ANADARKO, Okla. – Within the early morning hours of Dec. 9, sleet and freezing rain hit much of Oklahoma, accumulating throughout the day. By that evening, reports of school closings for the next day had many students glad for a brief respite from their studies.
However, it was a short-lived joy because by the next morning, many homes and businesses had no power and, in many cases, no heat. Power outage estimates ranged from 600,000 to 1 million homes and businesses due to power lines breaking from ice and damaged trees falling on lines – including large urban areas such as Oklahoma City and Tulsa. For several days, the sound of trees popping and breaking from the weight of ice was not uncommon in both rural and urban areas, with debris from tree limbs causing a large amount of damage.
For some, it was a only a matter of 12 hours before electricity was restored, with families getting by with varied methods such as wood heat or cooking and boiling coffee on barbecue grills, propane heaters and stoves. For others who were not so fortunate, many families had to find hotels or stay with family and friends with electricity. Shelters also opened throughout Oklahoma, with places such as the Red Earth venue, Cox Business Services Convention Center, letting families come in out of the cold and serving warm meals.
Many Native communities pulled together and assisted emergency management teams throughout the state. Within the Cherokee Nation area of northeast Oklahoma, many of the communities within its 14-county jurisdiction were affected, including Oklahoma’s Washington, Tulsa, Nowata, Rogers, Craig, Mayes, Ottawa and Delaware counties. According to Cherokee Nation spokesman Mike Miller, Cherokee Nation Emergency Management responded by assisting organizations such as the American Red Cross and other local emergency management teams.
”Our main response has been to work with local community emergency management groups,” Miller said. ”As far as individual households, we have done a lot of elder checks, going to a lot of people’s homes, making sure that our elders are OK.”
Some of their efforts included donating 168 gallons of water to several local fire departments within its district. Additional supplies and assistance went to the town of Foyil, which served as the dispatch center for several locations. Foyil’s backup generators for its dispatch center would shut off from lack of fuel after eight hours, causing all of its response teams to rely on cell phone use only. The CNEM found them 100-gallon propane tanks to run their generators and donated 1,344 gallons of water to the site.
”There are a lot of structures in place,” Miller said about local emergency management systems. ”We just want to add to – we don’t want to mirror anything that they’re doing. We just want to help organizations that are already in place.”
On the local level, many individuals found a way to help with the storm, including the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee, also in northeast Oklahoma. The UKB mobilized its ”Warmth of Love” Committee, assisting elders and recruiting community members to help their neighbors in any way possible.
Power crews have also come in from out of state to help restore power and work around the clock to get people back into their homes. Despite a reprieve in the weather, at press time there were still an estimated 174,269 people without power.
