OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Fierce thunderstorms with strong winds tore through Oklahoma, killing a truck driver and a family whose mobile home was flipped into a creek.
One storm rolled in so fast, a couple in Nowata County had no time to reach a storm shelter on their property before wind picked up their mobile home, carried it about 100 yards and dropped the wreckage into a creek, sheriff’s deputy Rick Harper said Saturday. The mobile home “basically disintegrated,” he said, and the couple and their grandchild were killed. Their bodies were found in the water after a two-hour search.
Nowata County Undersheriff Doug Sonenberg said Monday the victims are 73-year-old Ronald Inman, 70-year-old Rosella Inman and their infant grandson, Kenadie Inman.
The storms erupted Friday as a storm system and cold front collided with triple-digit heat across the state. Temperatures ranged from 94 degrees to 107 degrees, and the high of 106 set a record in Oklahoma City. Then, in just an hour at Tulsa International Airport, the temperature dropped from 101 degrees to 78 degrees.
The sudden change was accompanied by strong winds. Anemometers recorded a wind gust of 61 mph in Nowata County and a 63-mph gust was reported at Miami in Ottawa County.
“There was no strong signal on radar to indicate here was a tornado, so we’re assuming they were straight-line winds,” National Weather Service meteorologist Pete Snyder said of storms in those areas. “But there are times when, along a front like that one, a spin-up can occur.”
The weather service sent teams to both counties to survey the damage and determine what happened, Snyder said.
The storms took down trees and power lines in the Oklahoma City area, and some roofs and a garage also were reported damaged in Nowata County.
The storms caused more than 18,100 power outages in western, central and northeastern Oklahoma. More than 2,200 were still without power Saturday.
The wind also propelled grass fires in Osage, Pawnee and Stephens counties. Homes were evacuated for a time before crews were able to bring the fires under control.
Marianne McGovern, a legal assistant, said the winds caused her downtown Tulsa office building to sway Friday afternoon.
“You sit here and you feel like you’re on a ship kind of,” she said. “Everybody was coming out in the hall saying, ‘Did you feel that?’”
Local News
September 11, 2012
Friday storms fatal in NE Okla.
- Local News
-
- Budget committee hears from Pelivan
- One killed in weekend wreck
-
A 90-pound dope raid
- Firestorm continues
- What you need to know about preparing for tornadoes
- MESTA pursues expanding dispatch
-
Street repair project in full swing all over Pryor
- Sparks fly over Chouteau Fire Department
-
A new hobby takes root
- Wreck sends driver to the hospital
- More Local News Headlines


