Awhirlwind winter storm with inches of ice all over everything fell on most of us. The last big one I was in was 1989. I was servicing chickens, hauling generators to poultry growers, and we had several poultry houses fall in from the ice and snow load. I learned then generators take lots of fuel. A tractor churning a PTO-driven generator will suck up diesel worse than plowing hard. And gasoline ones use lots too. It soon adds up.
This time around, Mother and I had a fireplace insert that, if fed all the wood it could burn without a fan, could keep the house near 50 degrees. The TV was out and soon the phone quit which meant that all the irate folks who wanted to talk to their director at the Ozarks Electric Cooperative had no communications.
My cell phone was my only communication with the outside world. Oh yes, I had E-mail on an AT&T wireless hub that is worth the cost.
Next the CEO of Ozarks called and said we have 52,000 members without power. That number is astounding and there is not a more sincere person in the world than Mitchel Johnson.
They’d done all they could do Monday and sent the “boys” home, telling them that we were in for some kind of hell that night. Only no one knew the disaster we would have. Our lines in Northwest Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma are like taking a walk to Nome, Alaska and walking back — Seven Thousand miles. If you take 52,000 meters shut off that means about a 225,000 folks don’t have electricity. And if you ever thought you wouldn't miss it, well you can’t imagine until it isn’t there when you flip a switch.
The roads were impassable and the county judge managed to open mine the second day. He cut a path through, but that was a start. Here he was with about as many miles of road as we have line and having to open them. Folks fell in and helped too. When I finally went to town I found the most courteous folks in Springdale stopping like a four way at every out stop light.
It was amazing and I wanted to shout, “Thanks.”
Yes, I heard from the mouthy folks. I knew they were upset. How in the world could you have a big enough phone system when 52,000 are out of power and all calling in? Those girls and guys answering the phone have no schematic telling them if there is a truck near your house. Those people outside were working overtime trying to restore power.
Crews came in from Alabama, Mississippi and western Oklahoma to start. Some were folks we helped in hurricanes and ice storms. But there’s logistics to feeding and putting them up that goes on and on. Our accountants were cooking meals and we had to supply this new personnel with the equipment to fix our miles of power lines and our damaged systems.
I ate one meal with them — it was first class.
Ozarks will replace 1,500 poles due to this storm is the best guess I could get. We had to have gas and diesel as the number grew in the thousands of gallons. Flats to fix, auto repairs, the load goes on and on. Lucky we had a helicopter available to hire the first day after to fly the lines so we could get the transmission lines. Our first task was get the power on at each transmission point then start working out like the three phase.
More people came in to help us and the job is still ongoing. I know being out of power is no small thing, but I hope you take your hats off to the hard working men and women at Ozarks Electric who have given their all to restore power in this disaster. Many had ice damage at their own homes they weren’t able to take off and fix. It has been no small task but it is not because a dedicated work force wasn’t trying their damndest to get your lights back on.
Western novelist Dusty Richards and his wife Pat live on Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas. For more information about his books you can email Dusty by visiting www.ozarksfn.com and clicking on 'Contact Us' or call 1-866-532-1960.
