NIKV69 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 18 hours ago) and read 1551 times:
Well I just checked into my motel room here in Clinton, Oklahoma. I am on my annual trek to Nevada and have to say I feel like I am on a different planet. I left Greenup, Illinois this morning planning on arriving on AMA as usual on my second day. I tracked the wx and knew OK had a terrible ice storm yesterday but reports were that the roads were better. Well it went down the shitter fast. Though it warmed up a little, it refroze and by the time I reached Tulsa it was a war zone. No power anywhere. Black ice all over the place. I made it through and thought OKC would be a bit better. Well as I drove down I44 in complete darkness I kept waiting to see the lights of the city well after a long while it dawned on me OKC was in complete darkness. It was freaky. As I drove through some parts had power and I found probably the only Shell station open and pulled in. The lines were 3 deep at every pump and it soon turned into a free for all. I had to fight to get to the pump I was waiting at when 2 guys tried to jump in front of me. The only gas left was super as regular and special was gone. People were pullling gas cans out of their cars filling them in addition to their cars. Running inside getting batteries. Then a fight broke out in front of me when the guy didn't want super and couldn't understand that nothing else was left and he was blocking in a guy who was trying to get out. I was sitting there waiting for my tank to fill wishing it would go faster. Then I slapped the cap back on and went to get the hell out of there. The two guys were still fighting and I couldn't pull out so I had to back out, problem was the idiots behind me wouldn't budge because they didn't want to lose their turn so I had to do some manuvering and burned rubber. To top it off as I hit Weatherford on I40 the whole interstate was gone. Sheet of ice. I then proceeded to drive 30 miles to here, Clinton doing 35MPH with my hazards on. What fun. This is bad, I have driven this route 7 times now and never seen this. I mean there is ice on everything! I saw some woman fall flat on her ass in this parking lot at a LUVS truck stop!
BTW no pics. Though my D200 was right next to me I wasn't about to start taking pictures. If you have ever been on a rural interstate in pitchblackness with no visibilty and traction you will understand. Also didn't think it the thing to do at the gas station. It was getting ugly.
Jetmatt777 From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 2661 posts, RR: 36 Reply 2, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 17 hours ago) and read 1502 times:
Pics to come 'morrow of my neighborhood. I alredy took 'em, but I don't feel like futzing around with PS tonight. Right now, every 5 minutes you can still hear the limbs off trees falling. There are four trees in my yard completely destroyed, these are not small trees, they are 40-50 yr old trees that span atleast 75-100 feet in the air. The local "Homey-land" (my nickname for the grocery store, Homeland) the shelves are relatively empty. There are people expected to be without power for up to 10 days from now. All WN, UA, and CO flts operating in/out of OKC are cancelled. Last night the sky was flashing all night blue and red from all the transformers getting knocked out and the power lines getting snapped by falling tree limbs. This is gonna sound real redneck, but I had to de-ice the Direct-TV box this morning. I was out of school Monday (today), and school is cancelled tomorrow. You can *stand* on the bushes because they are frozen solid with 1-2" of ice surrounding them. Each tree limb is covered around it with 1" of ice all the way around it, thus adding an extra 400-500 pounds.
Welcome to OK Nick, Too bad you couldn't have seen OKC's good side.
-Matt
NIKV69 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 17 hours ago) and read 1482 times:
Quoting Futurecaptain (Reply 1): I'm gonna try to go out tomorrow and get some pics of the wreckage, er, I mean city and will post some in one of the threads
I saw enough wrecks tonight and I am thanking the Lord my car is in one piece. I just walked out of the motel to grab a quick pic. The Black Maxima in the middle is mine. I parked between a local's Honda and some guy from TX. It's still coming down out there. Jesus.
National757 From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 717 posts, RR: 1 Reply 6, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 15 hours ago) and read 1427 times:
Quoting NIKV69 (Thread starter): The lines were 3 deep at every pump and it soon turned into a free for all. I had to fight to get to the pump I was waiting at when 2 guys tried to jump in front of me. The only gas left was super as regular and special was gone. People were pullling gas cans out of their cars filling them in addition to their cars.
Scares me to think what would happen in the event of a nationwide crisis and fuel supplies were interrupted for an extended period of time.
Formula 1 Grand Prix Trips: YUL '08, MEL '09, BCN '10, SIN '11, and LGW '12
LASOctoberB6 From Japan, joined Nov 2006, 2380 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 15 hours ago) and read 1408 times:
That kinda brings back the memory of watching War of the Worlds or something like that.. BTW, I like you car..lots! Waiting to see you down at the bright and sunny (but somehow cold!) LAS! Have a safe trip.
