Jeff Kaley
WAURIKA — There were trying, tense and even treacherous times in Waurika and western Jefferson County, when winter storm of historic proportion struck last week.
But on Monday, city and county officials were exhaling and feeling somewhat relieved, after the area escaped many of the problems that ravaged other parts of the state.
“We lucked out. A lot of our neighbors and people around us, God bless them, have been hit a lot worse than we were,” Waurika City Manager Chuck Brown said, as city and county officials began to assess the impact of the storm and how local agencies responded.
Although most of western Jefferson County was without electrical power from early Friday morning until Saturday afternoon, the area didn’t experience the icing that accompanied the storm that stuck on Thursday, Jan. 28. Local residents were spared many of the storm-related hardships still being experienced to the north and west of the county.
Jefferson County did have heavy rain and strong winds when the storm first arrived on Thursday afternoon. However, the “freeze line” that accompanied the dangerous icing in other areas stopped dramatically near the boundary between Jefferson and Stephens counties.
Many county residents were affected when Public Service Oklahoma and Cotton Electric Cooperative lost electrical power on Thursday night and Friday morning. But without the ice factor, Jefferson County didn’t experience the long-term power losses, tree damage and water pressure problems that still plague other areas.
In fact, during a regular meeting of the Jefferson County Commissioners on Monday, District 2 Commissioner Ty Phillips said, “We never lost power at all in Ringling, and we didn’t get any of the ice. The town is on OG&E; (Oklahoma Gas & Electric) and the rural areas around Ringling are on OG&E; or REA (Rural Electric Association).
“But there is Cotton (Electric Cooperative) just to the north of where I live, and those folks were without power.”
In western Jefferson County, most electricity in rural areas is provided by Cotton Electric. Their customers in the county began losing power on Thursday night, and by Friday morning nearly all of Cotton’s area customers were without power. That included the Hastings, Addington and Ryan areas.
PSO customers lost power around 1:30 a.m. on Friday. At that point, area emergency agencies and local individuals were already ramping up their efforts.
By early Saturday morning, Jefferson County Emergency Management had established a shelter at Waurika Elementary School, where residents could find warmth and food, thanks in great part to a contribution from Tom Coble, who recently purchased Westbrook Care Center.
“We tried to get a generator through the EOC and one was supposedly headed this way,” said District 1 County Commissioner Billy Kidd. “I don’t know where that generator ended up, but we especially want to thank Mr. Tom Coble, owner of Westbrook, for providing Waurika with a generator he paid for himself.”
“Mr. Coble knew someone at ACE in Wilson, and that’s where he got the generator. Brian Morris hooked up the generator for us,” said Donnie Dalton, who was named in December to replace the late Steve Goza as Emergency Management Director for the county.
“Brian Morris hooked up the generator for us.”
City and county officials agreed it was impossible to directly thank everyone contributing during the emergency. But Dalton noted, “We need to thank the people at Addington Baptist Church for providing food at the shelter, and Lisa and Luke Rawlings from Addington Baptist ran the kitchen at the shelter. And thanks to Phil Webb, who arranged to get the Baptist Disaster Relief Team to send two people to help.
“Most of the churches donated from their food pantries and Bill’s Fish House provided us paper goods, and various people brought in canned goods.
“I got in touch with the Red Cross in Lawton and talked to a woman named Carrie Norton, and she arranged for 69 cots and 150 blankets to be sent from Red Cross in Wichita Falls (Texas).
“(County) Sheriff Michael Bryant and his deputies, and (Waurika) Police Chief Gary Whittington were invaluable in helping get the word out (about the shelter), and helping us out in many ways.”
Dalton said over 100 people were served food and that “70 percent of the meals we served were delivered. Most of the deliveries were made by (Waurika Police Deputy) Stephen Dyer, who also took 15 to 20 meals to Ryan.”
City and county officials also praised assistance from local businesses that were able to use generators to remain open. By Friday, Waurika Travel Stop was serving hot food and Quik Mart was doing the same. Residents in need if medical supplies and other services were also able to find assistance at Eck Drug & Gift.
In the Ryan and Terral areas, most customers are on Cotton Electric service. During the outage Friday and Saturday, several residents of Ryan sought shelter at the Ryan Nursing Home, which had a generator.
Jefferson County Hospital was able to remain at full electrical capacity throughout the power outage.
“We were on emergency power and had to reroute some things, but we had all of our services available,” said Jane McDowell, CEO of the hospital. “We had three in-patients and some people who came to the emergency room, but our generators held up well. We test them every week.”
With 20 of 24 substations out of commission early in the event, Cotton Electric Cooperative’s problems were easy to understand. However, some area residents wondered why PSO power was lost, since Jefferson County hadn’t experienced the icing effect of the storm.
PSO officials explained that damage to substations in other areas eventually caused a loss of power in Waurika and Jefferson County. By 4 p.m. on Saturday, nearly all PSO customers in Jefferson County had power restored, and that was still the situation on Tuesday.
By noon Tuesday, Cotton Electric had restored power to 1,000 of its 1,002 Jefferson County customers. The only remaining outages were near Waurika Lake.
As the storm and its aftereffects played out, there was concern Waurika might experience water pressure problems, since the Waurika Water Treatment Facility was running on backup generator power. But Brown explained how a possible crisis was avoided.
“Reynolds Supply Company in Lawton arranged for us to get a generator and we picked it up in Wichita Falls,” the city manager said. “We got it Friday morning and it was hooked up by 3 in the afternoon, so we were assured of water.
“Rural Water (District No. 1) was pumping water off of us and so was Ryan, but we never got that low. The pumps worked.”
The storm was an initiation for Dalton, who was handling a crisis for the first time since becoming Jefferson County Emergency Management Director.
Assessing the operation on Monday, he said, “I thought we did pretty good. We were able to get the generator for the (Waurika) shelter and the state emergency operations center got one for Rural Water District in Hastings.
“The state handles things based on how big the population of the area is, and because Jefferson County is so small, we weren’t high on the (priority) list. And as wide-spread as the problems were, generators had become unavailable. But the state emergency center helped as much as it could.
“One thing people need to understand, is that there’s a process in acquiring (emergency help) that you have to go through. You just can’t snap your fingers and things magically appear.
“So, you do what you can with the resources available. And because we had so many people helping, we were able to get some things done.”
