"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
10 December 2007Worst. Outage. Ever.
Throughout the day Monday the number of customers left without power by the ice storm continued to rise to the point where it is now the worst disaster in the company's history in terms of the number of customers affected — more than 235,000.
The company has about 755,000 customers at retail, which means that 31 percent of their customers are freezing in the dark. Their current estimate for full restoration is "between 7 and 10 days," which, considering the sheer massiveness of the storm, is possibly a shade optimistic, even with a thousand people working in the field. I've pretty much decided that if mine goes out, I'm going to think seriously about leaving town for a week. I'm not expecting it to, though: next door has about half a foot of tree-induced deflection in their line, and they've still got the lights on. Update, 6:55 pm: Public Service Company of Oklahoma, says the Oklahoman, has about 200,000 customers with no power, mostly around Tulsa. PSO has 514,000 customers in the state. Posted at 5:23 PM to SoonerlandTrackBack: 5:58 PM, 10 December 2007 » Power is still out most places around midtown. We didn't lose power until 7:30 this morning. Coming home from an event last night, the traffic lights were already out at 36th & Peoria and 21st & Utica. Happily, the lines immediately leading to our hous......[read more] TrackBack: 1:35 PM, 11 December 2007 » Headlines below the fold from Finestkind Clinic and fish market Another reason I prefer the Philippines to Oklahoma: Yes we have typhoons, floods, and Dengue fever, but at least we don't have tornadoes...or icestorms....Dustbury reports from OKC.... ...[read more] The company has about 755,000 customers at retail, which means that 31 percent of their customers ...are not buying any of their product at the moment. (Ever wonder just what it would be like to look at the world the way an M.B.A. does?) Posted by: McGehee at 6:04 PM on 10 December 2007On the other hand, this gives them some serious incentive to get a move on with the restoration process. Posted by: CGHill at 6:25 PM on 10 December 2007Yikes!!!!! If that happened here there would be rioting in the streets!!!! It's 32 degrees today and coldddddddddd! Posted by: Kay Dennison at 6:39 PM on 10 December 2007We can't riot in the streets: we'll fall down on the ice. Today's high was 33, which was downright warm compared to yesterday. Posted by: CGHill at 6:42 PM on 10 December 2007If it ever *does* happen, just point yerself south a couple of hours and come stay with the Dazzles in North Ruralville awhile. :) None of that freezing weather stuff here. Posted by: GradualDazzle at 8:24 PM on 10 December 2007Hoping you are staying warm, Charles, and that (in reference to an earlier post) Gwendolyn was finally able to get you to the store for provisions before hell froze over! Not that OK is hell. It's just a figure of speech, you know. :-) Posted by: Jennifer at 8:24 PM on 10 December 2007Gwendolyn remains in her nice, cozy 45-degree (I just checked) garage; the roads were sufficiently awful today that I figured it would take all day just to get a tow truck here. Actually, I managed to stretch a day's worth of provisions into two, and could possibly manage three, but tomorrow morning I have to get this poor motor vehicle to the experts, and inasmuch as this is a Non-Scheduled Service Call, I can't expect them to have a loaner waiting for me. (Had I called this in last week, not a problem; but I didn't have any issues last week.) And given my personal belief that One Brimstone Center is misnamed, and that the Prince of Darkness works best with freezing rain, hell is pretty close to what we've had here — especially if you're a treehugger, since so many trees were trashed. Had he not been reported to have been in Bali, I would have expected to see the ungaunt spectre of Al Gore at the dark end of the street. Posted by: CGHill at 8:54 PM on 10 December 2007Wow. I think I'll take snow over the ice. Although this morning when I was trudging through the white fluffy stuff to school, I saw a car that was attempting to get up a hill slide right back down... Posted by: sya at 9:42 PM on 10 December 2007Stay warm... I think I'll take snow over the ice. Take it from me: it's not much better than ice without snow over it. ;-) Posted by: McGehee at 12:51 PM on 11 December 2007Most of the roadborne ice has been dissolved by 36-degree rain, although this merely means that there's going to be more to freeze tonight when the temperatures drop. We have been promised sunshine for Thursday, but I'm not counting on it. |