My daughter woke up crying. Not a strange thing in this household for a teething one y/o to be yelling at 4am. Between her howls, I heard thunder. The National Weather service warned of big storms very early morning.
I hit the weather radio and started listening to the warnings. So far just hail, but the talk the day before said up to baseball size. I got up.
The lightning outside strobed. It was flashing so quick there seemed to be no wait for the thunder. Then it hit. The winds didn't seem too bad. I could hear hail on the roof but it sounded small. KAKE said that the hail was approaching 1 & 1/2 inches near Kechi. I was thinking, inch and a half hail doesn't tink, it thuds.
Then it got ugly. The storm created a large gust front that spread out and hit Burton, Towanda, and El Dorado with very high winds.
Damage reports started coming in. House on Webb and I-254 lost it's garage. Storage shed in Benton blown over. The Towanda Grain Silo . . . gone.
I have a friend who lives in El
Dorado that had a tree fall on his house. One of the limbs went through the laundry room. They are
ok. My friend, I'll refer to as Brian Prime said one of the trees fell and landed 40 ft away from it's snapped trunk.
Remember, tornados aren't the only weather that kills people. They are predicting more bad weather tomorrow (Wednesday the 13th) and Friday, May 15th. Stay aware.
I was in El Dorado this evening looking at Frontier Refinery. The sides of the storage tanks are puckered. I bet that wasn't the only thing puckered during this storm.