Wednesday, May 21, 2025
On the night of May 19, 2025, the skies over Northeast Oklahoma and Northwest Arkansas turned violent. A powerful tornado tore across the region, destroying homes, uprooting trees, and snapping power lines. In its wake, more than 33,000 Ozarks Electric Cooperative members were left in the dark.
The damage was daunting. Crews faced snapped poles, twisted high-voltage lines, and roads blocked by fallen trees. In some cases, linemen had to hike into the woods, pole by pole, to make repairs by hand.
“The first thing that I thought of when I realized the gravity of the situation was how tired our guys already were from restoring an outage due to storms the day before,” said Garland Spinks, Manager of Oklahoma Field Operations. “Regardless, my guys showed up every day ready to go, even though many of them had barely seen their families. The whole week I never heard a single complaint. I’ve never been more proud of a group of guys in my entire life.”
It quickly became clear this would be one of the largest restoration efforts in the cooperative’s history. Many employees blurred the line between duty and personal life—working through the night only to return home to powerless houses, or leaving behind their own damaged properties to help neighbors.
“I knew it was going to be bad when I drove through the gate and saw 20 extra trucks lined up and ready,” said Jake Oxford, Senior Line Technician. “I hoped we wouldn’t need them, but I ended up working 16-hour days, came home to a house without power, then went back out to help someone else get their power back, when I didn’t have any lights myself. That’s just what needed to be done.”
By early May 20, Ozarks had called in mutual aid from electric cooperatives across the region, including Southwest Arkansas Electric, Oklahoma Electric Cooperative, Carroll Electric, Cimarron Electric, and the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas. Nearly 100 additional personnel, along with contract and right-of-way crews, joined Ozarks to clear debris, replace poles, and string miles of new line in grueling 16-hour shifts.
While linemen tackled physical repairs, support staff faced their own challenges.
“The storms caused an overwhelming surge in call volume, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before,” said Page Velasco, Member Relations Supervisor. “It was so cool to see my team snap into action without hesitation, volunteering for long shifts and working through the night to support our members.”
Support teams also cared for exhausted linemen. “Working 16-hour days for a week straight, we had to make sure our guys had what they needed,” said Cody Slaughter, Quality of Service Supervisor. “They can’t work safely on an empty stomach, without water, or without the right tools.”
By Friday, after days of long hours and hard work, nearly every member who could safely receive power had been restored. This storm proved once again that at Ozarks Electric, restoration is about more than poles and wires—it’s about neighbors helping neighbors, and a community that shines brighter when it works together.