emergencies.

One of my colleagues, Wayne Greene, wrote a good article this Sunday that you should definitely check out if you haven't already here.

The lead paragraph does a good job summarizing the issue: "The state owes an estimated $36 million to more than 600 cities, counties, electrical cooperatives, state agencies, fire districts, schools and Indian tribes for its share of costs associated with 21 natural disasters dating back to 2007."

Although not required to do so, the state has traditionally paid 12.5 percent of those costs through the State Emergency Fund. The holdup? The fund has a balance of $944.

This means places like here in Tulsa are still waiting on $153,750 for a 2010 winter storm.

A list of local governments owed money can be viewed here.

If I had to wait four years for recess as a kid, let alone four minutes, I'd probably give up hope that I'd ever get recess at all. Hopefully the state inspires some local government confidence by paying off these bills.

On a completely unrelated matter, I will be off in Seattle the next days, an area notorious for something Tulsa has lacked during the past few years: rain. I will try to bring some back with me. Perhaps some will be forecast? Check early and often here.

--Althea Peterson

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Almanac

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

	Temperature		Precipitation
Date	High Temp	Low Temp	Total	Month to date	Historical average
1	44°	16°	0	0.00	0.05
2	59°	24°	0	0.00	0.11
3	57°	33°	0	0.00	0.16
4	68°	37°	Trace	0.00	0.21
5	69°	29°	0	0.00	0.26
6	66°	33°	0	0.00	0.32
7	59°	38°	0.05	0.05	0.38
8	51°	34°	0	0.05	0.44
9	44°	36°	0.01	0.06	0.51
10	62°	37°	0.07	0.13	0.57
11	54°	28°	0	0.13	0.64
12	44°	30°	0.25	0.38	0.70
13	55°	40°	0.01	0.39	0.76
14	°	°			0.83
15	°	°			0.89
16	°	°			0.95
17	°	°			1.02
18	°	°			1.09
19	°	°			1.16
20	°	°			1.23
21	°	°			1.31
22	°	°			1.38
23	°	°			1.46
24	°	°			1.53
25	°	°			1.61
26	°	°			1.69
27	°	°			1.77
28	°	°			1.85

TEMPERATURE

RAINFALL

SNOWFALL

Weather World

Follow Jerry Wofford on Twitter for updates during severe weather conditions.

Tulsa weather milestones of 2013 (as of Feb. 12)

Highest temperature: 70 on Jan. 11 (Record: 115 on Aug. 15, 1936)
Lowest temperature: 15 on Jan. 16 (Record: Minus-16 on Jan. 22, 1930)
Hottest month (average): 40.5 degrees in January (Record: 91.7 degrees on July 1980)
Coldest month (average): 40. 5 degrees in January (Record: 21.7 in January 1918)
Most snowfall (day): 0.1 of an inch on Feb. 12(Record: 13.2 inches on Feb. 1, 2011)
Most snowfall (month): 0.1 of an inch in February(Record: 22.5 inches in February 2011)
Most rainfall (day): 0.91 of an inch on Jan. 29 (Record: 9.27 inches on May 26-27, 1984)
Most rainfall (month): 1.54 of an inch in January (Record: 18.18 inches on September 1971)
Highest wind speed: 30 mph on Jan. 30
Previous day with any rain: Feb. 12
Previous day with 1 inch or more of rain: Oct. 17, 2012
Previous day with any snow: Feb. 12
Previous day with freezing temperatures: Feb. 12
Read regular updates on Oklahoma's unpredictable weather and learn more about meteorology from the Tulsa office of the National Weather Service.

>> Visit the main weather page
>> Send us your weather photos
>> Meet the forecasters

Contributors
Staff Writer Althea Peterson started writing for the Tulsa World in March 2007 after previous stops at the Norman Transcript in 2006 and the Oklahoma Gazette in 2005. She followed her older brother from rural Wisconsin (with a public school that never seemed to call snow days) to the University of Oklahoma, but did not follow his pursuit to study meteorology. However, she tries to find as many opportunities to report on the weather as possible.

Staff Writer Jerry Wofford came to the Tulsa World in 2010 from The Manhattan Mercury in Manhattan, Kan. Originally from western Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Jerry has lived in Tornado Alley his entire life and is one of those people who goes outside when the sirens go off.

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