Editor's Notebook

Mother Nature huffed and puffed and blew some structures away.

Last Thursday’s surprise tornado caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage throughout Purcell and surrounding areas.

The best news of the entire story is that there were no injuries reported from the EF2 tornado.

Gracie and I were getting ready to get down to the pad and pencil.

A few ticks before 7:30 a.m. phones went off, blaring a tornado warning for our area.

To say I was stunned was an understatement.

Emily Sutton on the channel 4 Wednesday 10 p.m. newscast said the tornado chance wasn’t zero, but close to it. Probably just some rain and maybe hail, she reported.

Wrong.

About then is when the loudest and most unusual noise blared in our ears and it got very, very windy. I told Gracie we were under a tornado warning and then the sinister monster hit our house.

I quickly went to turn on the television but Gracie said, “don’t bother, we don’t have any power.”

It was 7:30 a.m. on the dot January 8.

To say the least, that’s not what you’re expecting in the dead of winter.

As you all know, they usually hit in the spring between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m.

I asked Gracie if she thought we should get into her closet.

“It’s too late for that, it’s already over,” she said.

We began to assess the damages and saw a huge limb laying on top of our fence, another large branch piercing our swimming pool cover and patio furniture blown against the house and some pieces broken.

A big pecan tree limb had not only crushed part of our fence but felled an electric line and ripped the electric service pole off our roof. The utility pole was snapped like a tooth pick and the transformer lay dead on the ground in our alley way.

Not knowing about the rest of the town, the one thing I knew was I had to get out and about to photograph the history that was unfolding all around us.

We put the camera to use to document the destruction.

Little did we know we were among the lucky ones that didn’t have much damage to our home itself.

Others did. Some had total destruction.

What ensued was 48 hours of little to no rest for Assistant Public Works Director Trey Phillips and his electric department, to restore power to the town that was now in the dark.

Fortunately, they also had assistance from electric crews from both Stillwater and Edmond.

When the twister moved through our neighborhood on North 8th Avenue, Trey was a block south at Main and 8th in his 1/2 ton truck heading westbound.

He said his phone blew up telling of a tornado warning. All of a sudden he wasn’t going west anymore. The tornado swung his heavy-duty truck around 90 degrees. All of a sudden he was northbound.

“I said a tornado warning,” no kidding I’m in it.”

Luckily Trey wasn’t hurt and the truck was intact.

Now it’s just a matter of everyone picking up the pieces and trying to get roofs repaired, tree limbs hauled off and having carpenters put things back together.

Purcell Emergency Management Director Andy Pipes said, “all-in-all we were very lucky.”

With kids being dropped off at school and the morning rush to work underway, he was correct.