Thursday, March 25th 2021, 10:33 pm
It’s hard to imagine, but a little over a month has passed since a February winter storm wreaked havoc throughout the entire state of Oklahoma.
The event brought around six inches of snow to the metro area and record cold temperatures.
For residents of El Reno, the winter storm also brought a citywide water outage caused by a rolling blackout conducted by OGE. Some city water customers were without water for as long as 10 days.
“We’re really fixing and assessing all the damage, we are 100% operational,” said El Reno Mayor Matt White. “We have been probably about 8 to 10 days after the event.”
Hundreds of thousands of dollars is what White is putting the damage price tag at. Numerous leaks and damage done to water towers are all included.
The total dollar amount in damages is still being counted. City officials will be looking to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for some financial relief.
“Its water lines, the system itself, telemetry,” said White. “We had a lot of electronics that froze up. There is a lot of confusion on the Oklahoma City line, that was because the electronics basically froze up and went to heck in a handbasket.”
While that job is out for bids, the next issue is soon to follow. Customers may see high water bills for the month of February.
February usage, White said, went through the roof. Numbers are being compared to the summer months.
In July, Heaston used about 2,578,000 gallons of water,” said White. “In the storm time (of) February 2021, they used 2,288,000 gallons. Don’t forget they were out for about 14 days, some of those people.”
Time has passed allowing for crews and city officials to reflect to be prepared for next time.
“If something like this would happen systematically again, we’re looking at new meters to shut down those customers, so we don’t have to build pressure all the way through the whole lines,” said White.
Right now, there is no assistance available for anyone who may receive am increased water bill.
City officials hope a grant they’ve applied for will help.
March 25th, 2021
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