The recent ice storm in the Oklahoma City metro area caused power outages for hundreds of thousands of Oklahoma City residents.  We have friends who were without power for 11 days!  My brother and his wife had no power for 5 days, and stayed with us during that time.  We lost power for about a day, but were fortunate to have a gas fireplace and a gas stove in our kitchen.  These kept our home above 70 degrees, and allowed us to cook.   (One added benefit of gas appliances and fireplaces that we will note to prospective buyers when we are showing them homes which have these features!)  We kept perishable items from our freezer/refrigerator in an ice chest on our back patio.

Many hundreds of residents found that their power could not be restored until they personally had repaired damage to electrical boxes on their homes which had been torn away by the ice.  This was an expense individual homeowners had to bear themselves, which cost, on average, about $500-600.  The ice also caused damage to numerous roofs, another expense of the homeowner.

In addition to being forced to deal with the loss of power and cost of repairs to their homes, many residents suffered extensive damage to mature trees on their properties.  The weight of the ice coating resulted in many limbs being split from trees.  We live in a new neighborhood and our trees are small and supple.  Although our little River Birch and Bald Cypress were literally bent over to the ground from the weight of the ice, as the ice melted, they slowly returned to their upright positions, a little skewed to one side, but none the worse for wear.  Larger and older trees in other neighborhoods were not so fortunate.

Most of the downed limbs, and whole trees cut into pieces, now line the streets in huge piles waiting to be picked up by the city and disposed of.  We all know the value beautiful, mature trees add to a property, and it is difficut to calculate the amount of the destruction in terms of loss of property value.  Some of Oklahoma City's and Edmond's most popular wooded areas have lost thousands of large trees which it will take decades to replace if the homeowners plant new trees in the spring.