Tornado touches down in OKC metro area
By JENNIFER L. BROWN
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A tornado swept
across the city area as the afternoon rush hour began Thursday, flattening
hundreds of homes and businesses in a scene eerily similar to a devastating
twister that hit in the same area four years ago.
At least 104 people were injured, five critically, said Paul O'Leary,
spokesman for the Oklahoma City ambulance service. There were no reports of
fatalities, although O'Leary said a man brought to a local hospital from an
area hit by the storm died of a heart attack.
Gov. Brad Henry said officials in Moore, just south of the city, reported
300 homes were destroyed. He said state officials would seek a
federal emergency disaster declaration.
"We will certainly request all the federal assistance that is available," he
said.
The storm did heavy damage to the General Motors plant in southeast Oklahoma
City, which employs more than 3,000, and hit Tinker Air Force Base.
David Waller was driving an 18-wheeler on Interstate 40 when he saw the
tornado coming his way. He said he parked his rig and ran for a clump of
bushes and a tree. He and two other men who had jumped out of their vehicles
clung to a tree as the tornado passed near them.
"I'm scared to death," said Waller, shaking, his clothes covered with mud.
His semi was picked up by the tornado and dropped on its side. He said the
sky was filled with litter as the tornado passed by.
"All I saw was a bunch of trash."
Martin Perez jumped out of his Ford Taurus and clung to the vegetation.
"It looked like trash and dirty and all black like that," he said. His car
was picked up over the highway and dropped in the median.
Louise Parker, 67, sat on her porch, crying. A large tree had fallen on the
back of her house in southeast Oklahoma City and caved in the roof.
"I'm not crying because it's gone. I just don't know what to do," she said.
Steve McManus, assistant fire chief in Midwest City, said a total of about
100 homes were damaged or destroyed in Midwest and Oklahoma City.
GM spokesman Dan Flores said employees at the plant had ample time to take
shelter. No employees were hurt. Two truck drivers were injured.
"In terms of the facility, there was damage," Flores said. "They are without
electricity. They are assessing the damage to the facility. We
don't know the extent."
Officials at Tinker said the storm damaged a fenceline along the south side
of the base but that there were no injuries.
Henry recalled the tornado that ripped through the Oklahoma City area on May
3, 1999.
"Some of those very same parts were hit again today," he said. "Nature can
be cruel, but Oklahomans are a resilient people and we will
face this crisis with strength and resolve."
In Moore, resident Terri Morris and her daughter, Kimber, looked at the
stripped tree limbs and debris cluttering their street.
Morris and her daughter hid in a closet in their brick home, where a U.S.
flag and a large yellow ribbon taped to the door fluttered in the wind. She
pointed to the side of her house where the wind tried to lift the roof off.
"These little houses, they make it," she said. Her home survived the deadly
May 3, 1999, tornado.
Traffic was backed up on the interstate for miles after the storm moved
through. In Del City, just east of Oklahoma City, emergency sirens blared
and stop lights were out.
At its peak, the storm left more than 37,000 customers without electricity
in south Oklahoma City, Moore and Choctaw, according to Oklahoma Gas and
Electric.
The storm ran parallel to Interstate 240, destroying metal industrial
buildings, a mobile home sales lots, a bank, a fast-food restaurant and
tossing 18-wheelers.
"You could see birds and all kinds of stuff flying around in it," said
Jennifer Leger, an employee at a Subway sandwich shop that was not hit by
the storm. "We closed. We had the lights off and were just letting in people
that were caught outside."
A manager of a Western Sizzlin restaurant in Moore, who didn't give her
name, said customers and employees went to the walk-in freezer.
"Now we're shut down, people are just trying to find their people," she said
before quickly hanging up the phone.
Cars clogged the streets in southern Oklahoma City as tornado sirens
sounded. At a Wal-Mart, some customers stopped to watch as a dozen more ran
to their cars with their shopping baskets.
One motorist at a stoplight rolled down her window with one hand to get a
better look at the tornado while urgently dialing her cell phone with the
other.
The twister moved near Moore, just south of Oklahoma City, at about 5:15
p.m. It then tracked over I-35 and over a shopping mall and went
east-southeast toward Midwest City and Del City in a scene eerily similar to
four year earlier.
