Dorya Huser, chief of long-term care for the state Health Department, said officials surveyed hundreds of facilities licensed by the state in the storm area. The task was complicated by loss of phone service at some facilities so inspectors visited homes they could not reach, she said.

Figures provided by Huser on Thursday showed that 115 nursing homes, assisted living centers, residential care centers and facilities for the mentally retarded lost power at some point during the storm. All of the facilities house vulnerable populations of elderly, sick, mentally retarded or mentally ill people.

Of the 115 that lost power, 61 facilities remained without power Thursday.

All but three homes were operating on generators, including some in the Tulsa area, while 11 facilities relocated residents at some point, she said. Residents of two homes, Frances Streitel in Collinsville and Colonial Care in Chelsea, returned after power was restored, Huser said.

Two Tulsa nursing homes, University Village Healthcare and Southern Hills Rehabilitation Center, both relocated residents during the storm and residents had not returned as of Thursday afternoon, she said.

Health Department inspectors are monitoring a few homes using alternate heating sources, such as ceramic heaters,

Inspectors warned the operator of one facility after temperatures inside dipped to 58 degrees, Huser said.

''That building had generators in the next couple of hours,'' Huser said.

Nursing homes and similar facilities are not required to purchase generators but are required to have emergency plans in place to care for residents in such situations. Huser said the number of homes involved made the task difficult.

Facilities where residents were to be relocated, such as churches or schools, were also without power.

''The fact that this storm affected so many, it was not like just having to relocate one or two buildings,'' she said.

The Oklahoma Association of Health Care Providers, which represents nursing home operators, sent an e-mail survey to members Wednesday about the power outage. The e-mail urged operators to find alternate power sources, avoid relocating residents and to monitor air quality for carbon monoxide.

Preston Kissman, vice president of distribution for AEP-PSO, said the company is working to restore power to nursing homes and similar facilities as quickly as possible. He said hospitals, water treatment plants, sewer lift pumps and other critical infrastructure are a higher priority.

''The nursing homes are certainly a lower priority and the problem with those is that there are so many of those and they are so scattered across the city,'' Kissman said.

''If you think about the branches of a tree, we are going to get the trunk up first and then the branches up next.''

Ziva Branstetter 581-8378
ziva.branstetter@tulsaworld.com