Michael Pineda
DUNCAN — Public Service of Oklahoma Employees continued to battle the elements and devastating damage in an effort to restore power to customers throughout Southwest Oklahoma.
Transmission services in Duncan were restored Sunday afternoon, bringing back electricity to all but 60 customers within the city. The towns of Comanche and Waurika were also nearly back to full power at the end of the weekend with 95 percent of power restored.
The news remained sketchy for Marlow with power expected to be out until Thursday or Friday according to Stan Whiteford, spokesman for PSO.
“There are 55 structures, which are poles and transmission services, impacting service,” Whiteford said. “We need at least 27 of those structures repaired and it could be into Thursday and Friday.”
The damage is representative of what Southwest Oklahoma is going through. Whiteford reported that 800 transmission structures were taken down in the storm.
“We have been working with 40 PSO cities and communities,” Whiteford said.
To help combat the problem, PSO has 1,000 workers on the ground and an additional 200 workers doing tree trimming. Crews from as far as Victoria and Corpus Christi Texas were joined by crews from Louisiana Monday.
Progress has been somewhat hampered because of fog throughout the area that has prevented PSO from getting aerial observations of the damage. Helicopters were able to get up Saturday but were grounded all day Sunday and into Monday.
“We haven’t been able to complete the aerial survey but we have completed a good part of it,” Whiteford said. “Some areas in that area will be without power until the end of the week.”
— Michael Pineda is the sports editor for The Duncan Banner. He can be reached at 580-255-5354, Ext. 143, or via e-mail at m.pineda@duncanbanner.com.
