Broken Arrow Tornado Victims Grateful To Survive

People are beginning to clean up the damage from Thursday night's tornado damage that cut a path through Broken Arrow. One neighborhood that saw the brunt of the damage around 225th East Avenue and 91st Street South.

The National Weather Service office in Tulsa says it has rated the Broken Arrow tornado as a "high-end EF2" with maximum winds speeds 125 to 135 mph.  They say its path was almost 6 miles long.

Many homes were destroyed when the tornado touched down in Broken Arrow. Homeowners on Haskell Drive are just thankful to walk away from it.

The Russell family was caught off guard last night when a tornado came rolling in through their neighborhood. The family ran downstairs to safety - cramming everyone they could under their basement stairwell.

5/31/2013 Related Story: Tornado Damages Homes, Businesses In Broken Arrow

SkyNews 6 was overhead early Friday as the Russell family was out picking up the pieces left from the damage.

They're just thankful to be alive and walking around. I just spoke with the mayor of Broken Arrow, he's out touring the damage. He says everyone is okay, and that the city is going around making sure everyone is taken care of in the hardest hit areas.