Wheels, Tulsa (12/19/2007 7:54:54 AM)

THANK YOU Georgia Power! I love you!

Mel, (12/19/2007 8:28:54 AM)

Price gouging is on the move.

I had a tree trimmed one month ago for $250.00. four guys, all the equipment necessary and they did a great job.

I now have six limbs that are broken and hanging down on that same tree. Three "tree trimmers" have come buy and offered to take the six limbs down. One wanted $475, one wanted $700 and the third wanted $750!.

Its like the oil companies charging $9.00 for a gallon of gas!

Think I will wait a while to get the tree trimmed until the "people trimmers" run out of suckers!

Ace, Tulsa (12/19/2007 8:35:58 AM)

North Tulsa Black Woman,

There is not a vendetta against north Tulsa. North Tulsa is not being ignored. This is the largest power outage in the history of Oklahoma. South Tulsa was easier to fix because the power lines were buried out there when the area was being developed. I live in mid town and did not get power back until 6pm last night. I know I wasnlt being ignored. It's just a matter of manpower and logistics. PSO divided the city up into 4 areas and group north Tulsa along with midtown. North Tulsa had massive damage, mainly due to the age of the infrastructure in that area. Quit feeling sorry for yourself. and know that this is massive understaking by the city and PSO to restore your power There is nobody out there saying let's get north Tulsa up last.

PR, Tulsa (12/19/2007 8:43:39 AM)

Let's not equate price gouging with natural market economics. Two weeks ago, tree trimmers weren't in any greater demand than usual. Suddenly, a large majority of the population suddenly demanded their services. There are only a certain number (supply) of tree trimmers; when demand jumps with no offsetting increase in supply, the price increases.

Fan of the Mayor, Tulsa (12/19/2007 8:50:28 AM)

To all of you folks that told me yesterday that I would be charged by the city the $500 for putting a meter box on my house....it appears you were wrong.

HJ, Tulsa (12/19/2007 8:56:06 AM)

North Tulsa and Ace...

My family lives North (not deep north. they live by Carver Middle School) and they got power back on 3 days before I did and live Midtown. But in North Tulsa Black Woman's defense: my fiance`'s grandmother lives at about 54st N and Cinn and she says she wasn't seen any trucks in her area in several days. There were multiple trucks in my area almost daily (which annoyed me because I always thought i was going to be my power back that day). I was born and raised in north Tulsa and I understand when you feel like you always get the shaft because north Tulsa tends to be the last to be tended to and unless you have lived in North Tulsa it's hard to understand. On the the other hand, there are a lot of homes that are still without power are spread out all over town. There are homes at 41 & Lewis who still don't have power either. So, I understand both of your points.

wmcol, Tulsa (12/19/2007 9:03:49 AM)

Ace, you say "North Tulsa had massive damage, mainly due to the age of the infrastructure in that area." Umm, wonder why that inattention to infrastructure need was allowed to exist in that area and not others? Seems a black woman may have a good point.

la, tulsa (12/19/2007 9:33:40 AM)

age of infrastructure has a lot to do with the n.tulsa residents (many who dont even attempt to maintanin their own homes)..

A friend of mine lives in N Tulsa and he is the first in his family to actually fix things around the house...

(1st in 25 years).

In his parents case, despite being a construction expert his dad never had repaired the floor which had major holes in it for years.

What I talk about here is the residents own responsability in maintaining their own home.

pc, Tulsa (12/19/2007 9:35:11 AM)

Lack of maintnance is not just a north tulsa deal, but all people, but is more often more noticable in that area.

But for me, I wouldnt even care to live anywhere where the lines are above ground.

