– Eufaula – Checotah – Canadian – Indianola – Hanna – Stidham – Vivian – Lake Eufaula State Park – Raiford – Arrowhead State Park – Enterprise – Pierce – Onapa – Vernon
JERRY FINK
MANAGING EDITOR
It was a wet and windy Memorial Day Weekend, with lots of scattered flooding and power outages in the area. Several county roads were washed out and bridges flooded.
Tuesday the County Commissioners declared the county to be a disaster area and is seeking “aid, relief and assistance” to implement the County Emergency Operations Plan.
The proclamation was effective May 23 and was imple-mented due to “several thunderstorms with torrential rainfall in which there was considerable damage to public and private properties.
According to McIntosh County Emergency Management Director Leslie Phillips, between eight and nine inches of rain fell during the 3-day holiday, in some areas even more.
Phillips said a tin horn on a rural road half a mile south of Vivian collapsed Saturday.
“It had to be replaced Saturday,” he said.
In that same southwestern part of the county, SH 9 flooded near Raiford Sunday and had to be closed for a short time. It was reopened early Monday morning.
The wind speed hit 69 miles per hour on Saturday.
Phillips said a lot of trees were down and limbs broken, “but nothing horrible happened.”
Several electric companies experienced power outages in the area.
Some city streets in Eufaula and Checotah experienced flooding during the worst part of the storms.
Thousands of customers were impacted by power outages, mostly in Pittsburg County, where 26,611 were without power during the weekend.
Three of McIntosh County’s power providers reported a total of 6,534 customers without power, including 898 with Canadian Valley Electric, 5,310 with OG&E and 326 with Public Service Co. of Oklahoma.
By noon Monday, power to all of those customers but 39 with PSO had been restored.
East Central Electric Co-Op reported at 7 a.m. Monday that 1,020 members were without power, primarily in the Checotah and Rentiesville area.
One outage in the Checotah area was caused by a large tree falling over powerlines, according to a spokesman for East Central.
“We have multiple crews responding to this one outage in Checotah,” the spokesman said Monday morning. “But flooding streets are causing delays as linemen have a safety obligation to drive out the power line and make sure it is safe to re-energize.”
East Central confirmed 30 broken poles in their area.
It is taking crews anywhere from 20 minutes to four hours to restore power, plus the time it takes to get to the sites, so folks are urged to be patient.
Rain is expected to continue intermittently throughout the week.
The National Weather service reports that showers and thunderstorms were likely Tuesday before 10 a.m. The chance of precipitation was 60 percent.
Wednesday, there was a slight chance of showers between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4 a.m.
Thursday, showers are likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 1 p.m., then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday it is expected to be clear, calm and sunny.
