How does last week's ice storm compare?

By Tony Thornton

Published: December 16, 2007

Whether last week's ice storm is the worst in Oklahoma history — or even the past decade — depends on your perspective.

The thousands of residents who have spent the past week without electricity likely hold an opposite view from several state and industry officials who say this ice storm is no match for at least three previous ones.

"From our perspective ... when we step back from this one and compare it to the ones from last January and from January 2002, there's not much comparison,” said Sid Sperry, spokesman for the Oklahoma Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives.

That assessment comes from a man whose own office was without power for 48 hours last week.

The association's member providers reported a total 87,500 power outages, a far cry from the 300,000 reported by OG&E and the 253,843 by Public Service Co. of Oklahoma.

Total power outages — 641,343 — is the only major category in which the ice storm of December 2007 topped three other ice storms since 2000. Other storms led in categories such as financial damage, highway closings and breadth of damage.

As of Thursday night, this event had cost OG&E about $10 million, company spokesman Gil Broyles said. The biggest part of that was to pay, house and feed 2,000 out-of-state repair and tree-trimming crews.

The ice storm of January 2002 cost OG&E $92 million, Broyles said.

But he said that's not the company's main focus of comparison.

"This is the storm of the century for us. We've never had this many customers out before,” he said.

Albert Ashwood, the state's emergency czar since 1997, said it's too soon to say how this one will rank.

"We're still in the response phase,” Ashwood said.

"To say this storm was worse than the others, I don't think we can say that.

"But did we have more outages than any other one? Absolutely,” he said.

At least three weather factors kept last week's ice storm from being more devastating.

Wind: The power companies kept a closer eye on this than any other forecast element. Winds above 15 mph can take out hundreds of miles of ice-laden electrical lines, causing a domino effect on poles.

Mild wind, Sperry said, was "the one factor that makes this one different” from previous major ice storms.

Amount of ice: The storms of 2000 and 2002 featured widespread accumulations of 3 to 4 inches. In this case, no place received more than 2 inches.

"The difference between 2 inches of ice on a line compared to 4 inches is huge,” Sperry said.

Pre-storm temperatures: Moderate temperatures preceded the storm, so streets didn't become slick immediately after the precipitation changed to ice.

In contrast, the weather was bitterly cold before the storm on Christmas Day 2000, "so ice accumulated on the ground, and the roads were a mess to get out to the scenes” to make repairs, said Derek Arndt, assistant state climatologist for the Oklahoma Climatological Survey.

Terri Angier, a state Transportation Department spokeswoman, agreed.

"I know OG&E is saying this one is the worst in terms of outages. But we've had a lot worse storms for our roads. A lot worse,” Angier said.

Those light winds and lack of accumulation also have reduced potential infrastructure damage for the power companies.

This storm simply pulled down lines, often under the weight of falling tree limbs. As a result, Broyles said, OG&E has lost just 250 poles.

"While the damage was less intense, it was more widespread, so there seems to be damage in every neighborhood. That's what has resulted in such a large number of customers being out,” Broyles said.

The 300,000 outages shattered the company's previous record of 195,000, set during the January 2002 ice storm, which hit a wider but less populated area.

Ashwood agreed that power pole damage was limited.

However, debris cleanup "will be in the millions and millions of dollars, and that's just from Oklahoma and Tulsa counties,” he said.

Nationally, ice storms accounted for just two of the 67 weather events that caused $1 billion or more in damage between 1980 and 2005.

Hurricane Katrina headed the list, with more than $125 billion in damage and 1,833 deaths, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

Droughts and heat waves from the 1980s accounted for second and third place.

An inflation factor was used to recalculate older storms.

The only Oklahoma weather event on the billion-dollar list was the tornadoes of May 3, 1999, which caused $1.7 billion damage and killed 55 people in Oklahoma and Kansas.

However, that event garnered just $47 million in aid for Oklahoma, because much of the damage was to privately owned and insured property.

Three other weather events — all ice storms — brought more state and federal aid to the state since the 1999 tornadoes, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

"I know OG&E is saying this one

is the worst in terms of outages. But we've had a lot worse storms for our roads. A lot worse.”

Terri Angier, a state Transportation Department spokeswoman

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