NIKV69 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 8, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 1319 times:
Quoting NIKV69 (Reply 3): Good grief!!! Sounds like you were lucky to get through it all! Keep safe and don't take any wrong turns into any dodgy neighbourhoods eh bro?
Thanks, I didn't venture to far, just the market to get some soda and some wannbe DQ for some chili. Even though this town has power it's a ghost town right now.
Quoting National757 (Reply 6): Scares me to think what would happen in the event of a nationwide crisis and fuel supplies were interrupted for an extended period of time.
It wasn't a surprise, I mean I only saw two parts of OKC with power. The only restuarant was this McDonalds and they were overrun with people. I hit the head and tried to get a quick cheeseburger but then realized it was time to go as the employees were starting to meltdown with the situation.
Quoting LASOctoberB6 (Reply 7): That kinda brings back the memory of watching War of the Worlds or something like that.. BTW, I like you car..lots! Waiting to see you down at the bright and sunny (but somehow cold!) LAS! Have a safe trip.
Thanks, got to get to one of those self serve car washes as soon as I get out of this freezing stuff. My car has so much road salt on it. I'm pulling into IFP this afternoon so may get to LAS by the weekend. Will advise.
Futurecaptain From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 11, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 1170 times:
Quoting Jetmatt777 (Reply 2): Too bad you couldn't have seen OKC's good side.
What good side?
Anyway, here are some pics I took today while driving around in the rain. It's still pretty bad around town with alot of people with no power. My power is flickering and I'm praying it stays on.
Large tree limbs out back:
Trees in the roads:
Ice weighing down even the bigger trees causing collapse:
NIKV69 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 12, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 1105 times:
Quoting Express1 (Reply 9): or is that the other way round? the TX guy owning the Maxima and you owning the honda civic lol
LOLOL ahhhh No.
Quoting Futurecaptain (Reply 11): Anyway, here are some pics I took today while driving around in the rain. It's still pretty bad around town with alot of people with no power. My power is flickering and I'm praying it stays on.
Damn, thats horrible. Hope your power stays on. The local news wasn't too promising and it seemed the thaw was making matters worse. Glad I got out of there. It was raining in Clinton, OK when I left but I got out of it in TX. Thought I was fine till Flagstaff and got hit with two quick snow storms at the higher elevations. Thankfully they didn't last more than 5 mins each. Lucky for me, the temp was 15F.The roads could have went bad in a hurry. I latched on to this one semi and just rode his ass all the way to Nevada. I am now in IFP in my bed watching some TV while eating a double double. Life is good. The car is so dirty tho. I must have seen 100 road salt trucks in the last 48 hours.
Iowaman From United States of America, joined May 2004, 4095 posts, RR: 7 Reply 13, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 1069 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW FORUM MODERATOR
We are all prepared up here in the north.. have a 14k generator and 500 gallon gas barrel. Ice storms are the norm. And the majority of people are smart enough to have one.
RJdxer From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 14, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 1010 times:
Quoting National757 (Reply 6): Scares me to think what would happen in the event of a nationwide crisis and fuel supplies were interrupted for an extended period of time.
Well it could be worse, he might have been driving down the road when a tornado decided to drop down. I'm wondering, with the price of gas alone wouldn't it have been just as cheap or cheaper to fly to LAS from STL?
Ouboy79 From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 3999 posts, RR: 23 Reply 15, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 956 times:
Still without power here in Norman, at least for about 15-20 of us in this subdivision. Looks like still around 145K in the OKC Metro without power. Drove around town a bit and the tree damage is just amazing. Not many escaped damage...several on my property either snapped in half or lost a lot of limbs. I have never seen so many trees either that have been split in thirds or more.
Ah well...back to staying warm. Have a gas fireplace...so no worries there. Have a generator to keep most of the essentials running as well.
Any opinion/comment posted is that of my own and not that of Southwest Airlines Co.
Ouboy79 From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 3999 posts, RR: 23 Reply 17, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 929 times:
Power finally came back on about an hour ago. Finally had the nerve to clean out the refridgerator...ugh. Oh well. This storm cost me a couple thousand dollars so far...but it could have been worse. Hopefully this means OG&E and the out of state crews are making strong progress today.
Any opinion/comment posted is that of my own and not that of Southwest Airlines Co.
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Waiting to see you down at the bright and sunny (but somehow cold!) LAS! Have a safe trip.
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