Over 6,000 utility crew members from states as far away as Arizona and North Carolina came to our rescue as the city of Tulsa, in fact 45% of the state of Oklahoma, was crippled by the worst ice storm in the state’s recorded history.

I, personally, spoke to crews from North Carolina, Minnesota, Kentucky and Georgia, all of whom were working in my neighborhood several days last week.

These guys left their families behind and came to help us get our power back on and life back to some semblance of ‘normal’ before Christmas. Without them, I don’t know when we’d have had power again.

Every Tulsa I have spoken to throughout this mess has told me they take the few extra minutes to roll down the window in traffic or get out of their homes and cars in the neighborhoods to personally thank these guys for coming to help, especially so close to Christmas.

One of the guys I spoke to said his wife told him he had better be home for Christmas, or he’d have some serious explaining to do to his own 4 children. I told him when he called home next to tell his family that we really appreciated them “loaning” their daddy to us.

With power restored to 90% of the outage area (which spans 45% of the state!), the crews are beginning to return to their home states. So if you know someone who came to Oklahoma to help with the aftermath of this storm - PLEASE give them a big hug for us!