UA ice damage mirrors '07 Oklahoma storm damage
Bailey McBride
Issue date: 2/25/09 Section: News
Hundreds of thousands of people without power and some without running water. Grocery stores running out of food and gas stations running out of gas. Power lines and trees littering and, in most cases, blocking the streets.
Sound like a familiar situation?
Many residents of Northwest Arkansas are ready to forget the 2009 ice storm that left thousands without power and kept students out of school for a week.
Current estimates suggest that the UA cleanup alone will cost around $700,000. At the peak of the storm, around 600,000 people were without power across the south, and the university was closed for an unprecedented four days. Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan also went out with electric and cleanup crews to help alleviate the devastation of the Fayetteville area.
But while Northwest Arkansas is almost back to normal, residents of northeastern Oklahoma remember a very similar storm a couple of years ago.
The Oklahoma ice storm left 640,000 people without power, some for days and some for weeks, and ultimately cost the city millions of dollars in recovery efforts. The mayor of Tulsa, Kathy Taylor, had a hotline to help citizens who were unable to cope with the detrimental effects of the storm for weeks after the initial damage was done in the first weeks of December.
Freshman Jill Inman was a senior at Booker T. Washington High School when the ice storm hit Tulsa in early December 2007.
She recalled trying to drive over to a friend's house that was only a few miles away from her own home but being stopped by the inch of ice on the road and trees blocking the streets in her neighborhood.
"It was like trying to drive through a war zone," Inman said. "It took long enough to get the ice off of my car, and then I couldn't even get out of my neighborhood - trees were crushing cars and houses all down my street."
Sophomore Shannon Mumma received a call from her mother warning her of the danger of coming home to Tulsa for Christmas break.
Sound like a familiar situation?
Many residents of Northwest Arkansas are ready to forget the 2009 ice storm that left thousands without power and kept students out of school for a week.
Current estimates suggest that the UA cleanup alone will cost around $700,000. At the peak of the storm, around 600,000 people were without power across the south, and the university was closed for an unprecedented four days. Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan also went out with electric and cleanup crews to help alleviate the devastation of the Fayetteville area.
But while Northwest Arkansas is almost back to normal, residents of northeastern Oklahoma remember a very similar storm a couple of years ago.
The Oklahoma ice storm left 640,000 people without power, some for days and some for weeks, and ultimately cost the city millions of dollars in recovery efforts. The mayor of Tulsa, Kathy Taylor, had a hotline to help citizens who were unable to cope with the detrimental effects of the storm for weeks after the initial damage was done in the first weeks of December.
Freshman Jill Inman was a senior at Booker T. Washington High School when the ice storm hit Tulsa in early December 2007.
She recalled trying to drive over to a friend's house that was only a few miles away from her own home but being stopped by the inch of ice on the road and trees blocking the streets in her neighborhood.
"It was like trying to drive through a war zone," Inman said. "It took long enough to get the ice off of my car, and then I couldn't even get out of my neighborhood - trees were crushing cars and houses all down my street."
Sophomore Shannon Mumma received a call from her mother warning her of the danger of coming home to Tulsa for Christmas break.
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