OG&E completes company's largest disaster restoration

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jun 17, 2002

OKLAHOMA CITY (JR) -- Oklahoma Gas and Electric has completed the largest disaster restoration in the company's 100-year history.

The ice storm that swept across northern Oklahoma Jan. 30-31 knocked out electric service to more than 195,000 OG&E customers. The longest any of those customers was without power was 13 days, but it took 4.5 months for the subsidiary of Oklahoma City-based OGE Energy to completely repair the massive damage.

The ice storm destroyed 1,700 transmission structures and put 270 miles of cross-country transmission lines on the ground, the company said. In at least 60 OG&E cities and towns, hundreds more miles of power lines collapsed under the weight of heavy ice that also took down 6,000 distribution poles. OG&E's response involved more than 2,000 people, including 900 out-of-state contractors.

OG&E, Oklahoma's largest electric utility, serves 700,000 customers in a service area spanning 30,000 square miles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas.