Weather report...ice in tulsa?

[dsjeffries]

TURoby is right... The area around TU is a MESS...
Right now, 1/3 of the campus residences are without power and they've made temporary shelters in the library, ACAC and the Collins Fitness Center... But guess what? FINALS are to proceed as scheduled.. This is ridiculous.

I have about 100 pics up on flickr... http://www.flickr.com/photos/dscott28604

[FOTD]

It's pretty obvious the magnitude of this storm is over the top. Just look here and see the lack of on liners.

Last year, a similar event just missed us.....

It will take a lot longer to clean up unless we import illegal aliens from next door states or Mexico....

TU looks bad. I see much worse in mid town.
I really can't take or look at the tree damaged pics anymore. Seen one seen them all.

The only good thing about this is the temperature. If we were ten degrees colder, there would be frozen pipes on top of all the other misery.

"Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery."
Bertrand Russell

"With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge"
Jackson Browne

It's a time for pulling together like non other here in Tulsa.

[swake]

I'm running off of a power inverter in my car, charging some things up here in the house. I've I was out all over town collecting relatives and firewood and it's bad out.

Half of Jenks is out (my half), looks like all of Glenpool, almost all of west Tulsa, looks like most everything north of I-44 is out. Most of the area south of Woodland is out. 61st and Yale is out, south Brookside is out. Bixby may be ok, it looked like there was power along Memorial south of the Creek. My work at 71st and Lewis is up, but my wife's in Cherokee near Owasso is not. Of the seven residences locally where we have relatives ALL are out.

I have not gotten any information out of PSO and I personally a little confused why my power is out, along with the 10,000 or so people around me. I have a brand new power substation half a mile from my house, my house has undergound service and there was no explosion from a transformer when it went out.

I traced my power lines from the substation to where they go underground to my neighborhood and they were fine. The whole substation was dark last night, no security lights. The substation is less than a mile from the power plant and I looked at the lines from the plant to the substation this morning and I didn't see any issues.

All I hear is that it's a week to ten days to get power back. Anybody know where firewood can be had a reasonable price? I'm going to be out before that time is up.

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by FOTD

It's pretty obvious the magnitude of this storm is over the top. Just look here and see the lack of on liners.

Last year, a similar event just missed us.....

It will take a lot longer to clean up unless we import illegal aliens from next door states or Mexico....

TU looks bad. I see much worse in mid town.
I really can't take or look at the tree damaged pics anymore. Seen one seen them all.

The only good thing about this is the temperature. If we were ten degrees colder, there would be frozen pipes on top of all the other misery.

"Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery."
Bertrand Russell

"With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge"
Jackson Browne

It's a time for pulling together like non other here in Tulsa.

This is all Bush's fault. Why is he not down here to personally inspect the "magnitude of this storm"?
  - RW, FOTD

[T-Town Now]

I hope PSO's crews get the power back on today, I have gas logs in my fireplace, and the best I could get the living room last night was 55 degrees, but that room has 22 foot ceilings in it, so I imagine a lot of the heat is up there.

And of course, my Cox phone service is out also (as it always is during a storm, high winds, rain, high heat, extreme cold, etc.) so I had to use my cell phone to report the outage.

And neither PSO nor Cox has a clue when service will be restored.

Didn't Tulsa go through this in 1987? And yet we still can't seem to keep the power on -  I guess like so many things, we just forget and move on, hoping it won't happen again. [!]

[spoonbill]

It's interesting to see how different people and communities handle the damage.  I live in south tulsa in a neighborhood with 25 to 40 year old trees.  No one has any power, and many of the roads are blocked with trees.

Large maples, pecan and elms just disintegrated, destroying houses and crushing cars.

We organized a "chain-saw brigade" yesterday evening and 12 of us worked through the rain all morning today clearing the roads and stacking cut wood.  We've cleared most of the neighborhood streets and our neighbors lawns and roofs.  Everyone has plenty of firewood that won't be dry and ready to burn until next year, but I bet they will be burning some of it tonight.

