I sat in a dark cold house for 2 days. PSO says that there are still 400,000+ people in NE oklahoma, and 216,000 people in tulsa without power. ( Originally the numbers were 600,000 and 275,000) These numbers do not include Oklahoma City. PSO says that it could be 9 more days before power is restored to everyone in the tulsa area. Everyone I know lost power, a few have got it back already. Some have lost it, got it back, and lost it again.
Monday afternoon I tried to go to QuickTrip to get gas and milk. I could only find one QT that had power. There was a 30 minute wait just to get in the parking lot, and an hour wait if you wanted gas. Id say there were 20 cars in line for each gas pump (the line was bumper to bumber for 3 miles- some of which were just trying to get passed the QT for highway access, while others wanted essentials like gas, ciggarettes, and coffee. Monday night we put an air mattress by the fireplace and slept in the living room. It was still really cold.
I drove all over town Tuesday and waited in lines everywhere I went just to get items to survive. I got bass pro shop's last propane heater, only to find out that everywhere in town was sold out of propane. Luckily I found out that I had about 3 cans in my camping gear. I bought a lamp that ran off of D batteries, but everywhere in tulsa is sold out of D batteries. At the last minute I found 2 packs of D batteries at bass pro shop so that was cool. I went to the mall to return some clothes and kill some time (since they had heat and power). ok, bad Idea... it was a MADHOUSE. My friend called and told me that a walmart across town had just received 2 pallettes of propane. I hopped in my car only to find bumper to bumber traffic leaving the mall. Every traffic light was out. I went down a road that said WRONG WAY to gain access to a neighborhood that would bypass this mess.
I got to walmart (after waiting for 30 minutes to get into the parking lot) and they still had some propane. About 1/4 pallet left out of 2. The people of walmart had purchased 1 and 3/4 pallets of propane in 30 minutes. I grabbed 12 more cans, fearing we would be without power for 10 more days. After all, I needed gas to cook and stay warm. I spent 30-40 minutes in line, and the lines tripled while I was waiting. I spent another 15 minutes waiting to get out of the parking lot.
I got home and nailed blankets over my windows and glass door in my living room. I hung more blankets over the entry way to my kitchen and hallway so my living room could have a chance of staying warm with my fireplace and my newly aquired propane heat. I left to give my uncle two cans of propane and purchase a carbon monoxide detector to make sure that we would not die from CO poisoning from the propane heater and the gas fireplace. Right as we were leaving our lights came on! I took down all the blankets, cranked the heat up to 80 (the thermostat was bottomed out at 50 and it was about 30 outside), and cleared my house of my camping gear and candles. Hopefully our power will stay on.
My parents, grandparents, friends, and many other are without power.
My work has been without power for 2 days, today it has power. Oh yeah: Last week I found that the heater in my car was broke too! They say it will cost $800 to fix it... I think my propane heater might come in use after all!
I still have no cable or internet.