LMC, Tulsa (12/19/2007 9:39:01 AM)

#8, As stated in the previous comments, most of south Tulsa's wiring was put in as the neighborhoods were built. That means that they are going to use whatever ever technology is available at the time it is installed. There are houses in midtown and in the more affluent Maple Ridge neighborhood and others closer to downtown that have the same wiring that north Tulsa has. I live in midtown and have driven through Maple Ridge yesterday and there are still a large number of houses without power, including those valued in the 3 and 4 figure range. No electric company is going to just replace wiring that is still functional or to bury it in the older neighborhoods. The only way that is going to happen is if PSO/AEP is allowed a rate hike to cover the costs and then we won't have to worry about our power being out because we won't be able to afford to have it.

Christina Eichstedt, Tulsa (12/19/2007 10:15:10 AM)

Truth be told, the poor are always last. It has nothing to do with color really, it has to do with class. And Woodland Hills mall and the rich were worth being restored first. I don't blame the workers, their being told what to do. I blame the people that came up with the idea that during this horrific ice storm, the rich still needed to be able to do their Christmas shopping? Why is it always about the all mighty dollar? I am disapointed in Oklahoma and its leaders. People should come first. Not making a buck!

HMMMMM, TULSA (12/19/2007 12:16:41 PM)

The reality of Woodland hills mall has nothing to do with money or shopping. The reason they have power is that when it was built they paid to have 2 feeds built into the mall and at least one of the feeds (directly off the main line) was not damaged and was able to be restored in a quick manner.

maggie, b-ville (12/19/2007 12:26:24 PM)

When this storm happened, I warned it would be up to three weeks before everyone had power. We went through this last year and it was awful. I think at 10 days you are way ahead of where we were. We had 4 million people without power for most of the month of December 2006 in the St. Louis area.

As a former Tulsan, I sympathize with your plight. My experience in 2006 was emotionally, financially and physically draining. The only good thing was that the trees did bloom out in the Spring and came back even stronger.

pr, tulsa (12/19/2007 12:30:30 PM)

poor/rich has nothing to do with it.

Some of those socalled affulant areas have their own generators.

And power setups are more modern.

Poor areas tend to be more old style setups and will take longer to fix when damaged.

I seriously doubt that rich versus poor was the method especially since its irrelevant in that the only criteria is:

What is the maxium way to get as many as possible powered up.

Those complaining that race or status had a lot of releviance are wrong.

Now, if a area has more modern setup it would seem more likely to get power up there sooner.

Or areas where the lines are below ground might be next get up.

The oldest setups or those with the most damage (trees,etc), though they shouldnt be last... could end up being last.

Just opinion, based on past working at utilities.

EdK, (12/19/2007 12:42:45 PM)

Yeah, it could be that shopping malls are fed by buried lines that weren't damaged. Or it could be a conspiracy to bring the malls up fast so the rich (but not the poor - they're not allowed in and don't shop for Christmas anyway) could get their Christmas shopping done.

Believe what you will.

Paul, tulsa (12/19/2007 12:44:31 PM)

those of you complaining either about race or N.Tulsa or rich/poor ...there is no such criteria as those above being used to get power up.

Those who think so, either dont know the facts, or are in fact bigots themselves.

It is simply:

1. As a homeowner are you trying to resolve damage issues instead of waiting for PSO to tell you that you have damage?

2. Tree limbs, did you clear any of it that was not near downed lines?

3. Did you locate other places to stay temporarily. Staying in a cold house is equally ignorant.

From what Ive read in various comments on Tulsa World, many were expecting PSO to do the homeowners own work.

If you as a homeowner dont have the common sense to visually view your own damage and say 'I got damage' (much of the damage is obvious) and know that as a homeowner you are responsible for your own house, you probably have no business owning a house.

Paul, Tulsa (12/19/2007 12:46:33 PM)

Point that much of the damage is on the homeowner side of the line...despite the PSO line being pulled...the line must connect to a item that part of the homeowners home and thereofore belongs to homeowner... (etc).

