By Josh Rabe
The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK)
Copyright 2007 The Oklahoman, All Rights Reserved
BOISE CITY, Okla. — Gov. Brad Henry expanded an emergency declaration Wednesday in the Oklahoma Panhandle, where rescuers continued searching door-to-door for residents who have been stranded by a winter storm.
Rescuers brought a cancer patient to a New Mexico hospital after digging their way to her home through snow drifts up to 20 feet tall. Also, medicine was airlifted to a man on dialysis trapped in his home.
No injuries or deaths have been reported in the wake of Friday’s storm, which left western portions of the Oklahoma Panhandle buried in four feet of snow, with drifts reaching five times that height.
New declaration
Henry amended a prior emergency declaration to include Cimarron and Beaver counties on Wednesday. The Dec. 21 order applied only to Texas County, which bore the brunt of an earlier ice storm that downed power lines and thousands of tree limbs.
The declaration makes it easier for local first responders to seek reimbursement from the state.
“Many people in both the public and private sectors have been working tirelessly and around the clock to help the Panhandle recover from a massive storm that dumped about four feet of snowfall,” Henry said. “There is more work to be done, but I am grateful for the substantial progress that has been made.”
Henry also directed the state Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry to come up with a plan to get hay to 380,000 cattle in Cimarron and Texas counties, many of which are trapped in snow drifts and unable to find food and water.
A Chinook helicopter from the Oklahoma National Guard has been assisting with a hay drop effort that began Tuesday in Colorado. The helicopter is expected to arrive about 11 a.m. today near Boise City, said Jack Carson, spokesman for the agriculture department.
“There are going to be some livestock losses,” Carson said. “I’m sure there already are.”
Rep. Gus Blackwell, R-Goodwell, toured some of the hardest-hit areas on Wednesday.
About 2,500 residents in Cimarron and Texas counties remain without power in the wake of the storm and it could take until late next week for power to be restored to all homes in the area, said Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Management.
Telephone service had been restored by Wednesday to hundreds of residents who lost service during the storm.
‘Self-sustaining’
Rescue workers, including 13 National Guard troops from Enid, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, the state Department of Transportation and local volunteers, expected to reach any residents who remain unaccounted for by late Wednesday, said Steve Palladino, area coordinator for the Department of Emergency Management.
Many of the families reached Tuesday and Wednesday seemed to be doing well, despite widespread blackouts and roads blocked by snow.
“These people are pretty much self-sustaining out here,” Palladino said.
Some have already used tractors to clear snow drifts and to feed livestock trapped by snow. In many areas, neighbors were helping each other and had accounted for everyone nearby before rescuers arrived, he said.
Past storms
Ina K. Labrier, 94, spent three days holed up with her daughter and son-in-law on their ranch near Kenton. The family was without electricity and roads were impassable until Monday, Labrier said. They used a kerosene stove to heat what food they had on hand and used candles to see at night, she said.
“We are out here a long way from anything so we keep a lot of things on hand,” Labrier said. “You can’t always get to town to buy what you want.”
Labrier said she has been through many bad storms in eight decades of farming in the Panhandle.
Labrier said she remembers a storm about 60 years ago that left the county’s dirt roads so soggy, farmers had to wait until the ground froze at night to load cattle. Storms in 1957 and 1983 also left the area buried in snow.
“Some of the locals think this is way worse,” Labrier said.
Her cattle are stranded in snow drifts about 12 miles from the farmhouse and haven’t eaten since Friday.
Helping truckers
Bill Mizer, a Boise City farmer, said with the help of his front-wheel assist tractor, he has pulled 50 semi-trucks out of five-foot snowdrifts.
“The semis were stuck in truck stop and restaurant parking lots,” Mizer said.
Mizer said in addition to the semi-trucks he also pulled 40 vehicles from ditches and snowdrifts.
Blades were mounted on tractors to break through 10-foot snowdrifts to get to a road, he said.
“They (drivers) had to hit the snow drift once and then come back and hit it again,” Mizer said. “Some of the drifts were between 14 and 16 feet.”
Mizer said a group of farmers worked 10 hours to get to a man snowed in who lived about 12 miles from town.
“We had to have front-end loaders to clean off the road to get to him,” Mizer said.
A team in Kenton made its way two miles into Colorado, where they reunited a woman and her daughter with her husband and son.
The woman, who is a nurse in Boise City, was working a late shift Friday and had been unable to reach her family, Ooten said.
Chance of snow
According to the Transportation Department, most highways in the Panhandle were cleared by Wednesday but remain slick in spots.
The forecast calls for highs in the 50s near Guymon today with lows in the high teens. In Boise City, highs aren’t expected to reach the 50s.
Beyond today, highs aren’t expected to reach above the 40s until at least Sunday.
The National Weather Center in Amarillo, Texas, reports a 20 percent chance of snow in the region Friday.
Shelters have been established at the county fairgrounds in Boise City and the Texas County Activity Center.
“A lot of people are still without electricity and want a nice, warm place to sleep,” said Harold Tyson, Texas County Emergency Management director.