The CW12 Blog

It’s now day four without power for a lot of people in Tulsa… including myself. My husband and I were somewhat prepared to be in the dark. We got batteries for our flashlight and pulled all of our candles from our cupboards. We piled all of our blankets on the bed. Just when we thought being in the dark wasn’t too bad… trees started falling.

It was pitch-black and silent in our house. Then we heard the first cracking sound outside our window. It was followed by several more. Then we heard the loud “thud” sounds of branches, covered in ice, falling to the ground. Soon that’s all we could hear. One particularly loud thud sent me running to the window on the side of our house. A huge branch from our beautiful old oak tree had fallen on our fence, splitting it in two. What can you do? We could only hope and pray that the branches spared our roof. Emergency sirens came and went. As long as they weren’t on my street I thought we were okay.

I covered last winter’s ice storm in Grove. As I sat in our house listening to the trees and branches fall, all I could think about were those people in Grove. I felt terrible for them then… but now I knew exactly what they were going through. It was eerie.

At four a.m. we got a phone call from our next-door neighbor. She told us a gas line had been hit and was spewing gas across the street. We could hear its loud hissing sound and could soon smell gas so strong it smelled like it was leaking inside our own home. I called 911. It took about 5 minutes to get through and I asked for the fire department. I told the dispatcher about the gas leak and he said they’d send some guys out as soon as possible. But he couldn’t promise they’d be there soon. They showed up about 45 minutes later, took care of the leak and went on to their next call.

The next day at work I covered the City of Tulsa’s 2:30 p.m. media briefing. Larry Bowles with the fire department said they’d responded to 50 structure fires in the last 24 hours. (No wonder they couldn’t promise me a crew for my gas leak!) The outlook was not good for people without power. The numbers kept growing throughout the day until we finally ended up with 225,000 people in the Tulsa area without power. It’s incredible to think that virtually all of Tulsa is in the same situation as we are. But working in the news business always keeps me grounded. I know it could always be worse. There is always someone out there whose problems make mine look like small potatoes.

So, today, as we go into our 4th night without electricity, I am thankful for what I do have. I can tell you that I will never take my electricity for granted again though. I hope you are surviving too. Stay warm!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jennifer Loren