Nearly 2,000 homes, businesses impacted by Wednesday's weather
SHAWNEE — While exact damage totals are not yet known, preliminary estimates put the number of damaged structures in Pottawatomie County alone at nearly 2,000.
That preliminary assessment was provided by the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, whose emergency management staff has been working alongside those from the county and state to assess impacts from Wednesday night's tornadic storms.
An initial damage assessment inside the county identified nearly 2,000 structures as damaged or destroyed, Tim Zientek, director of the tribe's emergency management organization reported Friday morning.
“As far as CPN (the Citizen Potawatomi Nation) goes, we’ve been extremely fortunate,” said Zientek. “But with over 1,700 homes or structures damaged, I’m pretty sure that some of those are going to be Tribal members at some point, somewhere.”
Tribal properties' damages were mostly superficial, consisting of broken skylights, debris and damaged trees.
However, it did lose the CPN Distribution Center, formerly Hardesty Grocery, at the corner of Hardesty Road and South Gordon Cooper Drive.
On Thursday, tribal crews prioritized efforts to clear streets debris to make them accessible to emergency personnel. An assessment of damages sustained by the county's Rural Water District 3 continues.
“We’ve been coordinating with agencies from all over the state,” said Zientek.
This included the Absentee Shawnee Tribe, Choctaw Nation and Chickasaw Nation emergency services mobile command units — all of which participate in the Intertribal Emergency Management Coalition.
More: Cole, Shawnee, OBU reeling after tornadoes tear across Oklahoma this week
The Chickasaw Nation helped fly drones across the larger Shawnee and the Citizen Potawatomi Nation for damage assessments passed along both to the tribe and county, while the Muscogee Nation Arbor Care unit helped the tribe clear roadways within its jurisdiction.
The nation provided those agencies with power, fuel, food and places to park equipment being used to help the area recover, including skid steers, backhoes and other equipment.
On Thursday night, a shelter set up within the tribe's Reunion Hall by the American Red Cross hosted about 10 people overnight, plus many others who stopped in to charge phones, grab snacks and water or to take breaks.
Other Red Cross shelters have been established at Noble High School, 4601 E Etowah Road and the Washington School Gym, 101 E Kerby Ave..
“The places we normally used (in Shawnee) were either destroyed or had no electricity,” said Sherry Schauer, the Red Cross' disaster program manager for south central and southeast Oklahoma chapters.
“CPN was very generous to let us come in and let us use their facilities, and they are also letting us use their facilities for our headquarters, as well, in Tecumseh," Schauer said.
The tribe reported Thursday that phone and internet services were spotty throughout the area.
Meanwhile, many service stations across town remained without power, prompting area residents to visit the nation's FireLake Convenience Store at 41201 Hardesty Road to obtain fuel, where patrons waited for upwards of 45 minutes to fill their tanks.
More: See what tornadoes in Cole, Shawnee and other storms look like across Oklahoma
What we know about power outages
Power had been restored to more than half of Oklahoma Gas & Electric customers before noon on Friday, a spokesperson for the utility reported.
At 11 a.m. Friday, 11,160 customers (primarily in Shawnee) remained without service, she said.
Restoration efforts are being performed by more than 2,800 utility workers. So far, they have found more than 600 broken distribution poles and metal structures that carry power from the grid to transformer stations so that it can be distributed.
Damaged cross arms, transformers and other equipment attached to poles also must be replaced before the distribution lines they carry can be energized to restore power.
More: Track power outages amid tornadoes, storms hitting Oklahoma
Beyond that, utility personnel must verify it will be safe for a home or business to accept power before service can be restored.
The spokesperson said the utility has brought additional crews into the area to help make needed repairs.
The utility wants customers to know that:
Downed power lines may still be energized and should be considered dangerous — please stay away from them and anything they are touching.
They should report downed power lines by calling 800-552-6870.
They should report outages and monitor repair updates through using the utility's free mobile app available on iOS and Android, or report outages either online at OGE.com/outages or by texting OUT to 32001 through myOGEalerts. Outages also can be reported by phoning 405-272-9595 (in the Oklahoma City metro area) or 800-522-6870.
They should secure animals and ensure power workers can access their properties as work continues.
OG&E crews will carry cleared tree limbs interfering with power lines to customers' curbs, with customers responsible for further disposal.
Some customers may need to hire certified electricians to repair damaged weather heads, meter bases or service cables.
Customers can visit OGE.com/stormcenter to see a list of restoration tips and to find contact numbers for businesses that could make needed repairs to their home or business.
The spokesperson said visual inspections and assessments were continuing Friday morning, and that OG&E expected to have enough information to provide estimated restoration times later today to help customers without power to plan as much as possible.
It could take multiple days for repairs to be completed, she said.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma tornadoes impacted thousands of homes, businesses
