Oklahoma town hit with second tornado in 5 weeks

A tornado destroyed homes, forced the evacuation of a nursing home and toppled trees and power lines when it roared through a small Oklahoma town, one of several twisters that erupted in the central United States on Monday. At least one death was reported.

The tornado ripped through the 1,000-person town of Barnsdall, about a 40-minute drive north of Tulsa. It was the second tornado to hit the town in five weeks — a twister on April 1 with maximum wind speeds of 90 to 100 mph damaged homes and blew down trees and power poles.

The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center cited 17 reports of tornadoes from Monday evening through early Tuesday in the central part of the United States. Eight of the twisters were in Oklahoma, two each in Kansas, South Dakota and Iowa, and one each in Nebraska, Missouri and Tennessee.

At least 30 to 40 homes in the Barnsdall area were damaged Monday night, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported, and a nursing home said it evacuated residents because a gas leak could not be turned off due to storm damage. 

One person died in Barnsdall and at least one is missing, Osage County Undersheriff Gary Upton said by telephone.

“It is a small town and it just pretty much went right through the center of it,” he said.

The storm prediction center warned of an enhanced risk of severe thunderstorms across the Ohio Valley on Tuesday with a possibility of few, potentially strong, tornadoes, hail and severe, damaging winds.

The main threat was shifting east Tuesday, said Roger Edwards, lead forecaster with the center, though it is not as intense a threat as on Monday.

The weather service in Tulsa had warned Monday evening that “a large and life-threatening tornado” was headed toward Barnsdall, with wind gusts up to 70 mph. Meteorologist Brad McGavock said information on the tornado’s size and how far it traveled wasn’t immediately available Monday night.



(Photo: Ronald Erdich/Abilene Reporter-News via AP)