QC, (12/19/2007 12:53:26 PM)

It's already been mentioned ad nauseum in the comments from multiple articles, but I guess it needs to be mentioned again. The power companies plan the work based on how they can get the most people up the fastest. Poorer communities are usually in older neighborhoods, which means older lines. When they go down, it takes more work to get them fixed than a newer neighborhood. Plus, older lines have fewer people on them, so that's going to put them lower on the priority list. That may not be fair, but that's life. But I guess they should've started working on the hardest hit areas first, leaving all the easy fixes till last, right? Then we'd be on day 10 & there'd 100K still in the dark instead of 8K.

Cliff, Tulsa (12/19/2007 1:04:57 PM)

Where do some of you get your information? I have never read so many comments where certain people know more than the electric company. I think you are just blowing "wind." and you don't know any more than the rest of us. As for myself, I don't believe a thing you "know-it-alls" say. And to the rest of you, you should not believe what these "know-it-alls" say either. They are just blowing smoke.

HJ, Tulsa (12/19/2007 1:10:26 PM)

Older communities aren't always poor. Areas of Maple Ridge and Florence Park (which are still nice areas) are also very old. Those neighborhoods were "oil money" areas. Some of those houses are every bit as old if not older than the houses out north thus some of those area are experiencing the same issue. So it's not an issues of the side of what side of town you live on but how old the neighborhood is and what kind of technology was available that the time that area was developed. However, I do get your point. Though it doesn't seem fair, I agree that you SHOULD hit the areas that gets the most people on in one shot first. I have only been back on since Monday evening but my family (who lives north but in a newer homes) were back on before I was.

Remember you VOTED her into office, (12/19/2007 1:24:25 PM)

It appears to me that the mayor is buying votes for the price of a replaced weather head. Sure some folks need a little help for the unplanned expense but there are no income qualifications, if yours is broke just call the mayor and she will "git you one" and remember to vote for me in the next election. Has to be one of the oldest political tricks in the book of calculated politics.

PHIL FOREWOOD, TULSA (12/19/2007 2:29:50 PM)

Fan of the Mayor

What exactly has she accomplished?

She wants a new City Hall at our expense so they can have respectable digs nevermind about the streets. What to do with the old city hall? Create a new tax to tear it down because no one wants to rent the delapitated space. We can worry about that and the tax later.

What about Vision 2020. We have a half built areana, way over budget, in the worst part of town with no parking in site. We still have 50 million in money they are "holding" who is getting the intrest off this money? Can't we use it to fix the bridges and roads.

We have Steve Williamson and EMSA on our water bills. Since when do we put private business on city water bills. At $4.00 a person and 250,000 people (this is a kind estimate) thats 10 mill a month. If he can't run a business on $900 a mile then he should be fired. We won't even go into his salary and bonuses. I need a home improvement bill for a nickle a month from each citizen. I could buy a mansion in a month. Can we get a vote on that?

They ran off Bells for a more viable business offer like a parking lot. This will soon be a murphy bro's park when the hoopla settles. I smell a rat.

When her term is over Kathy Talor will run for a higher office as this is just a stepping stone for this opportunist.

When we finally get the opportunity the entire city council should be given their walking papers starting with Mayor Taylor, Randi Milller and all the "underpaid "counselors.

CW, (12/19/2007 3:28:29 PM)

Time for me to stop reading "Reader Comments" -- I'm afraide the bitter attitudes are going to start rubbing off on me.

Heartfelt thank you to all involved in restoring and repairing our city. Prayers for those who are still without power

susan, Tulsa (12/19/2007 4:02:46 PM)

HUGGED BY AN ELECTRICAL WORKER

I went home at lunch and 3 guys were attaching a line to the weatherhead I had installed Monday. I told them how much I appreciated it and one HUGGED ME!! I thought it was sweet. Anyway, I'm hoping that I have power today (South Maple Ridge)

Bryce, Tulsa (12/19/2007 4:47:25 PM)

It's interesting to note that buried pwoer lines are now being called for. It wasn't long ago (within the last two months, I think) that this same website reported that some of the hardest hit midtown neighborhoods were fighting the burial of their power lines. Disasters change attitudes but it's extremely unfortunate that the most hurtful and harmful of occurances is the main catalyst of change in this sad.