Published: May 25, 2008 12:33 am         

Enid area storms cause lot of damage, no injuries reported

Damage could run into the millions of dollars after tornadoes cut a path of destruction across Garfield and Kingfisher counties.

A long-track supercell thunderstorm produced several tornadoes Saturday across the southeast part of Garfield County, destroying a rural church and a business and damaging at least five homes.

In Kingfisher County, another tornado caused substantial damage at a hog farm near Lacey. Officials with Seaboard Foods were tallying the damage after several barns at the hog farm were destroyed and others damaged.

Joe Popplewell, manager, said most of the 8,000 sows and piglets at the farm survived, but damage probably would be in the millions.

No injuries were reported from any of the tornadoes.

Garfield County Emerg-ency Management Director Mike Honigsberg said a dozen or more tornadoes may have been produced by the storm in Garfield County, which lasted for nearly seven hours and also spawned tornado warnings in Noble and Logan counties.

“We had a lot of touchdowns,” Honigsberg said. “I think we had somewhere around a dozen or so. There may have been more.”

The National Weather Service confirmed eight tornadoes in Garfield, Major, Kingfisher and Noble counties Saturday. However, the service said the number was preliminary and a total would not be known until this morning.

“We’ve probably lost count ... after the first four or five,” said Garfield County Undersheriff Jerry Niles.

Honigsberg said the area hit hardest by the storms was the southern half of the county.

Jerry Taylor, who lives two miles east of Oklahoma 74 south and east of Covington, was trapped briefly in his home after it was hit. He was not injured, but his home lost its windows and roof.

Potter Church, in the far southeast corner of the county, and a trailer building owned by Prime Operating Co., southeast of Douglas, were destroyed.

Oklahoma 74 from Okla-homa 51 in Kingfisher County to Covington was closed for about 50 minutes while workers cleared the trailer from the highway, according to Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

The tornadoes also knocked down tree and power poles throughout the area.

“We do have trees and power lines on county roads and farm implements on county roads,” Niles said. “We had some reports in the Kremlin/Hunter area of some bridges covered with water.”

Niles said there were in excess of 25 power lines down in the county.

“Thankfully, there were no injuries,” he said.

OG&E Electric Services had more than 260 customers in the Douglas area without power at 10:30 p.m., according to the company’s System Watch.

At its height, as many as 800 customers without power, according to John Little, OG&E spokesman in Enid.

The company had at least 10 poles down in the Douglas and Marshall area, as well as three large transmission poles, he said.

Cimarron Electric Coopera-tive had 226 customers without power after 8 p.m., said Reed Emerson, director of operations.

“We had about 500, and now we have 226 customers without power,” Emerson said.

“In the Lacey area we still have five poles down on the ground, and in the Marshall area we have four poles still on the ground,” he said. “From Marshall to Douglas to Covington, we have a lot lines down and poles leaning.”

Emerson said all customers in the Lacey area had their power restored.

“We had coordination from a lot of the rural fire departments for search and rescue operations,” Honigsberg said. “They went basically from farm to farm to make sure everyone was OK.”

Honigsberg said Enid received 3 inches of radar-indicated rain. The southeast portion of the county received 6 inches of radar-indicated rain, and the northwest portion of the county received between 3 to 4 inches, he said.

“The main core of the heavier rain was right here through our county and just north of the tornadoes’ track,” Honigsberg said.



Staff writer Chris Dell contributed to this story.