Published: April 27, 2009 11:36 pm         

Floodwaters wash out local roads and bridge

Flood waters in Alfalfa County washed out a bridge near Cleo Springs Sunday night, and Oklahoma 8 will be closed for a month while repairs are made.

The bridge is between Cleo Springs and Aline, said Cole Hackett, Oklahoma Department of Transportation spokesman. Oklahoma 8 is closed from Cleo Springs to the Oklahoma 8B junction.

“It isn’t a typical bridge you think of,” Hackett said. “It is a reinforced concrete box and it had a failure. It washed out because of the flooding.

“It is a concrete box and the water flows through. The water flowed around it and it cracked it. They determined it will not be able to hold the traffic. It is damaged to the point where we have to come up with an emergency project, and it has to be approved by our commission. It will be closed at least another month.”

High water forced authorities to close several other roads in northwest Oklahoma Monday, but by 8 p.m. there were no hazardous road conditions in the state, according to ODOT.

Closer to Enid, OG&E Electric Services crews continued to repair damage caused by tornadoes Saturday night and Sunday morning. In addition, strong wind Sunday night knocked down more lines.

John Little, OG&E community affairs manager, said there was a surprisingly low number of customers without power Monday.

“Currently, we have 85 customers without power in the Enid area,” he said Monday afternoon. “Almost 60 of those customers are in the area of Maine and Cleveland. That is from the wind last night. It caused lots of trees to fall into our lines.”

Power was expected to be restored by Monday night.

Crews also were working north of Enid to replace power poles downed by Saturday night’s tornadoes.

“There are upwards of 20 poles north of Enid that were affected the first night,” Little said. “They are in the process of being replaced. We have crews up here from Oklahoma City to work on them.”

More OG&E workers are expected to replace a pole on Rupe that is causing problems.

“We have a pole on Rupe between Cleveland and Oakwood that we have tied off because it was battered by the wind,” Little said. “The wind from the south came north of Vance Air Force Base and pushed it. Then, the wind changed and pushed it from the north and started pushing it back south. We have to wait until a crew that is able to work on an 80-foot pole can come.”