Meanwhile, one of my business associates calls me complaining because the city has failed to clear the streets in Florence park, and his wife scratched her car on a tree limb attempting to get out this morning.  I had to laugh!

[dsjeffries]

quote:Originally posted by T-Town Now

I hope PSO's crews get the power back on today, I have gas logs in my fireplace, and the best I could get the living room last night was 55 degrees, but that room has 22 foot ceilings in it, so I imagine a lot of the heat is up there.

And of course, my Cox phone service is out also (as it always is during a storm, high winds, rain, high heat, extreme cold, etc.) so I had to use my cell phone to report the outage.

And neither PSO nor Cox has a clue when service will be restored.

Didn't Tulsa go through this in 1987? And yet we still can't seem to keep the power on -  I guess like so many things, we just forget and move on, hoping it won't happen again. [!]

This storm is a perfect example of why ALL of our power lines should be BURIED.  It wouldn't save the trees, but it would prevent the falling trees from causing all the power outages...

[spoonbill]

quote:Originally posted by DScott28604

quote:Originally posted by T-Town Now

I hope PSO's crews get the power back on today, I have gas logs in my fireplace, and the best I could get the living room last night was 55 degrees, but that room has 22 foot ceilings in it, so I imagine a lot of the heat is up there.

And of course, my Cox phone service is out also (as it always is during a storm, high winds, rain, high heat, extreme cold, etc.) so I had to use my cell phone to report the outage.

And neither PSO nor Cox has a clue when service will be restored.

Didn't Tulsa go through this in 1987? And yet we still can't seem to keep the power on -  I guess like so many things, we just forget and move on, hoping it won't happen again. [!]

This storm is a perfect example of why ALL of our power lines should be BURIED.  It wouldn't save the trees, but it would prevent the falling trees from causing all the power outages...

Yeah, but very very expensive and time consuming. "Heat Trace" would be a better solution.  Some cities do this and it is relatively inexpensive.

An insulated wire called a Heat Trace is wrapped around the power line.  When temperatures drop below zero, this wire provides a very small "trace resistance" that causes it to heat up (only a few degrees).  This is enough to keep the power lines free of ice.  It's just like putting heat tape around exposed plumbing.  

Tulsa is actually home to one of the companies that makes this product (Nelson Heat Trace).

It would cost millions and millions of dollars to upgrade our lines to use this technology, but not as much as burying or 10 days of emergency repair crews and lost business.

[FOTD]

quote:Originally posted by guido911

quote:Originally posted by FOTD

It's pretty obvious the magnitude of this storm is over the top. Just look here and see the lack of on liners.

Last year, a similar event just missed us.....

It will take a lot longer to clean up unless we import illegal aliens from next door states or Mexico....

TU looks bad. I see much worse in mid town.
I really can't take or look at the tree damaged pics anymore. Seen one seen them all.

The only good thing about this is the temperature. If we were ten degrees colder, there would be frozen pipes on top of all the other misery.

"Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery."
Bertrand Russell

"With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge"
Jackson Browne

It's a time for pulling together like non other here in Tulsa.

This is all Bush's fault. Why is he not down here to personally inspect the "magnitude of this storm"?
  - RW, FOTD

I wish I could muster up some clever response....maybe after the 18th. Try to be somewhat sensitive here please.

Spoonbill,
Good work....our neighborhood had already received a clean cut by PSO and I am glad they did it right. House full of my peeps and no tv which is fine.
Neighbors have been communicating around here.
There's even more of a need going forward to form neighborhood associations to have phone numbers and resources and lists of who has what and what they can do in an emergency.

I think there is a need to change those "preserve midtown" signs to "resurrect midtown".

[TheArtist]

I wonder what woodward park looks like. Bet that "stop the chop" lady is having a fit.

Dont know about Florence Park, but I drove around mid-town around the Utica and Philbrook area neighborhoods yesterday and it looked like there were dozens and dozens of home owners out getting the fallen branches out of the streets and yards. Some streets had lots of electrical cords running from the homes one side of the street to the other. I was guessing that one side had electricity and the other didnt. I suppose in those areas you wouldnt want to be the last "bum" on the block to get rid of the fallen branches and trees.

