A tornado ripped through a small Oklahoma town, destroying homes, forcing the evacuation of nursing homes and downing trees and power lines. The tornado was one of several tornado outbreaks across the central United States that continued into Tuesday. At least one death was reported.
A tornado ripped through Barnsdall, a town of 1,000 people about 40 minutes north of Tulsa, on Monday night. It was the second tornado to hit the town in five weeks – the April 1 tornado, which had maximum winds of 90 to 100 miles per hour (145 to 161 kilometers per hour), damaged Barnsdall homes and blew them down trees and telephone poles.
The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center cited 17 reports of tornadoes across the central United States from Monday night into early Tuesday. Eight of the tornadoes occurred in Oklahoma, two each in Kansas, South Dakota and Iowa, and one each in Nebraska, Missouri and Tennessee.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported that at least 30 to 40 homes were damaged in the Barnsdall area Monday night, and a nursing home said it had evacuated residents because storm damage could not stop a gas leak. Many roads were closed due to debris, according to Osage County Emergency Management.
Barnsdale Mayor Johnny Kelly said one person was dead and at least one person was missing in Barnsdale.
“There were several houses destroyed, completely flattened,” he said. “The hardest thing for me as mayor is that this is a small community. I know 75 to 80 percent of the people in this town.”
Kelly said first responders rescued about 25 people, including children, from severely damaged homes where buildings above or around them had collapsed. About six people were injured, including a firefighter who was taken to hospital with chest pains, he said.
Kelly said authorities launched a secondary search Tuesday morning to find one or two people still missing.
Barnsdale Nursing Home posted online that all residents had arrived and no one was injured. They were taken to other facilities. It asked the family to be patient “because there is chaos in the town…please keep us in your prayers.”
Aerial video from Barnsdale showed several well-built houses reduced to piles of rubble, while others had their roofs ripped off and damaged walls still standing. The powerful tornado overturned vehicles, knocked down power lines and stripped branches and bark from trees across town. Kelly said a 160-acre wax production facility in the community also suffered significant damage.
Damage was also reported in Bartlesville, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the northeast.
“We did take a direct hit from the tornado,” said Kari Fox with Washington County Emergency Management.
At the Hampton Inn in Bartlesville, several mangled two-wheel-drive vehicles were driven into the south side of the building. Chunks of insulation, twisted metal and other debris were strewn across the hotel’s lawn, and vehicles in the parking lot were severely damaged and windows smashed.
Joe Sellers, a meteorologist with the weather service office in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said a survey team planned to travel Tuesday to assess damage in Barnsdall, Bartlesville and Arkansas.
The Storm Prediction Center warns that there is an increased risk of severe thunderstorms in the Ohio Valley on Tuesday, with the possibility of small but potentially strong tornadoes, hail and strong damaging winds.
Roger Edwards, the center’s chief forecaster, said the main threat was moving eastward on Tuesday, although it wasn’t as severe as Monday.
The Tulsa weather department warned late Monday that “a large, life-threatening tornado” was heading toward Barnsdall, with wind gusts of up to 70 mph (112 kph). Meteorologist Brad McGavock said information on the size and distance of the tornado was not immediately available Monday night.
The storm started early Monday with gusty winds and rain. But after dark, tornadoes were spotted in northern Oklahoma. The National Weather Service said a storm “produced tornadoes on and off for more than an hour” in the small town of Covington in the early evening. Wind farm turbines across the region spin rapidly in wind and rain.
In Kansas, some areas experienced hail the size of an apple up to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) in diameter.
The storm swept through Oklahoma as areas including Iwo Jima and Holdenville were still recovering from tornadoes that killed four people and knocked out power to thousands late last month. The Plains and Midwest have been hit by tornadoes this spring.
The Oklahoma Emergency Operations Center, which coordinates storm response from a bunker near the state Capitol, remained active during last weekend’s deadly storm.
Oklahoma and Kansas were under high-risk weather warnings on Monday. Such warnings were last issued on March 31, 2023, when a massive storm system swept through parts of the South and Midwest, including rural Arkansas, Illinois and Indiana.
Storms have been reported across the U.S. throughout the week. The eastern and southern U.S. are expected to bear the brunt of the severe weather for the remainder of the week, including Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati, which are home to more than 2,100 people. Thousands of people. It should be sunny over the weekend.
Meanwhile, floodwaters began to recede in the Houston area on Monday after days of heavy rain in Southeast Texas flooded communities and led to hundreds of rescue operations.