The Governor of Oklahoma has declared a state of emergency for Osage County, where an EF-4 tornado touched down roughly 40 miles north of Tulsa overnight Monday. By Tuesday morning, the town of Barnsdall was grappling with the devastation, as this comes just weeks after the town was hit by an EF-1 tornado.
Barnsdall, a town of roughly 1,000, is no stranger to storms. But NBC 5 spoke to people on the ground who said they had never seen damage like this in their decades of living here. The cleanup has begun, and the community is stepping up in a big way.
A natural gas leak and numerous road closings due to debris were reported early Tuesday morning, according to Osage County Emergency Management. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt toured the damage and addressed reporters Tuesday afternoon.
"You know, when you when you see this type of damage, it's just it's just heartbreaking. You just don't know how anybody can survive,” said Governor Stitt
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Dozens of homes were leveled after taking a direct hit. Joy Washington told NBC 5 she’d lived in her house some 50 years. Within minutes, everything was ripped apart.
“Can you believe? Can you believe it did all this?” she asked.
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She said she grabbed a few belongings and took shelter in her bathroom as the storm passed.
“Just disbelief when I came out here and seen my roof here was gone and I seen the roof back there was gone,” Washington said.
Ryan Gott is associate pastor at the Lighthouse Family Worship Center less than a mile up the road from the worst of the damage. The church is now a resource pickup and drop-off center for people needing basics. Walmart delivered 43,000 pounds of water to add to donations brought in from residents.
“It’s just really hard to put into words what we’re dealing with right now, but we have a great community, we’re going to pull together,” Gott said.
Longtime resident Arlyn Hendricks was thankful to see his house still standing, even with significant damage. He said the road to recovery will be long.
“If you look at the overall picture of things it’s overwhelming. So, you just have to do the little that you can do,” said resident Hendrick.
As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, at least one fatality had been confirmed and a search continued for a missing person. A nursing home took a direct hit, but we’re told some 30 residents were evacuated safely.
