Two weeks later, some still don't have electricity

By EDDIE GLENN

Lake Region Electric Cooperative reported Thursday morning that 95 percent of the customers that experienced power outages during the recent ice storm are now back on the grid.

But according to Bob and Fran Batson, being in that other 5 percent is not a lot of fun.

The Batsons live on Notty Acres Drive, just south of Grand View Road, and well within the city limits of Tahlequah. All their neighbors on Notty Acres Drive have power, but the Batsons have been without electricity since the storm first hit the Tahlequah area Jan. 12.

“We’ve been out two weeks tomorrow,” Fran said Thursday afternoon. “I understand how hard the people at Lake Region are working, but it just seems we’re low on the priority list.”

The Batsons stayed in their house through most of the ice storm, even without electricity. But by Sunday, Jan. 14, it just got to be a little too much – or, in terms of heat, a little too little.

With the temperature in the house down to 45 degrees, and the family pets not particularly happy about the situation, the Batsons – Bob, Fran, a cat, a parrot, and three tropical fish – sought refuge.

“We’ve been staying with our son and daughter-in-law,” said Fran. “We lost our aquarium, but we were able to save three fish.”

(The ice storm of ‘07 has been particularly hard on tropical fish. The occupants of Woodall School’s aquarium also succumbed to the cold and lack of air circulation in their tank.)

The Batson’s yard looks a lot like a sawmill at this point, with the sawed-up remains of several trees strewn about. A tree fell on top of the house and damaged the roof, but Bob said the house took the hit pretty well, and they don’t appear to have any leaks because of it. Another much larger tree – one that probably would’ve caused some major damage had it fallen eastward instead of westward – ended up propped against another tree that’s bending, but not yet breaking, under the added weight.

Fran called a tree removal service as soon as the foliage around her house started giving way, but the crew ended up getting its bucket truck stuck in the yard. So now, the Batsons have a yard full of firewood (although they don’t use wood heat); an aquarium full of unfiltered water and a few floating fish; a tree in the backyard leaning at a frightening angle; several sets of tire ruts through the yard; and no electricity.

“I’ve been calling Lake Region twice a day,” Fran said. “I’m not grumpy with them, because I know it’s not their fault, but we’ll probably be the last ones to get our electricity back on.”

Hamid Vahdatipour, CEO of LREC, said the Batsons aren’t alone. As of Thursday morning, 785 co-op members were still without power.

None of those homes, he said, are in large clusters, where multiple homes can have power restored with the replacement of just one line or transformer. They’re dispersed all over LREC’s seven-county service area. Restoring power to those customers is a much slower process than the co-op’s initial power restoration efforts, which brought several thousand customers back on line in just a couple of days.

LREC crews are being assisted by 150 additional electrical workers, many from out-of-state, who’ll continue to help out until all LREC members have had power restored.

“It’s going to be slow and tedious from now on,” Vahdatipour said. “All of the feeder lines have been reconstructed, but now we’re having to replace individual poles that have just one meter or transformer on them.”

Vahdatipour said the Batsons and others in their situation should have power by Sunday, but it doesn’t hurt to keep calling, like Fran has been doing.

“Call and remind us,” he suggested. “Because there may be some situations where we think the power is back on to an entire area, but some individual homes may not have it.”

The Batsons suspect that’s the case with their home, especially considering the angle at which the transformer pole outside their house is leaning.

“That’s the pole right there,” said Bob, pointing. “It’s the only pole I can see that’s messed up.”

Bob said they’ll continue to be patient, but they’ve pretty much had their fill of Mother Nature’s fury. They’ve survived not only the ice storm of ‘07, but also one of the worst California earthquakes in recorded history – back in the early ‘90s, when they were out of power for three days.

“We moved here so we could get all four seasons,” he said. “And we sure got ‘em.”



Tell them about it

Lake Region Electric Cooperative CEO Hamid Vahdatipour said LREC customer service representatives have been answering phone calls 24 hours a day since the beginning of the storm, and will continue to do so. Due to the volume of calls, however, callers may bet a busy signal during certain times of the day. The LREC number is 772-2526.

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