Tulsa World: Tulsans still waiting for their power

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Tulsans still waiting for their power

Danny Cady helps carry wood for his friend Marcy Ivey. Cady said he prayed for help in the ice storm. CORY YOUNG / Tulsa World

By RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer
Published: 12/18/2007 1:25 AM
Last Modified: 12/18/2007 1:25 AM

The ice storm hit over a week ago, but some people remain in its grip

Signs of survival and desperation remained Monday as the ice storm-induced power outage dragged into its second week.

Near the shadow of Tulsa's skyline, a man sucked on a tube to siphon gasoline from a roadside vehicle. A few blocks away, Billy Christian was trying to flag down anyone who had answers.

"Hey, fellas," Christian shouted at utility workers near his home at Archer Street and Delaware Avenue. "Do you think I'll have lights today?"

Christian said he makes daily checks to see if his power has been restored. He has been staying with a daughter who lives on the south side of the city.

"I love my daughter, and I would do anything in the world for her," Christian said. "But there's nothing like being in your own place."

'It's a disaster': Marcy Ivey clutched an unopened can of Busch beer as she talked to her friend Danny Cady, who helped her clear downed limbs in her yard.

"It's a disaster," she said. "There's nothing we can do. They (utility workers) are going all-out, as far as I can tell."

With no electricity, Ivey goes to her father's home near the fairgrounds to charge her cell phone. Cady said he was using the prolonged outage to assist victims.

"I went out and got my hands on everything I could, and I loaned it out to my friends," Cady said. "And I went home

to nothing. I said a prayer to God. I said, 'God, take care of my problems and my kid.' I was out of electricity for 12 hours."

'Where I was at': Last week's ice caused a power pole to fall on Herbert Traylor's Tulsa house. The impact cracked the home's foundation and made a wreck of three rooms.

"One side of the roof is gone," said Traylor, who has a live-in girlfriend and six children. "It (the pole) went completely through the house."

Traylor has put up blue canvas to try to protect his home from further water damage. It's estimated that repairs to the house could take four to five months.

In the interim, Traylor and his family have been staying at a motel. Facing overdrafts at the bank and missed work days because of the storm's aftermath, he said he isn't looking too far ahead.

"We're trying to figure out what we're going to do for Wednesday right now," said Traylor. "I just want to be where I was at -- just comfortable."

'Boring': A generator ran in the backyard of Monica Stout's home. There, her 3-year-old daughter, Autumn, frolicked as Stout's brothers, Timothy Terrell, 16, and Andrew Terrell, 12, played bas ketball.

"It's boring," Timothy said of the extended power outage.

Stout has given refuge to her brothers and parents, who have no electricity at their Collinsville residence. Two small heaters are powered by the generator, and everybody is sleeping in the living and dining rooms, she said.

"I'm not upset because I know they (utility employees) are working hard," said Stout, who also has a 5-month-old daughter. "It's just frustrating.

Dates of supposed power restoration continue to come and go, she said.

"Now they're saying Tuesday at midnight," Stout said, "so we'll see."

'Biding my time': Marie Taylor, who lives east of downtown, has endured the power outage with her four cats, boosted by the generosity of friends. A woman across the street lent her a Coleman lantern, and the 80-year-old said people have been checking on her three to four times a day.

"My neighbors have been really nice to me," she said.

Taylor's upbringing helps keep things in perspective.

"I think back when I was a little girl," she said. "I lived in a house with no electricity, and my mother used to heat irons and put them in the bed.

"I'm just biding my time. When it (electricity) comes on, it comes on. There's no point in getting frustrated. After a while, you get used to it."

'Kind of stunned': Beverly Wood has hot water and an operable gas stove. For warmth in her powerless home, she clicks on a propane heater for 30-minute intervals.

"When you call (AEP-PSO), you get the same spiel -- that everybody will be on by midnight Tuesday night," she said. "But I've been getting that for eight days.

"At this point, you're not angry anymore. You're kind of stunned. You're just trying to stay warm and take care of your pets."

Wood, 72, and her husband, Frank Wood, have four dogs.

"I've lived through a lot of things," she said. "This isn't going to kill me. If you knew how long it was going to be, it would make it more acceptable."

"It's the unknown that bogs you down more than anything."

