WELCH–It was a night of severe storms all over northeastern Oklahoma. For two Welch families, it was also a harrowing experience.
Shortly after 2:00 a.m., what appears to have been straight-line wind gusts (or possibly a tornado) damaged the homes of Dale & Rhonda Charles and Kelly Walker. Both residences are on the VFW road, north of Welch.
Preliminary reports are that the Charleses’ barn and home received significant damage, and the Walker home also suffered notable damage. (On a side note, before reporting from the scene of the damage, I was able to help get the Walker family from their damaged home and to a friend’s home in town. Fortunately, none of them was injured. I was just in the right place at the right time.) Some of the Charles family suffered slight injuries and visited the emergency room. Online updates by family members indicate that injuries were slight.
The Welch Volunteer Fire Dept. was on the scene rapidly, and other community volunteers showed up to pitch in if needed. Craig County Emergency Management and Craig County Sheriff’s deputies helped respond, as well as Bluejacket Fire Dept. Not knowing how widespread the damage and injuries were in the immediate aftermath, and with the town without power (as it remains as I type this at 6:30 a.m.), I opened the Welch Civic Center, which was fully powered due to the natural gas generator. From the Civic Center, I was able to monitor radar and the scanner. Surrounding rescue agencies responded to flash flooding northwest of Welch, where reports indicated that over 13 persons were stranded. Fortunately, local damage was very isolated, and we didn’t end up hosting displaced families at the Civic Center.
Both Welch Fire Dept. personnel and we at WelchOK.com had been monitoring the severe weather overnight (for a time I did so from the fire barn). When the worst had seemed to pass us, I returned to the WelchOK.com offices on main street and continued to monitor the weather and relay information from the National Weather Service. At the time of the damaging winds, Welch was not under a Tornado Warning, though the NWS had just issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, predicting winds up to 60 mph might be possible, when the damaging winds hit our neighbors to the north. Some asked online why the sirens weren’t blown, and the answer is that there simply was no indication that the damaging winds were likely. As good as radar is, and as far as technology has come, weather is still unpredictable and anticipating what Mother Nature has in store is far from an exact science.
In addition to the damaged residences above, the town shows various signs of wind damage. Fire Dept. personnel have removed debris from some roadways, Empire District Electric continues to make repairs to power can be restored, and homes and businesses were damaged by the freak winds. Lion Supply on main street had its sign blown down and suffered damage to the metal facade at the top of its building. Mayr Winston McKeon had the back window of his Jeep broken out by flying tree limbs.
As a result of last night’s storm damage, flooding, and the lack of electricity, Welch Public School administrators have cancelled school for the day. Classes will resume Wed., May 2, 2012.
Here at WelchOK.com, we did our best to provide coverage of the situation as it happened. You can see an archive of that coverage here.
Thanks to everyone who pitched in to respond to the situation. If you’d like to hear Fire Chief Brandon Webster’s take on the night, it’s here:
