November 16, 2020
By News Director Jared Atha
Although the hardest hit area of last month’s ice storm appeared to be in the central part of Oklahoma, one western Oklahoma county is a part of Governor Kevin Stitt’s major disaster declaration.
According to a press release from the Governor’s office, Roger Mills County is one of 13 counties in the declaration. Gov. Stitt on Friday requested a federal major disaster declaration from last month’s ice storm that caused an estimated $27 million in damages in 13 Oklahoma counties, including Roger Mills.
Stitt said in a press release that additional counties could be added in coming weeks as more damage assessments are conducted. If approved, federal funding would reimburse local cities, counties, tribes and rural electric cooperatives for some storm-related costs.
Other counties included in the request are: Caddo, Canadian, Cleveland, Dewey, Grady, Kingfisher, Kiowa, Logan, Noble, Oklahoma, Payne, and Pottawatomie.
As many as 500,000 Oklahoma homes and businesses lost power when the late October storm iced over trees that crashed through power lines and blocked roadways. One electric utility official described the storm as a “worst nightmare” for many Oklahomans, some of whom lost power for more than a week.
