Thursday, May 23rd 2019, 8:17 pm
FRIDAY UPDATE: OG&E has set up a mobile substation and and are now setting temporary poles. They hope to have power back to customers in Fort Gibson and Okay by 6 p.m. Some may have power even earlier.
"The Muskogee plant remains surrounded by water but has sustained no damage," the utilities company posted on Facebook.
"A skeleton crew remains on site to maintain and monitor the plant. They are safe."
Braggs was also on the list to have power restored Friday, but OG&E later said outages will extend into Saturday due to complications from more flooding.
Highway 62 from Fort Gibson to Muskogee is completely shut down, and homes and businesses along the way are flooded.
The Cherokee Nation marshals say they've been doing evacuations over the last couple days, but right now one of the biggest issues they're trying to address are the power outages.
Officials say Fort Gibson, Okay and Braggs are all out of power right now. They say they've spent the afternoon looking into a substation at OG&E that tripped out earlier Thursday.
If they're able to fix that substation, people should have power maybe by the end of the day.
Related Story: Community Comes Together To Support Fort Gibson Business
If the marshals can't fix the substation, they say it could be days before power is restored, which could lead to even more evacuations in the area.
"We've been doing rescues every day since we've been here on residents who didn't think it would get as bad as it did. We anticipate more evacuations now that power is out," said Captain Danny Tanner, Cherokee Nation Marshal Service.
Tanner tells me they expect flooding to be worse than it was in the 1986 floods. He says people in this area need to be aware of flood zones and voluntarily evacuate if necessary.
May 23rd, 2019
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