Tornadoes destroyed homes, overturned vehicles and stripped the bark from trees as they churned across Oklahoma, part of a strong series of storms that hit the plains.
At least two people died on Monday in weather so violent that forecasters declared a “tornado emergency” for communities in the path of one of the twisters.
“You are in a life-threatening situation,” forecasters said while warning the communities of Roff, population 725, and Hickory, population 71, which were ultimately spared major damage. “Flying debris will be deadly to those caught without shelter.”
Photo: AFP / Handout / Josh Edelson
Dana Lance was driving through the Pontotoc County community of Roff on her way home from work on Monday when the skies grew ominous, sirens wailed and forecasters on the radio told people to take cover.
“I parked and went into the school, which has a safe room,” Lance said. “There were kids and elderly people, dogs and cats, babies. It was like the whole town was there.”
In nearby Murray County, where Hickory is located, emergency management director Gary Ligon said one person was injured.
Photo: AP / Nate Billings / The Oklahoman
Garvin County officials said a man believed to be in his upper 70s died when another tornado hit a home near Wynnewood, south of Oklahoma City. That storm, caught on video by several storm chasers, appeared white against the dark clouds of a supercell storm.
In Johnston County, the sheriff’s office said a man was killed by a tornado near Connerville.
The Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management reported the storms destroyed a radio station building in Coal County and an undetermined number of homes in Murray, Garvin and Johnston counties.
The bad weather was expected to settle yesterday in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, forecasters said, while another storm system should bring storms to the area from north Texas to near St. Louis today.
In Hugo, near the Red River, Charles Webb on Monday piled one of his dogs and one of his cats in the laundry room and hunkered down as the storm came over his house, clipping trees and spinning up debris. Webb said he emerged from his home minutes later to see blue skies.
``We’re real lucky, but we’ve been lucky for a lot of years, fortunately,’’ Webb said Monday.
In the rolling hills between Oklahoma City and Dallas, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol closed Interstate 35 near Wynnewood for 15 minutes on Monday so the storm could pass.
Jessica Randolph, a cashier at the Love’s Travel Stop in Paul’s Valley, Oklahoma, said the tornado came so close that managers ordered employees and customers to take shelter.
“They put us in the showers,” Randolph said. “I drove in when all of that was going on. All we had was pea-sized hail.”
Randolph said she has seen severe weather before and was not frightened by the experience.
“Not for me. I’m used to it,” she said.
Sandy Weyers, director of the Cass County Emergency Management office, said a homeowner did not make it inside by the time the tornado arrived so he grabbed onto a tree and “rode it out.”
Weyers said the man suffered only cuts and scrapes, while the home was a total loss after the roof
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