Tulsa, Oklahoma is expecting bad weather--ice storms and freezing rain--over the next 24 hours. This is not unusual for the area, Tulsa gets bad weather and storms all year long. What I find fascinating is the laissez faire attitude of Tulsans. A couple of years ago, this kind of weather would not spur any activity at all. Then came the ice storm of 2008. Electricity was out in some parts of town for more than eight days.
Now, when the weatherman says 'ice and freezing rain' people listen.
The stores are full of folks stocking up on batteries, canned food and bottled water. A lot of my friends built fires, wrapped up in blankets and lived without electricity for a long time. Some of them gave up 'roughing it' and joined family and friends to wait out the weather in parts of town that kept their creature comforts. I'm pretty sure that came down to who had electric water heaters and who had gas water heaters...
The interesting part is this: how many times will the weathermen have to be wrong about the severity of a storm before people will quit preparing? This is what happens in coastal areas that are prone to hurricanes. The weathermen shout gloom and doom and the storm either veers off, or the force of the winds is so much less than forecast that folks begin to doubt the quality of the information. Before hurricane Katrina, you could have interviewed anyone in New Orleans and they would have listed the number of storms they stayed through... and how often the forecasters overestimated the strength of a squall. Nowadays, I'm pretty sure the New Orleans folks will flee when they are asked to leave.
They don't suggest evacuating for winter weather. They don't want anyone out on the roads. We're expecting over an inch of ice tonight, so power lines and trees might be coming down. At least that's what they are prognosticating. If they are wrong, then Tulsans will get a little more complacent. And next time a storm is forecast, they'll do less to prepare. It's like a big circle.
I'm going to stock up on easy to fix foods. I'm going to be prepared to be without light or heat for a few days. But if it gets bad--I'll wait till the roads clear and find someplace more comfortable to wait it out. I do need my creature comforts.
--Sandee Wagner
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I think that the people in OKC are going *crazy* about preparing for the storm... At PB we have a no-return policy for generators and snow chains--and we still all but sold out of everything in less than six hours. We are getting a drop-shipment of *64* enormous generators ($600 each) and we had pre-sold five before I left work today... sigh
They are forecasting that it will be worse in OKC than anywhere else. Let us know if you need anything (except a generator, I'm not that generous!) spw
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