Weather Woes

As if the ice storms we had weren't bad enough Mother Nature is gearing up to slam us again. Meteorologists are now predicting a new bout of winter storms headed toward us this weekend, bringing with them "significant" accumulations of snow to our region.

The good news is phone service has been restored to the area my home is in. The bad news is there is still no electricity. The guess-timated time by our rural electric company is it will be restored by Friday. Just in time for the next big blow which will more than likely result in additional outages.

My boys have moved into my bedroom and bathroom to conserve the area they are having to heat with a small propane heater. There is some good news though. The electrical supply company my son works for shipped in three small generators today - we requisitioned one immediately. It's not enough to heat the house, but will run the hot-water tank and provide a place to plug in a couple of lamps and maybe a small oil-based heater. They are both looking forward to a hot shower tonight - the first since Friday for them.

Both boys are planning to resume work and school tomorrow. They are tired of spending their days in town hanging out at Walmart, the bowling alley, and assorted other warm places and are looking forward to getting back to as close to a normal life as possible.

FEMA aid is coming into the state now on a community basis. 100 generators are being distributed to towns for emergency shelter facilities and utilities in need. As of this morning there were still 7800 homes in my rural electric company's area alone without power. Gov. Henry attempted a flyby today to view disaster areas, but it was cut short due to inclement weather. State agencies are speculating that the President will approve individual FEMA relief in a week or so to those in need. Maybe I'll be reimbursed for the cost of the generator under a individual relief program, which would be great since I've lost time from work last week from being sick.

I ventured out today to the doctor to get cleared to go back to work. The roads are passable here in Tulsa, if you take it easy. I only had one close call driving when a guy trying to stop slid through the intersection and just missed my SUV's rear end. I couldn't jog over to get out of his way as there was another car beside me, but avoided getting hit by goosing the gas a bit. I recently paid off my vehicle and have a feeling that because of it I've probably jinxed the poor thing, lol.

My youngest son has wanted to be a meteorologist since he was in kindergarten. He came to the conclusion this past week, that his career choice may be one in which he won't sleep much or get home for days on end. Thanks to Channel 6 KOTV in Tulsa for the great coverage - Travis Meyers has been my son's hero since a tornado hit our neighborhood when he was 4. He learned to read the weather maps with Travis before learning to read in school.

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