Update, 7:31pm: It’s been a very long 24 hours. The end result is record breaking snowfall for Tulsa. 20+ inches of the white stuff fell, according to the National Weather Service. It will take a few days to dig out. For now, it’s time to get away from this thing and eat some real food. Mazzio’s won’t deliver.
It’s 11:36 on Tuesday and we’ve already gotten almost a foot of snow on top of an inch or two of ice. The city is a disaster. The Will Rogers Turnpike is closed from Tulsa to Missouri because of stranded motorists. People are stranded all over the area and getting to them is a challenge for tow trucks and emergency workers. Fortunately, I made the decision to stay home and ride out the storm.
Flights out of Tulsa are canceled. The roof at the Hard Rock Casino collapsed and the Casino has been evacuated. A Yellow cab sits at the end of my block with snow up to the hood. I’m not sure where the driver went. Woodland Hills Mall is closed and the Tulsa World newspaper will not publish for the first time in their history.
We remain under a Blizzard Warning until midnight. More snow is on the way.
We’ve been warning people for several days about this storm and the impact it would have on Oklahoma. Some took our warnings seriously. Others didn’t. It’s going to be a couple of days before I’ll attempt to dig out.
The bad side of this? Wind chills are expected to fall into the negative double digits for the next few days. The snow isn’t going away anytime soon. Emergency officials are saying that this blizzard could become a humanitarian effort. Let’s hope they’re wrong.
More later.