Rhett Morgan 581-8395
rhett.morgan@tulsaworld.com

By RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer

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	Report Comment Ozonator, Baton Rouge (12/18/2007 2:02:29 AM) Heck of a job greater Oklahoma! Y’all took a cat 5 hurricane ecosystem hit destined for us in Louisiana as predicted by me publicly (see below). Even with webbed toes, we still can’t swim fast enough to save all the food in our refrigerators when the power is lost to the poorer sections. Power lost in freezing weather is just another blessing by the Lord. Speaking about blessings, in about 9 months, I hope y’all thing of us when naming all them youngins. ‘Cause as long as you keep voting for Evil Inhofe and his murdering helper monkey Morano, we’ll keep throwing plastic beads and doubloons at your drunken, semi-drunken, and bewildered friends and relatives visiting the Dream State as our corporate master export our droughts, wildfires, cattle stampedes, tornadoes, and teratogenic pollutants. “A. Our Ozonator’s preamble for Survival ... What I didn’t find in Niger was more than made up for with the toxic ExxonMobils’ global warming exports from Louisiana and Texas to the Sun, Vancouver, Oklahoma, Maine, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and every other region ... the most spectacular and deadly was the ice storm that hit the greater Oklahoma region ... Sapping resources from Tropical Storm Olga, the ice coating was a direct result of the coastal ExxonMobils legally turning northern Louisiana and Texas into a giant, atmospheric cooling towers dumping freezing rain, downwind, further north. Even the most stupid hillbilly in Michigan who thinks a Muslim is a kind of fabric knows it’s time to sue the local corporation when his or her crops get wiped out from ice and storms downwind of the free cooling towers and permitted gas releases. We are far slower in Louisiana but have notice similar harmonic disasters on a titanic scale all across the Earth ... “GBRWE 11/25 - 12/1/07 ... B1. Weeks’ Reporting Period ... For the 3rd week in a row, harmonic waves of toxic soup from the ExxonMobils and DEQ-ORMs will wash away, bury in blizzards ... Expect an increase in torrential rain, blizzards, flooding, killer hail and fog, wind, cold, ice storms, mudslides, landslides ... From American extremists’ holy environmental racism, tornadoes, blizzards, and other forms of lightning will develop and be exported from Dobson, Colorado to Evil Inhofe, Oklahoma to Tony “blowmee “ Perkins, Louisiana to LABI’s Florida and Mobile to New York City ... Note ... estimated tornadic as all other catastrophic ecosystems (e.g. quakes, solar flares, and tsunamis) ... can easily morph into other bizarre monsters and catastrophic weather ecosystems in the specified regions” ... Not only was the ice storm not a “natural disaster”, Evil Inhofe is once more asking US taxpayers to pay for what ExxonMobils from Texas to Louisiana exported via environmental racism. “U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) ... "Oklahoma suffered an ice storm of historic proportions ... devastation from natural disasters ... "... ensure the full resources of the federal government are made available to our state... to ensure their aid efforts are swift and effective" (“OK US Sen. Inhofe on Oklahoma Ice Storms”; kten-dot-com, 12/11/07)“ (“GBRWE 12/16 - 22/07's Extreme Planetary Warnings for Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Solar/Terrestrial Flares from Human Activities”; "Ozonator", Supplemental; GBRWE 12/16 - 22/07, 12/15/07).
	Report Comment Gail, Tulsa, Ok (12/18/2007 6:29:12 AM) To: Poster #1: You are just one more spooky person.
	Report Comment a, tulsa (12/18/2007 7:06:23 AM) LOL Gail....that is exactly what I was thinking! At least make sense....
	Report Comment Open Minded, Chandler (12/18/2007 7:44:36 AM) If I knew what #1 was saying I'm sure I would agree 100%.
	Report Comment bill, rp (12/18/2007 7:45:47 AM) (#1) Jim (Iggy) Ignatowsky from the sitcom "Taxi".
	Report Comment Wheels, Tulsa (12/18/2007 8:06:59 AM) Whew...#1 give it a rest.
	Report Comment wmcol, Tulsa (12/18/2007 8:15:31 AM) Space cat Ozonator, about the only point you're making that is understandable is that Jim Inhofe is evil. You may have a valid point. How's the air out there where you are? Rare? Very rare?
	Report Comment HP, Tulsa (12/18/2007 10:13:31 AM) Poster #1. Huh?
	Report Comment jeff, BA (12/18/2007 2:05:39 PM) I was gonna say something....but I need a nap after reading #1
