| Updated: 2/21 9:02 am |
Published: 2/20 8:22 pm
|
Early December 2007, somewhere inside shells of ice were power lines.
Freezing rain clung to what became one of Tulsans' most craved commodities: electricity.
The weight of the rain, snow and wind left 85% of Tulsa in the dark. Some people went two weeks without power.
"A family from church put us up," said Ali Shaw.
The rest of the time, Shaw was at work. She's a radio personality at KJAMZ. Shaw said she knew she could at least warm up at the station, and stay as long as she wanted.
"It was an emergency situation; I had to do what I had to do," said Shaw.
"It was like a bomb shelter, we had everything we needed," said Aaron Bernard.
Wednesday’s wintry weather brought smiles, and eventually more freezing rain.
Folks in a midtown neighborhood have their power source below ground, but in town, that's rare unless it's downtown. PSO says customers use over 25,000 miles in power lines.
"We’re kind of on 'hot standby' if you will,” said PSO spokesman, Stan Whiteford.
Whiteford said that means PSO has a plan ready for this weather. There's a separate plan for blizzard like conditions.
"An 1/8 of an inch a 1/4 of an inch, typically not going to cause a lot of problems," said Whiteford.
If it gets as bad as it did in 2007 crews will divide the city into quadrants.
"That way we're working all parts of the city at the same time," said Whiteford.
And that way crews can restore power faster.
At the height of the ice storm of 2007, 246,000 people were without power.
