A catastrophic disaster. That’s what one local official called it.
Thunderstorms and tornadoes pummeled the Eastern Oklahoma and Western Arkansas areas yesterday, and I was in the middle of it all.
As it has become a Wednesday night tradition for me, I drove to Pocola yesterday to play some poker after completing my deadline for our weekly newspaper. Pocola, while technically in Oklahoma, is a suburb of Fort Smith, Arkansas.
I had heard that it might rain, but the serious storm wasn’t supposed to hit until today. Well, it hit early.
On two different occasions, they shut down the casino — evacuating all table games — to push everyone against a wall in the strongest part of the building. While the scene was relatively calm, people were certainly worried. Everyone was calling their loved ones, checking to see where they were. Many people found out that their homes had been damaged, with windows being blown out and water coming in.
One man told me that it looked like 50 tons of golf balls had fallen on his house. There were no windows left and half of his roof was caved in.
While there were reports of tornadoes and funnel clouds, flooding from the massive rain, and fires caused by the lightning, much of the damage was done by the hail. Up to tennis ball-sized hail was falling, denting cars and destroying property. Winds were flying in excess of 100 mph.
Eventually, they let people leave the casino. But after checking the weather, I (and many others) realized it would be foolish to leave. More storm systems were on their way, and trying to drive back east in the madness would not be a smart move. As if to reiterate this fact, the news station showed some footage of a couple of cars lying upside down after they skidded off the highway.
A few of us went back to play cards, but less than 30 minutes later, the TV announced another storm over Pocola and everyone rushed to safety.
Finally, the tornado threat died down. But that didn’t make things any easier for me. Highway 9, the direct route from Stigler to Pocola was partially closed down due to the storm, so I had to find another route. A worker at the casino slowly explained what would be the best way to go, and I scribbled it down and ran to my Honda Accord to try to make it home. It was raining hard, and there was still lightning, but the wind had died down.
I drove for about 15 minutes until I came to a lake where the road was supposed to be. I started to drive into it, thought better of it, and quickly went into reverse to get back on dry land. I put on the emergency brake, got out of the car, and went to see how deep it was. It seemed quite a few feet deep. I sighed, pulled a K-turn (it took like nine times since the road was so narrow) and went back to the casino. Now 2 a.m. without a safe route home, I decided to just call it a night. Exhausted, I found a hotel room and collapsed into slumber.
Hundreds of homes were damaged, thousands (including many in Stigler) were without power, and millions and millions of dollars in damage is being reported. And this is just the beginning of tornado season…
Here are some photos that the Sentinel’s managing editor James and the news editor Doug took:
Here are a CNN article on the storms: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/04/10/midwest.storms.ap/index.html?eref=rss_latest
