At least 2 dead, dozens injured as violent tornado rips through Oklahoma
At least two people are dead and dozens others injured after a devastating tornado struck El Reno, Oklahoma, on Saturday night.
The powerful storm leveled the second story of a motel and killed two people at a mobile home park in the area 26 miles west of Oklahoma City, according to local police and media reports.
One reporter for Oklahoma City’s KWTV reported seeing victims being “pulled from the rubble.” Multiple people are still unaccounted for.
“I’m okay but the hotel across the street from us was leveled,” Aaron Brilbeck tweeted just after midnight.
The tornado hit around 10:31 p.m., devastating both American Budget Inn and Skyview Trailer Park.
“You could hear the roar and everything when it came through,” Richard Griffin, a resident of the Skyview Trailer Park, told The Oklahoman.
Loyd Roberts, of Texas, said he was asleep in the American Budget Inn when the roof fell in.
“That is what woke me up. The roof caved in, desk flipped over, the room looked like a bomb hit it,” Roberts said. “I pulled the sheetrock off of me and started looking for people. All I saw was people with scrapes and bruises.”
The Union City Police Department described the situation as “very dangerous” and confirmed in a Facebook post that “serious injuries and fatalities occurred.”
“This is an unfortunate example of just how quickly these types of storms can develop from a simple thunderstorm into a deadly supercell tornado,” police chief Richard Stephens wrote on Sunday morning after the storm hit.
El Reno residents have been asked to stay off the roads while emergency services assess the damage, with the small city a scene of twisted metal, overturned cars and chaos on Sunday morning.
Both Oklahoma and Missouri have been battered by tornadoes and devastating storms this week.
At least three people were killed in the Missouri capital of Garden City Wednesday by a tornado which also ripped the roof off a local fertilizer plant.
Heavy rain has also overwhelmed the cities of Muskogee, Guthrie and Stillwater, with more than 1000 homes flooded, prompting President Donald Trump to declare an emergency for the entire state, The Hill reported Saturday.
“We have absolutely experienced a traumatic event,” Mayor Matt White said during a news conference early Sunday.