	Report Comment jh, ba (12/18/2007 2:25:57 PM) #12 Yeah ! I am trying to stay awake at work. But that made it worst. LMAO !!
	Report Comment Christine, Brookside (12/18/2007 5:00:25 PM) Thanks Moderator... but you forgot delete #9 too. My posts weren't about race, JH. They are about the bigger picture. PSO is working diligently with the whole city... doing the jobs that affected the most people first. Brookside and North Tulsa got hit HARD (just like East, South, and the hundreds of other towns and cities in OK) and a whole lot of people are still without power. My point was to all the people posting about North Tulsa being the only people without power.
	Report Comment jh, ba (12/18/2007 5:14:21 PM) Christine...re-fresh my memory did I point you out ? I was making a general comment. you where never mentioned.
	Report Comment Christine, Brookside (12/18/2007 5:20:19 PM) There were a few of us going back and forth with comments you posted directly below. You didn't point me out directly, but I know who you made the general comment toward. I'm not stupid, honey. ;-)
	Report Comment JH, ba (12/18/2007 5:27:12 PM) I never said that you were. My deepest apologies for forget to whom I was directing my comment to, After the last 8 hours on this thing I am kinda tired, I am soooo sorry I messed up Princess perfection.
	Report Comment ra dugre, tulsa (12/18/2007 7:08:21 PM) # 1 ozonater put away the crack pipe!
	Report Comment Ozonator, Baton Rouge (12/18/2007 9:56:21 PM) Environmental racism also dumped on those northern aliens who are hiding in and among us in plain sight, “Central and eastern Canada dig out after record storm” (By David Ljunggren, Reuters; news-dot-yahoo-dot-com, 12/17/07).
	Report Comment C/, Tulsa (12/18/2007 10:03:08 PM) Neighbors certainly have helped me during this time without power and with all my treess looking like broken paper dolls, folded up everywhere. Thanks and blessings and a great thank you to a son who stepped forward and helped so much.
	Report Comment Janis, Fort Lauderdale (12/18/2007 10:16:17 PM) Does anyone know if the power has been restored to the area just west of the fairgrounds? I think it's 21st and Yale. My elderly Aunt lives there and she was supposed to call me when she got her power back on. Anyone Know for sure?
	Report Comment nanny, (12/18/2007 10:53:54 PM) Hey #1, big difference between Tulsa and New Orleans. We help each other and we get along just fine. We don't sit around and wait for the gubment to rescue us. Speaking only for myself, I don't now, never have and never will need your "beads". You can keep them.
	Report Comment Ozonator, Baton Rouge (12/18/2007 11:42:24 PM) Funny (money) that the author fails to be fair and balanced with the hatred, greed, and no predictions to prove any competence side of the extremist Republican and Christian warping the pope’s comments, “The layman ... “irresponsible and morally objectionable to those of us that believe responsible, Christian stewardship of the earth is intrinsically linked to maximizing freedom and opportunity ... I will pray that I am able to forgive you for your mistake, and pray that you reconsider your allegiance to this misguided cause ... to promoting an ideological agenda ... to achieve more political power ... ” ... Using different words, the pope shares essentially the same ideas” (“The Pope vs. Global Warming”; By Joseph D'Hippolito, whose main focuses are religion, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and being bigger than an American corporate whore; frontpagemagazine-dot-com, 12/18/07).
	Report Comment Tulsa Native, Tulsa (12/19/2007 9:09:37 AM) #19: I know power was restored to most of Florence Park last night, which is between 15th and 21st and Lewis and Harvard. I hope your aunt has power and is okay. I'd like to commend PSO/AEP and our out-of-state friends for doing an incredible job in response to an unprecedented ice storm. Many of those individuals have been working around the clock to restore our homes while they themselves are still lacking power. The out-of-state crews have selflessly left their own friends and families during the holiday season to help out our state. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
	Report Comment Freezing Cold in North Tulsa, Ice Pond, Tulsa (12/19/2007 12:39:18 PM) unprecidented lol PSO=Power Southside Only!
