News from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission

Jim Palmer, Director of Information

May 6, 1999

UTILITY SERVICE UPDATE

ONG…

Oklahoma Natural Gas estimates that about 2,500 customers have had their homes or businesses so badly damaged that it is not yet possible to restore service to them. ONG spokesman Don Sherry said 700 customers were reconnected Wednesday leaving 5,300 customers without service. Sherry said service is expected to be restored to another 1,000 customers by tomorrow. Within a week, Sherry said ONG anticipates it will have service restored to all structures capable of receiving it.

(OAEC) Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives…

Sidney Sperry, Director of Member Relations for OAEC, said the Oklahoma Electric Cooperative serving the Norman, Moore, Newcastle, Blanchard area has about 200 customers still without power. Cimarron Electric Cooperative, Kingfisher, has about 500 customers without power. Sperry said crews are rebuilding about five miles of power lines each day so that by Saturday at the latest they hope to have power restored to most of those customers. Central Rural Electric, Stillwater, has about 1,250 customers without service. The delay is in rebuilding several miles of transmission line in the Perry, Mulhall, Orlando area. KAMO power is working on that and when they are finished CREC can power up its substations and restore service to its customers.

OG&E…

About 19,000 customers remain without service, down from 26,000 on Wednesday. OG&E spokesman Paul Renfrow said crews were also working to restore service to customers in Dover and Crescent Thursday. Mulhall remains without service. OG&E is coordinating with state and federal disaster officials to determine how many homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged to the extent that service cannot be restored.

PSO…

Construction work continues on the 345 KV line about seven miles west of Stroud.

Utility Service Update cont’d…

Southwestern Bell (SWB)…

Fewer than 2,000 customers remain without service. SWB has set up two information locations for its customers in and around the disaster areas. One is in Moore at 316 NE 27^th Street. A new information center opens Friday morning in Midwest City, 15^th and South Air Depot. Bell continues to offer free service for 30 days for call forwarding and call notes messaging to those left homeless or whose service was knocked out by the tornadoes. Bell’s information number is 800-464-7928.

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