The Public Service Company of Oklahoma is preparing to respond to a possible major freezing rain and icing event that could cause power outages in the southeastern Oklahoma counties that PSO serves. The storm, which is forecast to start today could deposit ice accumulations of ¼” to ½”.
PSO’s preparations include calling in additional line and tree crews to help with power restoration, bolstering the inventory of hardware needed to repair damaged infrastructure (poles, cross-arms, insulators, electrical conductor, clamps, transformers, etc.), and many other actions.
The company has established staging areas in McAlester, Stigler, Antlers, Wilburton, Hugo, and Atoka. PSO is trucking in additional material to its service centers in McAlester, Atoka and Wilburton.
PSO is assembling a workforce of approximately 350 workers to address potential outages on the electric Distribution system. This includes Distribution line workers, tree workers, servicers, engineers, and support personnel. PSO’s normal McAlester District Distribution complement numbers 50. Additional resources for the Transmission system also are standing by.