Last October my wife and I did an extended road trip visiting our two sons and their wives. Leaving the Pacific Northwest, we traveled east to Chicago then down towards Reno before returning home. We had unseasonably bad weather much of the journey, with lots of snow and black ice, but no where was it as bad as in Oklahoma City.
We’d intended to make a quick gas stop in Oklahoma City, but around the time we exited the freeway the power went out and we got caught up in a horrendous traffic jam as traffic lights were out at several busy intersections.
(A chain link fence, caked in ice, is smashed by a fallen tree limb)
We tried to detour around the mess with little success as the power outage was extensive. But it did give us time to look at the sequelae of this unusual weather and take some photos.
(note the many icicles hanging off this power line)
The vegetation was caked in a heavy coat of ice. Trees were breaking apart because of the heavy weight of the ice, and downed limbs blocked a number of roads.
(trees, heavily laden with ice, showing many broken limbs)
The ice was especially obvious on grass, where the individual blades were sheathed in ice.
We ultimately made it out of Oklahoma, but the power outage stayed with us for several hours before we finally found a gas station that was open, where we tanked up before continuing our journey.
It took Oklahoma many days to restore power after this devastating storm.
