2007 Ice Storm: The Story of A Pizza Delivery Driver

by Kelli Kickham

Last year’s ice storm was a shock and an inconvenience to everyone, but while most were stuck home without power, there were still the few businesses that did whatever possible to stay open, and the employees that worked through the cold.

Chris is a delivery driver at a Tulsa area pizza restaurant.

While most businesses were closing their doors, their store was busy hooking up generators and bringing in more business.

“I worked every day of the ice storm,” Chris said. He was busy at work driving the roads that locals were warned to stay off of, and walking sometimes ten pound orders to the door on the icy sidewalks.

It wasn’t just outside that things were crazy, though. The delivery and carry-out only store was full of customers.

“We had a full staff, the customer area packed, and there was even a line outside. There was somewhere around 60 people waiting for their orders that first night, before we got the generator,” he said.

When their power finally did go out that night, the oven was full and there were around 30 or 40 angry people who had been waiting on their food over an hour.

“We ran close to an 80-order hour more than once during the ice storm. A normal busy hour on a Friday night is only around 50,” Chris said.

There were a number of people who ordered every day while their power was out.

“Everything about the ice storm was frustrating. Probably the worst of it, though, was that we couldn’t always get people their food even within an hour and a half, and they were often angry by the time we got there,” he said.

Chris also said that a lot of people didn’t tip, and some even thought they should have their orders free.

The customers were warned when they ordered that there was no guarantee how long it would be before their orders arrived, and many probably didn’t realize what the drivers were going through before they got their pizzas.

“You had to really watch out. There would be branches falling as you were driving down the road, branches falling as you were carrying the orders to their homes, and branches falling everywhere in-between,” Chris said. There were also so many branches already fallen that they “simply couldn’t get through some of the roads.”

He said that there wasn’t anything that anyone could do to make it better.

“It was horrible for everyone, nobody had any power, and they couldn’t cook,” Chris said.

His store was one of the few restaurants that stayed open while everyone was out of power, and he said a lot of people were “really thankful, they knew how bad it was out there for us, and they would have had trouble getting a meal if we didn’t come out.”

When Chris was asked whether there was any compensation for working that horrible week, he laughed and said, “Usually when you work in bad weather, you either get a bonus, or free food, but this time all we got was a t-shirt that said ‘I Survived the 2007 Ice Storm.’”