	Report Comment Ozonator, Baton Rouge (12/19/2007 5:57:34 PM) With a 3rd round of condolences to greater Oklahoma - . . Slow, oxycontin withdrawal day in Palm Beach for old LABI Limbaugh to have had to steal from “Nanny” or plagiarize material from Mr. Rhett Morgan and the rest of the Tulsa World just to get around the Hollywood writers strike, hire an actress from the Boca Raton escort service and fried chicken restaurant, and entertain 5 million 2-legged locusts with the catastrophe in greater Oklahoma. For the record, neither Jayne nor LABI refused the federal aid offered by President Bush’s emergency declaration unlike those of Katrina and Rita who often weren’t given the chance that continues to this day. . . “20. 12/18/2007 10:53:54 PM, nanny, Hey #1, big difference between Tulsa and New Orleans. We help each other and we get along just fine. We don't sit around and wait for the gubment to rescue us. Speaking only for myself, I don't now, never have and never will need your "beads". You can keep them.” . . . 2 days later as good help is so hard to find to cross picket lines of hate . . . ”RUSH: Oh, Jayne in Tulsa. You're still without power? ... CALLER: Personally, my opinion of global warming is that it is a complete fraud. I think it's political. RUSH: Good. CALLER: It's all politically motivated, and you've been a great educator on that point, and the attitude of most of the people I know here in Oklahoma is, you know: "Hug all the trees you want to in California, but just leave us alone." ... when Hurricane Katrina happened before, the overwhelming attitude in Oklahoma is that we saw people begging for government help down in New Orleans, and we said, "That will never happen to us. We are going to do for ourselves." RUSH: Yeah? CALLER: And I can really see that's what's happened. We all know enough not to depend on our local government here. We have a very liberal local government. But neighbors were helping neighbors; all the churches were opening up. I know my family, personally, we have an all-electric mobile home. ... It was a wonderful thing. It was wonderful not to have to depend on the government, be able to help each other. RUSH: Right, a bonding experience, as it were. You know, the same thing could be said about the people out in Southern California and fires. ... You had an opportunity to trash the Bush administration ... the people of New Orleans ... that's how they've been raised. That place as it existed at the time was a microcosm of what the whole country would be, if liberals had unchecked power” (”Okie Lives Enviro-Wacko Dream”; Mr. Rush “LABI” Limbaugh of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity extremist Republican and Christian corporate whore swift-boating media outlets, Standard Oil’s discount plagiarism science center, and waterboarding cash cows; rushlimbaugh-dope-com, 12/19/07).
	Report Comment pt, tulsa (12/20/2007 9:21:54 AM) #24 Im confused.. ITS Neworleans that was waiting for gov to do its work. Most (not the whiners) here in OK. Did good, because they did a lot of their own work to verify damage, etc...instead of griping and waiting. Our whiners are probably partially from New Orleans since many of them cant do for themselves.
	Report Comment Ozonator, Baton Rouge (12/20/2007 1:42:17 PM) You are wrong, The US government failed then LABI Limbaugh murdered by telling America not to worry due to his and other liars efforts to help themselves - “Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel ... biggest disaster to hit the country in a long time domestically certainly since 9/11 of 2001... a hurricane in Mississippi, in Louisiana ... that's the South ... get ready to embark on a plan here to stop global warming ... New Orleans ... it's the Republicans! ... it is going to be rebuilt, and it would be a source of pride, and it will be something that is quintessentially American .... some in the media are saying that the evacuation scenarios were not fair, because the poor didn't have a way out. Only the rich had a way out ... nobody was ignored ... if global warming had an effect on hurricanes, it would be to reduce them ... William Gray, the big forecast from the University of Colorado ... a myth ... I love to predict things. That's what being on the cutting he just of societal evolution is all about” (“Doom and Gloom Liberals Will Use Hurricane To Advance Their Agenda”; Mr. Rush “LABI” Limbaugh of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity extremist Republican and Christian corporate whore swift-boating media outlets, Standard Oil’s discount plagiarism science center, and waterboarding cash cows; rushlimbaugh-dope-com, 8/29/05).

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