[inteller]

well, power is back on the southern front...but I'm a little disappointed at how well the "bury the lines" theory went.  I guess when I think of burying the lines I'm thinking bury the whole circuit.  As I have come to find out, they just bury the parts that make things aestheticly pleasing.

at least I wasnt the doofus neighbor who called up the expensive generator service for one day.  i didn't realize there were companies in town that would come deliver and hook up a generator and then remove it later.

apparently growing up in the country has its perks.  for instance, you are granted with the common sense that if it is freezing outside, and your fridge is hot, that you can simply move your food into coolers outside.  AMAZING HOW PHYSICS WORKS THAT WAY!

[sgrizzle]

Many of the power outages aren't simple broke lines. Crossed lines, shorts, blown transformers and dozen of other things can cause outages. In cases like this storm, there are also problems where a down tree interferes with restoration, so a tree-trimming crew has to work before the line crew can fix it.

Keep in mind, crews have been arriving from around the country all day and will be out en masse tomorrow morning.

If you want to be impressed, go by the fairgrounds.

[inteller]

Yes, I heard on the radio they were making their way north.

It is pretty cool(spooky?) to go downtown and have these wide swaths of darkness.....the trees downtown are decimated.

NO MORE BRADFORD PEARS!

[akupetsky]

quote:Originally posted by spoonbill

It's interesting to see how different people and communities handle the damage.  I live in south tulsa in a neighborhood with 25 to 40 year old trees.  No one has any power, and many of the roads are blocked with trees.

Large maples, pecan and elms just disintegrated, destroying houses and crushing cars.

We organized a "chain-saw brigade" yesterday evening and 12 of us worked through the rain all morning today clearing the roads and stacking cut wood.  We've cleared most of the neighborhood streets and our neighbors lawns and roofs.  Everyone has plenty of firewood that won't be dry and ready to burn until next year, but I bet they will be burning some of it tonight.

Meanwhile, one of my business associates calls me complaining because the city has failed to clear the streets in Florence park, and his wife scratched her car on a tree limb attempting to get out this morning.  I had to laugh!

In my neighborhood, by contrast, someone took the tree branches that fell in their yard and dragged them into the street, blocking off half the street.

BTW, today I saw a convoy of Entergy trucks moving North on 75 from Tulsa towards Owasso.  It would have been heartwarming for me, except that I haven't seen a single PSO truck fixing anything in or around my neighborhood.  Good for Owasso, though.

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by akupetsky

quote:Originally posted by spoonbill

It's interesting to see how different people and communities handle the damage.  I live in south tulsa in a neighborhood with 25 to 40 year old trees.  No one has any power, and many of the roads are blocked with trees.

Large maples, pecan and elms just disintegrated, destroying houses and crushing cars.

We organized a "chain-saw brigade" yesterday evening and 12 of us worked through the rain all morning today clearing the roads and stacking cut wood.  We've cleared most of the neighborhood streets and our neighbors lawns and roofs.  Everyone has plenty of firewood that won't be dry and ready to burn until next year, but I bet they will be burning some of it tonight.

Meanwhile, one of my business associates calls me complaining because the city has failed to clear the streets in Florence park, and his wife scratched her car on a tree limb attempting to get out this morning.  I had to laugh!

In my neighborhood, by contrast, someone took the tree branches that fell in their yard and dragged them into the street, blocking off half the street.

BTW, today I saw a convoy of Entergy trucks moving North on 75 from Tulsa towards Owasso.  It would have been heartwarming for me, except that I haven't seen a single PSO truck fixing anything in or around my neighborhood.  Good for Owasso, though.

they go where the money is.  hence why certain parts of tulsa are still dark and will remain dark.  Hell, it is probably SAVING PSO money to leave certain areas off since the deadbeats can't leech off juice.[}:)]

I got hooked up right after the hospital and airport, so that lets me know where my neighborhood resides in the pecking order.