You can count Nesey Robinson and Gwen Ellis among them.

Working at a shop in the strip mall at Pine Street and Peoria Avenue, the women were still without power in their homes Saturday afternoon.

"I'm probably not going to get nothing until spring, neither, because I live at 56th Street North," Robinson said. "And they had the nerve to send me a bill yesterday. It's kind of hard to read your bill without light."

Ellis said: "It's frustrating to see lines and lines of trucks in your neighborhood but they're just sitting there. And the electricity is still off."

Both women said they understand how widespread the power outages have been, but said American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma could be doing a better job of communicating with customers.

"I wish they would tell us something about where the work is going on -- a map or something," Robinson said. "It would give people some hope because we don't even know if they're close yet."

A customer at the shopping center said she thought North Tulsa was being ignored until she drove around town a little.

"I went to pick up my son at St. John (Medical Center), where he works and then I realized they didn't have power down there at 21st Street,

Laura Herd, who lives near 61st Street and Sheridan Avenue, was perplexed by the fact that her house was among only a few on her street without power Saturday afternoon.

"It's frustrating that it's taking this long because this is costing us so much money. We have to eat out every evening and we've already lost the money (in food) in the refrigerator and freezer," she said.

Herd said she wished AEP-PSO could have given customers a more precise  timeframe for power restoration.

"If they would tell you it's going to be five days, maybe we would have done something different than just day by day hoping for service the next day," she said.

Andrea Eger 581-8470
andrea.eger@tulsaworld.com