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Representatives Judd Strom and Wendi Sterman joined us for Capitol Call Powered by Phillips 66 on Friday.

 

The main topic of conversation was how we as Oklahomans reacted to the ice storm followed by two winter storms.

 

Representative Strom reminded us that Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt requested an emergency declaration from the federal government on Wednesday in relation to the bitter cold temperatures and heavy snow that began on February 8th. President Joe Biden granted it. This declaration covers all 77 Oklahoma counties.

 

Strom also said the cost of clearing the state's main arterial roads hit $113-million for just two days--and that's on top of the built-in costs of caring for the roads.

 

Representative Stearman had conversations with a power company official who said that they never really know how an emergency plan is going to work until they have to implement it. Stearman said the power companies learned that the Bartlesville E-911 dispatch center  was affected by the rolling blackouts for 3 hours--which wasn't supposed to happen. Stearman was told by the power company that the problem has been since addressed and hopefully it will never happen again.