Area residents woke up to downed trees, missing fences and damage to homes and vehicles as severe storms swept through the Oklahoma metro area overnight.
On Friday, April 3, the storm crossed the metro and affected areas from Will Rogers International Airport to Shawnee.
In southwestern Oklahoma City, Will Rogers International Airport briefly lost power due to the storm.
Airport officials confirmed to The Oklahoman that the airport’s generators kicked in, bringing power back and that staff are unsure if regular power will be fully restored. According to officials, the storm did not cause any damage to the airport.
However, the Oklahoma City Community College building was damaged. And homeowners between Southwest 81st and 82nd streets and South Villa Avenue and South Country Club Drive woke up to find missing fence panels, downed trees and more.
On April 4, Thang Huynh picks up the door of his son’s house that was destroyed by the strong typhoon on April 3.
“It was just kind of a boom,” said Wayne Fisher, a homeowner who lives in Oklahoma City on the corner of SW 81st and South Country Club Drive. “The neighbor, all his stuff came into our yard and broke one of the bedroom windows and messed up our roof a little bit.”
Fisher has no shelter and hears debris flying. He said his neighbor had just built a storage shed that was completely destroyed by a storm.
“They had a small workshop there that had just been built, it’s completely gone, I don’t know where it is,” he said.
Fisher’s neighbor Thang Hyun confirmed that the shed he used while remodeling his son’s property was destroyed, along with the fence and several neighboring fences.
Debris was strewn for blocks and there was evidence of large objects being moved by strong winds: a trampoline was wrapped around a power pole, a wooden play structure moved over a fence, and Huynh said the back of a small truck was facing a different direction than the way he parked it.
“That toy, it’s from the neighbor’s yard,” Arturo Rodriguez said, pointing to the play structure as he walked around his house.
Rodriguez, whose daughter and grandmother were home alone during the storm while he and his wife were out, said there were some roof leaks, broken windows and gutters and fences to repair, but all were safe. Important because her family members could not reach the family’s in-ground shelter when the sirens went off.
“They tried to get to the shelter, but the rain came so fast that they couldn’t make it [my grandmother] is old She was afraid she was going to fall down before she got to the shelter,” Rodriguez said.
There was a large branch of a tree near the entrance of that shelter and the drain of someone else’s house came out of the remaining branches of the tree. Notably, Rodriguez said that while the power lines remained and the family briefly lost power Friday night, OG&E quickly restored it.
In Shawnee, areas of the city north of Interstate-40 saw damage, including the collapse of the local EZ Mart at Westeach Road and Oklahoma Highway 18. The canopy struck a nearby power pole, which OG&E crews were working to repair.
The National Weather Service confirmed a radar-indicated tornado in the area on Friday, although damage assessments have yet to be assessed.
Contributed by: Josh Kelly, Staff Writer
This article originally appeared in The Oklahoman: Residents of southwest OKC, Shawnee, begin cleaning up after overnight storm
