A late October ice storm forced several school closures and caused power outages throughout areas of Pottawatomie and Lincoln County late Monday and early Tuesday.
Many of the schools in the area decided to do virtual learning rather than shut down schools.
City Manager Buck Day said Tuesday the city of McLoud was without power and that city hall lost power Monday afternoon. “We shut down about 3:30 Monday and we’re still shut down,” he said.
“About the whole city is without power. All of our wells are down, but we are hooking up a large generator to one of the wells so we can keep the tower full,” Day explained.
He said a generator is working at the sewer plant.
“We had electricity earlier this morning,” he said, “then it went out.”
Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Wendi Marcy reported power outages north and west of Wellston, and also in Meeker, Agra and Davenport. “There were other areas scattered through out the county as well.”
Meeker City Hall was presumably closed when calls to there were not answered Tuesday morning.
Marcy also pointed to lots of power lines and trees down in different areas of the county.
She said OG&E, Canadian Valley Electric Cooperative and EREC provide electric service in different parts of the county, she said.
Meeker School Supt. Jeff Pruitt said his school district was closed, noting, “I discussed it yesterday (Monday) with principals and the chance of too many students that could possibly not have electricity to declare a virtual day led to the decision.”
White Rock School Supt. Alicia Ebers said their students were doing remote learning on Tuesday. “In anticipation of the icy weather, we sent home packets, devices or both with students yesterday (Monday).”
Ebers continued, “We originally included six snow days in our school calendar, but then delayed our start five days due to the Coronavirus. We decided to try distance learning days on bad weather days.
“Parents have seemed receptive so far. We built in four practice distance days, so parents are already familiar with it.”
McLoud Schools on Tuesday were all virtual learning, a teacher confirmed.
Prague Schools were doing virtual learning on Tuesday, a teacher in that district confirmed.
Chandler and Stroud schools also were doing virtual learning on Tuesday.
Among other schools that were closed were Dale, North Rock Creek, Davenport and Wellston. Presumably, Agra and Carney schools also were closed as they didn’t answer or return phone calls Tuesday.
Statewide, OG&E was reporting power had been restored to 70,000 customers and as of late morning Tuesday, 201,000 customers were without power.
Officials said more than 1,700 line crews, tree trimmers and assessors were continuing to work to restore power while battling the elements.
They said ice accumulation on trees with foliage are the primary cause of outages and damage.