Families Displaced By Sand Springs Gas Leak

The gas was still off on Sunday night after a gas leak in a neighborhood for single mothers and kids sent families looking for a warm place to stay.

Sunday, December 28th 2014, 10:02 pm

By: News On 6

Families Displaced By Sand Springs Gas Leak

The gas was still off on Sunday night after a gas leak in a neighborhood for single mothers and kids sent families looking for a warm place to stay.

It was a rude awakening for the families at the Charles Paige Family Village on Sunday morning -- when a gas leak was found in a yard of one of the homes.

Crews spend the day working to repair the leak and get the gas back on. They've stopped for the night and will start work again tomorrow.

12/28/2014 Related Story: Charles Page Family Village Without Heat After Gas Leak

Lyne Reider is one of the moms who woke up to the call.

"Mary called me at 5:30 and told me that there had been a gas leak so that we should shower and get everything taken care of before they turned the heat off,” Reider said.

Heat to all 50 homes in the village had to but shut off, making for a cold morning.

We knocked on doors to many of the homes, but most had found other places to stay while crews worked to dig up the leaking line.

“So we just went to church and then came back here to the rec; it's a great place for kids," she said.

Family Village Director Mary Johnson said as soon as they found out about the leak, they began preparing unaffected buildings for moms and their kids.

"We've opened up the activities center for the families that don't have a place to go and we'll keep this open as long as we need to,” village director Mary Johnson said.

And it's that kind of quick thinking and care that Reider said she's thankful for.

"I wasn't too nervous because they take such good care of us, but the leak did concern me,” she said.

Johnson said the families in a duplex and one other were evacuated after they smelled gas, and crews confirmed that there was a leak coming from the front yard.

As for the other 49 homes, those families were notified by phone or a knock on the door.

The former Widow's Colony provides homes for single mothers with two or more children, according to their website. It is privately owned, so the home is responsible for hiring contractors to fix the leak, the firefighter said.

As for Reider, she said no matter what happens, she knows her family will have a warm place to stay.

"Like I said, they take such good care of us, I'm not worried about where we'll stay because they'll either make pallets here for us to stay which is kind of nerve wracking because I've never done that before,” Reider said. “But they'll put us in a hotel, too. …either way we're taken care of."