On Monday, Oct. 26th and Tuesday, Oct. 27th, waves of ice swept through Oklahoma knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of Oklahoman’s, resulting in the closing of businesses and schools for at least a week, and with thousands waiting for weeks for power to be restored.
“This is probably the most severe storm we’ve had on our entire system,” OGE Energy Corp. President Sean Trauschke said to media outlets.
Redstone Intermediate and Surrey Hills Elementary School lost power early on Monday due to the ice storm, resulting in Yukon Public Schools asking parents to check their child out of school at their earliest convenience.

“It was crazy,” Junior Donlee Lane said. “I haven’t seen an ice storm like that in years.”
With the impact of COVID-19 forcing many school districts to become 1-1 with technology, districts, and their personnel believes they are better equipped for these situations than they have been in the past.
“Thanks to C-19 many schools are better equipped to provide instruction at home & even go back and forth between with relative ease since we’ve done both,” Lakeview Intermediate Principal Scott Hein said in a tweet. “I think C-19 has changed what the traditional snow day looks like for many districts.”

Thanks to C-19 many schools are better equipped to provide instruction at home & even go back and forth between with relative ease since we’ve done both. I think C-19 has changed what the traditional snow day looks like for many districts. But not all are equipped to do so.

— Scott Hein (@ScottJHein) October 25, 2020

Originally, the plan was for each severe weather day to be a virtual learning day, similar to what was seen with the Continuous Learning Plan at the beginning of the year, but without live instruction.
“A severe weather day this year is going to look a little different than it has in the past,” Principal Melissa Barlow said in an email addressed to high school staff. “Our district will be counting these severe weather days as ‘school’ days, which will require no live instruction or Zooms. Virtual lessons should be placed in Schoology for that day, as soon as possible in the morning.”
However, what districts didn’t anticipate was the large volume of students and staff without power for several days.
“I’m still without power until Friday,” Junior Maria M said. “It will be about 2 weeks without electricity.”
The lack of power to students and staff forced Yukon Public Schools to make Tuesday-Friday inclement weather days with no instruction as students and staff waited for power to return. As of Sunday, Nov. 8th, Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OG&E) was still reporting 20,000 Oklahoman’s without power, thousands of those being in the Oklahoma City metro area, according to the OG&E System Watch.

“It was very eye-opening,” Junior Chloe Armstrong said. “It reminded me how much we depend on electricity in our daily lives.”