We've been smacked with another big ice storm. Something like 500,000 homes & businesses in Oklahoma have no electricity. I have had no power problems but my parents will likely be out of electrons for a week and a half. I listened to the amateur radio guys in Tulsa all afternoon. They were getting ready to mobilize as ARES or something but no one ever called them. One of them went down to the Red Cross headquarters because they couldn't reach them by telephone. My interpretation of his report was that they told him they didn't need ham help. Their phone lines were jammed from all the incoming calls, and a local PD was trying to get in contact with them for aid but couldn't get through. (Incidentally the police department was trying to reach the Red Cross to ask for generators, and they should have been asking FEMA instead, as explained by the ham net.) As I understand the procedure, the Red Cross should have requested ARES put a station at their headquarters (and at shelters) and requests from other agencies to the Red Cross would have gone through ARES and avoided the clogged telephone system. Of course I was not involved in any of this so it's all speculation.