Forty-four people were killed when tornadoes moved through the state on May
3, 1999, including a huge funnel that hit central Oklahoma. That twister was
rated an F5 on the Fujita scale, the most powerful rating. Television
forecasters estimated Thursday's storm at at least an F3. |
Second Tornado Rips Through Oklahoma
City
By JULIE E. BISBEE
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ President Bush issued a disaster declaration Saturday
for Oklahoma, clearing the way for federal aid after the second
tornado in as many days damaged schools, homes and businesses and left
thousands without electrical service.
Emergency crews worked to restore power after a tornado swept through the
Oklahoma City area Friday night, snapping power poles like twigs. Five
people were injured, one critically, in the latest storm.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Brown announced the
disaster declaration after taking a bus tour of damaged areas. He said it
will free up federal money that can be used for temporary housing and
low-interest loans to small businesses.
"We'll get this money going and we'll get to
working for you," Brown told Gov. Brad Henry, who also took the tour.
Friday night's tornado dropped from a storm that began in southwest Oklahoma
and slowly grew to tornadic level near the town of Cogar, about 60 miles
west of Oklahoma City.
Radio and television reports warned Oklahoma City residents to take cover
about 10 p.m. and tornado sirens blared.
Paul O'Leary, spokesman for Emergency Medical Services Authority, said it
did not appear injuries would climb above a dozen, "which is unbelievable
when you look at the pictures and that it went right across the metro."
The critical patient had a head injury; others were in fair condition.
The day before, a strong tornado moved through Oklahoma City's southern
suburbs, injuring 134 and damaging or destroying hundreds of homes and
businesses. Of those injured, 21 remained hospitalized and at least three
were in critical condition.
About 13,000 OG&E customers were without power Saturday, the utility company
said.
Police Sgt. Mike Klika said the twister first touched down in Oklahoma City
south of Interstate 40, moved north into the suburbs of Bethany and Warr
Acres and then moved back into Oklahoma City along I-35. It then turned
northeast back along I-44 and continued to track toward Tulsa.
"I think our citizens had early warning and I think they learned their
lesson, they took heed and took cover," Bethany Police Chief Neal Troutman
said.
When it was over, neighbors came out to help Gene Wilson, whose mower
service in northwest Oklahoma City was heavily damaged.
"We got here just after it rolled over us," Wilson said. "It's just
devastating. My building and everything I've worked for 30 years is down on
the ground."
His wife, Carol Wilson, looked through papers scattered in the rubble. "Oh
my God, I couldn't believe it. It's horrible. It's our whole life," she
said.
Southwest of Oklahoma City, the tornado damaged a fast-food restaurant, a
gas station and a bank, authorities said.
Putnam City West High School in far northwest Oklahoma City was damaged as
was an elementary building at Oakdale School in far northeast Oklahoma City.
The red brick building, which lost its roof in a tornado several years ago,
sustained heavy damage Friday. About two-thirds of the building was
collapsed.
"At first glance, it looks like bulldozer material," Principal Kim Lanier
said.
Art teacher Arni Anderson picked through his destroyed classroom.
"I've never seen anything like this," he said. "I lost kids' work and
supplies, but I did manage to get out a 35-year collection of art work that
was protected in special boxes."
Witcher Church, across the street from the school, also had some wind damage
and a dozen power poles in the area were broken. Trees were snapped.
A plastic sign from the church, announcing Billy Graham's scheduled visit to
Oklahoma City next month, was blown a couple of miles before it snagged on
some bushes.
A house under construction in the nearby River Oaks subdivision was reduced
to a pile of lumber. Another recently built house lost part of its roof.
Damage also was reported at Wiley Post Airport in the Bethany area west of
Oklahoma City. Planes and hangers were reported damaged.
Nearby, Tarina Sexton and her three children stood in the front yard of
their home, which was littered with tree limbs and debris.
"The roof in spots is all damaged," Sexton said. "What was in my backyard is
in my front yard."
Albert Ashwood, state director of emergency management, said the damage from
Friday's tornado was not as extensive as Thursday's twister.
"It's not going to be near as bad as the night before, unless it's your
house," he said.
The earlier tornado destroyed more than 300 houses and businesses in and
around Oklahoma City on Thursday.
That storm carved a 19-mile path through the most densely populated part of
the state, injuring 134 people but killing no one.
The National Weather Service measured winds speeds at about 200 mph in
Thursday's storm.
Gov. Brad Henry declared a state of emergency in Cleveland and Oklahoma
counties after those storms, and asked President Bush for an expedited
federal declaration of emergency to clear the way for federal assistance in
the cleanup.
There is a chance of thunderstorms for Saturday, but mainly in eastern
sections of the state, the weather service reported. |
