Portions of Claremore are without power, and the damage is severe. I went and got the in-laws last night because their power was out, then ours went out this morning. I can’t complain, as many people are dealing with outages. However, I can complain–and will–about the City of Claremore. When we called to report the outage this morning, we were told that the city had intentionally taken us offline and that we would be back up shortly. We thought little of it, and decided to go back to bed. When we got back up, still no power. I called the city again and was told they had no updates for us. I had to go get some groceries, and while I was out, Jeane called to say she had called the city and was finally told it would be 2-4 days. At that point, it was late in the day, but I was able to get a generator from a friend, so we have some essentials back online (including the webserver). So, check back when you can, and I’ll keep issuing dispatches from the hollow mountain.

And in other, good news, I have it on good authority from John Wylie at the Oologah Lake Leader (which is also without power) that Mayes County Election Board was notified by NE Tech Center Board today that they have canceled the sneaky tax election scheduled for tomorrow, Dec. 11. No new date has been set. Recent ice storms have left many counties with no or few polling places with power. Terri Thomas, Mayes County Election Board, said there were no polling places operational in Oologah, Owasso, or Inola and few in Claremore. Additionally, some precinct voters remain unable to leave their homes due to downed branches and/or power lines. Further, several election boards–including the State Election Board–had advised NE Tech Centers that the vote, if it had passed, would likely face legal challenges and be invalidated due to the lack of proper public notice.

So, not all the news is bad!

Sometimes out prayers just have to be, “Thank God it’s not always like this.”

UPDATE: If you try to access the WynnBlog or WynnCast and cannot do so, try again a bit later. Power is still intermittent as the generator does tend to run out of gas occasionally.