MOORE — While the state’s recent ice storms made many Oklahomans wonder if there would ever be another spring, students at Moore public schools returned to their classes this week, and officials grappled with the aftermath of a winter storm that crippled many portions of the state and claimed 32 lives.
Current damage estimates top $40 million.
This week, Gov. Brad Henry asked U.S. President George W. Bush to make a major disaster declaration in at least 23 counties. That declaration would allow federal money to be used to cover 75 percent of the recovery costs in cities and counties.
Henry also said he will ask state lawmakers to appropriate $15 million to cover the state’s 12.5 percent of the recovery costs. Local governments must pick up the remaining 12.5 percent.
Lawmakers return to the state capitol Feb. 5.
“It’s incumbent upon the Legislature that our communities can recover adequately and quickly from the damage of this storm,” Henry said. “We face a long recovery. The damage will not be cleaned up overnight and many residents throughout Oklahoma still face challenging times.”
While Moore didn’t get hit like its neighbors to the northeast, the storm did cause major problems with the city’s roads and forced schools to close for a week.
“We spent in excess of $14,000 to recover from the storm,” said Moore superintendent Deborah Arato. “We’ve had some leaks and some damage from the ice, but actually we faired pretty well.”
Arato said district employees “worked long hours on the weekend” to get the district’s school ready for students return. “All our schools are up and running,” she said. “We’ve removed loose ice off building roofs and from the parking lots.”
But storm recovery costs aren’t the only thing increasing for the state’s third-largest public school district — students will have to make up those snow days, too.
“We were out four days,” Arato said. “We had one day built in and we needed two additional days.”
To make up those days, Arato said, students will probably be in school after Memorial Day. “It’s looking like we’ll have to go two days after Memorial Day,” she said. “But we’re still discussing that.”
Across the state, state agencies have been struggle to help Oklahomans recover from the storm; but those efforts have come at budget stretching costs. And while some agencies can also seek federal relief funds if they can show they have exceeded their budgets, others are already strapped.
Terri Angier, chief of public affairs for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, said the agency does not typically like to put its name in the hat because snow and ice removal is one of its functions. She said about 1,200 employees worked 12-hour shifts out in the field clearing snow and ice, removing debris and maintaining the roads. Crews have returned to eight-hour days.
Angier said about 75,000 tons of sand and salt, which is three-fourths of a full supply, were used to help clear the 30,000 highway lane miles, which is about 12,000 straight miles in Oklahoma.
Roughly $6 million of the department’s budgeted $10 million for snow and ice removal has been used from Jan. 12 through Monday, she said.
CNHI News Service reporter Jaclyn Houghton contributed to this report.
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