Ice Storms Sweep Nation
Heavy Ice storms are roaring across the country along a line from Texas to New Hampshire. More than 500,000 homes and businesses are without power as transmission lines snapped under the weight of the ice coating them or as tree branches collapsed onto them. Very, very bad weather and brutal cold is coming in behind the storms. States of emergency have been declared in Oklahoma and Missouri. At least 13 people have died in traffic accidents across the region.
A state of emergency was declared for the entire state of Oklahoma, said Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Management. Fifty industrial generators and three truckloads of bottled water were to be shipped to blacked-out areas. Missouri had declared an emergency on Sunday and put the National Guard on alert.
Oklahoma utilities said some 400,000 customers were blacked out as power lines snapped under the weight of ice and falling tree branches, and utilities in Missouri said more than 100,000 homes and business had no power there. Roughly 11,000 were blacked out in southern Illinois.
The sound of branches snapping echoed through Oklahoma City neighborhoods.
"You can hear them falling everywhere," Lonnie Compton said Monday as he shoveled ice off his driveway.
Ice was as much as an inch thick on tree limbs and power lines in parts of Missouri.
Schools across Oklahoma were closed and some hospitals were relying on backup power generators.
Tulsa International Airport had no power and halted flight operations, and most morning flights at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City were canceled because of icy runways.
Greyhound Bus service was disrupted, stranding passengers, some of whom spent the night in a shelter in a church in downtown Tulsa. They were joined by some local residents who had no heat.
There was no way to estimate when power might be restored, said Oklahoma Gas & Electric spokesman Gil Broyles.
"This is a big one, we've got a massive situation here and it's probably going to be a week to 10 days before we get power on to everybody," said Ed Bettinger, a spokesman for Public Service Company. "It looks like a war zone."
They'll be pulling line crews from all over the country for assistance and it will still be very rough getting everything back on. Been there, done that. It's probably doubtful many people in those states can read this, but a word of warning about downed power lines - stay away from them completely. Even if they are dead at the moment, you never know when a switch will be thrown. The utilities will be trying their best to survey the damage so they know what's on the ground, but it is slow, tedious and dangerous work - especially in the ice and cold.
Call it the Gore effect on steroids - he gave his Nobel Prize acceptance speech today. So you just knew there would be vicious winter weather.
By FedUp, Monday, 10 December , 2007 @ 2:55 pm
I’m sure it’s all due to Global Warming…
By quilly mammoth, Monday, 10 December , 2007 @ 3:01 pm
Luckily I delayed yanking the old fashioned gas furnace for the newfangled super efficient one Mrs. QM and I looked at. We have heat and plenty of candles. Looks like the reading stack will be hit hard over the next several days.
In addition to the problem with downed lines in backyards is the elderly who can’t do anything in this type of weather.
While Social Services frets over this your local church is doing something. Mine has already sent out messages to look after nearby seasoned Citizens.
Remember your neighbors.
By NortonPete, Monday, 10 December , 2007 @ 5:31 pm
I hate ice. I’m getting old and ice storms are feared. I’ll take 3 feet of snow over 1/2 inch of ice.
Old fashioned gas furnaces range in efficiency of 78-80%. That just means a natural draft chimney needs about 400 degrees of heat to keep the flues gases heading in the right direction. They typically have a “standing pilot” and limited electronic controls. I have hundreds of these customers and they never call, just change the thermocouple every few years and check the heat exchangers and they last forever.
I do get a lot of calls on the 90% condensing gas furnaces, they are only 10% more efficient but many times more complex and prone to failure. Hardly worth the $100 a year savings.
More ice coming tonight, best holiday greetings to all.
By Mwalimu Daudi, Monday, 10 December , 2007 @ 7:30 pm
FedUp:
The official phrase is now “climate change”, not “global warming”! Climate change covers everything - drought, heat, ice and snow, rain, mild temperatures, etc. We want to be reach a point of unquestioning public credulity where we are able to present a day with sunny skies and 72 degrees as undeniable proof of a Bush-created global environmental catastrophe.
Did you not get the memo about this?