Tahlequah Residents Cleaning Up Debris From Straight Line Wind Damage

At a time of year when people think of raking up leaves some Cherokee County residents are cleaning up storm debris from a fast moving storm.

A huge tree in a Tahlequah yard was one of several leveled by strong winds which blew into the Cherokee County community on Thursday. If it fell just a few feet to either side, it would have crushed nearby mobile homes. 

Limbs are down, windows are broken, entire trees are now on the ground and Lisa Wiley is left hoping she never has to ride out a storm like the one that caused all this damage, ever again.

"Kind of scary. Lifted my trailer up off the ground and put it back down on the ground," said Lisa Wiley of Tahlequah. 

The storm damaged about a dozen mobile homes on the northwest side of town. Straight line winds of about 60 mph are to blame. 

"I was freaked out because we had power lines all over the trailer and trees on the trailer," said Lisa Wiley. 

Workers from Lake Region Electric Coop were busy on Friday working to repair damaged lines and power poles. At one point, about 500 customers in Tahlequah were without service. As of Friday evening all power had been restored. 

Once electric crews are finished, electrician Tim Bogle will be the guy connecting service to the homes. 

"When we pulled up I just thought it was going to be one trailer, but shoot it seems to be 12 trailers down through here," said Tim Bogle. 

While restoring power is a top concern, there will be plenty of cleanup work to do as we head into the weekend.

"It's a bad deal, it really is. I didn't know it was this bad when I got here," said Tim Bogle. 

The storm moved through fast, causing the damage in only about 15 minutes.