Situation Update
Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management

Situation Update 12
January 31, 2009 – 4:30 p.m.

The Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives reports 9,588 homes and businesses, primarily in Cherokee and Adair counties, are without power.

Below is a list of current affected electric cooperatives, the location of their office and the number of power outages.

Lake Region Electric Cooperative (Hulbert) – 2,600

Ozarks Electric Cooperative (Fayetteville, Ark.) – 6,988

The American Red Cross continues to operate shelters to assist those impacted by the ice storm at the following locations:

Stilwell – First Baptist Church, 801 W. Hickory

Westville – Assembly of God, Hwy. 62 East

Tahlequah – First United Methodist Church, 300 W. Delaware

Cookson – TACO Building (Tenkiller Area Community Organization), 31521 S. 540 Road

65 individuals stayed at the shelters Friday night; 27 in Tahlequah, 6 in Cookson, 17 in Westville, and 15 in Stilwell.

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief continues to provide meals to the shelters from their mobile kitchen, located at the Baptist Church Camp in Cookson. Red Cross continues to deliver meals in the communities most impacted by the storm. Friday, Red Cross mobile feeding reached 602 people. That is in addition to 365 lunches and 200 dinners delivered to shelters.

Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management (OEM) personnel remain in Tahlequah, Westville and other affected areas where they are assisting with resource requests and coordination.

OEM deployed generators to the Town of Watts for operation of their water treatment facilities. Generators were also sent to Adair and Cherokee counties for operation of rural water district water treatment facilities. Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Oklahoma Highway Patrol and Durant/Bryan County Emergency Management assisted with delivery of the generators.

Additionally, OEM worked with the Salvation Army to deliver a truckload of bottled water to Stilwell to be distributed throughout Adair County.

The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry reports officials with the Forestry Division continue to assist local officials in clearing roadways of downed trees and branches. Already, Forestry personnel have cleared 40 miles of Adair County roads and another 10 miles of roadway in Delaware County.

###