‘Decimated’: 2 dead, search underway for missing after Oklahoma tornado – USA TODAY
From Arkansas to Nebraska, people experiencing severe weather including tornados and dust storms.
USA TODAY
A tornado killed at least two people, destroyed a motel and devastated a mobile home park in the Oklahoma City suburb of El Reno overnight as severe weather continued to threaten the nation’s middle section Sunday.
Twenty-nine people were injured, some critically, and a search and rescue effort was underway in areas reduced to rubble, El Reno Mayor Matt White said Sunday. He said due to language barriers and other issues the number of people unaccounted for was unclear.
“It’s a pretty devastating sight,” White said. “It is very traumatic. We are all hands on deck.”
He said the storm appeared to roar over a two-mile path, with damage and debris strewn over an area up to twice that long. White estimated the tornado’s strength at EF2 or EF3. An EF3 tornado can drive winds of up to 165 mph.
The National Weather Service said early damage reports indicated the storm was at least an EF2 and that its survey was continuing.
The Midwest has been hammered by scores of tornadoes and heavy storms in recent days, leaving at least nine dead and a trail of damage from high winds and flooding.
Meteorologist Rick Smith in Norman, Oklahoma, said Saturday’s suspected tornado was spawned by a powerful storm system rolling through the state. Crews will arrive on the scene later Sunday to determine the severity of the damage to the town just west of Oklahoma City.
White said tornado sirens were sounded at 10:27 p.m., just minutes before the storm struck. The American Budget Value Inn was destroyed, and images at the scene showed emergency crews sifting through the rubble after part of the motel’s second story collapsed into a pile of debris.
Mobile homes in the Skyview Estates mobile home park adjacent to the motel were damaged, as was part of a nearby car dealership, White said.
The scene was “horrific,” he said. “Decimated.”
Elton Garrison, 32, said his parents called him from Skyview after the storm and said they were trapped in their home with two of his children, 9 and 12. Garrison, who lives less than a mile away, arrived to see another trailer sitting on top of his parents’ home.
Garrison went to the home and was able to clear enough debris to free the family.
“My main emotion was fear. I couldn’t get them out of there quick enough.”
He said he had heard the sirens but thought little of it.
“We hear them all the time here, so it didn’t seem like a big deal,” Garrison said. “I heard a lot of rain with the wind. But when it kinda got calm all of a sudden, that’s when it didn’t feel right.”
The weather service’s Storm Prediction Center warned that severe thunderstorms expected over parts of the central and southern plains Sunday afternoon and evening could trigger tornadoes, damaging winds and hail that in some area could reach the size of baseballs.
And more could be coming: Forecasters warned that conditions are ripe for more severe weather at least through month’s end.
In El Reno, Saturday’s tornado came just days after the town was hit by widespread flooding.
“Pray for our community,” White said. “We’ve been through a lot lately.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
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