Coal County hit by severe weather

By Leo Kelley

COALGATE — Georgann Looney knew it was time to take cover when a line of severe thunderstorms roared through Coal County late Tuesday.

“Some of us were working late at the school,” she said. “When we heard the siren go off in Coalgate, we walked over the a window to see what was going on. My 24-year-old son, who had done a tour of duty in Iraq, pointed out two funnels. They came over the school but never dropped down as far as I know.”

Looney is a first-grade teacher at Cottonwood Elementary, located near Coalgate.

Strong storms moved across the state Tuesday evening, spawning tornadic activity in southeastern Oklahoma.

Officials at Coalgate said no major damage has been reported, but many city streets were flooded. There were also reports of marble- to baseball-size hail. Coalgate received five inches of rain.

A greenhouse outside the city lost its roof and a barn was destroyed by high winds, but there were no reports of injuries, according to a Coal County Sheriff’s deputy. There were scattered reports of electrical outages, and a couple of gas leaks where trees had fallen on gas meters.

Jerry Romines, superintendent of Olney Public Schools, said the school didn’t suffer any damage.

The storm also did some damage in the small community of Phillips south of Coalgate where Ed Banks lives.

“I sent my wife and kids to a storm shelter,” Banks said. “Then the storm hit and blew off a portion of the roof of my storage trailer. I thought I was a goner.”

Elsewhere, Atoka County Emergency Management Director Eddy Cook said the most significant damage in his county appeared to be trees and power lines downed. One northbound lane and one southbound lane of State Highway 69 were closed through Atoka because of the flooding. Cook said the McGee Creek Lake and the Atoka reservoir seemed to take the brunt of the storm with half-dollar and golf-ball size hail. Unofficial wind gusts reached 65 mph. More than 3,000 customers in McAlester, Krebs, Haileyville and Hartshorne were without power, according to Ed Bettinger, a spokesman for Public Service Company of Oklahoma, which provides electricity to large portions of southeastern Oklahoma. That number had been whittled down to about 2,000 by midnight, he said.

At least 2,630 Oklahoma Gas and Electric customers in the area were without power as of about 1:15 a.m. today, according to the OG&E’s web site.

Kenneth James, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norman, said the severe storms formed as three separate boundaries merged in an area where there was warm, humid air. As a result, NWS issued a flash flood watch for all of eastern Oklahoma. Tornado warning were issued in Coal and Pittsburg counties, according to the Associated Press.

Pontotoc County Emergency Management Director Chad Letellier said local officials were keeping a close watch on the destructive line of thunderstorms.

“We lucked out as the storms passed just to our south,” he said. “I haven’t received any reports of damage or injuries in the county. It started in Johnston County and traveled in the southeastern corner of Pontotoc County for four or five miles.”

There was an unconfirmed report that lightening damaged a local apartment complex.

There's a good reason for Sooners to be on the alert for twisters. Oklahoma sits between two large-scale features that influence the state's weather — the Rocky Mountains and the Gulf of Mexico. When dried-out air from polar regions stream over moist Gulf air, all the ingredients for severe weather are present. The greater the contrast between the two air masses, the greater the potential trouble.

And the jet stream snaking it way over the state during spring months also complicates matters by stirring up thunderstorms.

Sometimes massive killer tornadoes develop. Sometimes they don't. Even though technological advances in weather forecasting have saved lives, officials said a little common sense couldn't hurt.

Oklahoma averages more than 50 tornadoes a year.

In case you think tornado preparedness is a waste of time, consider this: The Ada area is the most likeliest spot in the United States to be hit by a tornado, according to a recent study.

Oklahoma sits smack dab in the "eye" or "tornado alley," a corridor extending from north Texas through the Sooner State, north through Kansas and Nebraska, and then winds its path east into Iowa.

Oklahoma's unique geographical location increases the frequency of twisters: warm air from the Gulf of Mexico pushes north, while even warmer air blows in from the southwest, and cold polar air surges into Oklahoma from the Rocky Mountains. When these air masses mix, the result is often a particularly explosive cocktail.

A 2002 historical study of tornadoes by the National Severe Storm Laboratory at Norman pinpointed Pontotoc County in southeastern Oklahoma as the most likeliest spot for a twister in the United States. Meteorologists used weather and damage data from more than 10,000 tornadoes that occurred between 1921 and 1995 to create computer models of the probability of twisters striking areas across the nation. More tornadoes occur in May than any other month, officials said.

Today’s forecast for Ada and Pontotoc County calls for a high of 70 with a chance of rain.