Nowata County Residents Clear Wreckage From Deadly Storm

Tony Hugaboom, his brother and a friend are cleaning up what's left of Tony's mother's home of 50 years. Fridays' severe storm was devastating. 

"It's hard to believe. You see everybody else on TV, but it's hard to believe something like this would happen to your own family," said Nowata resident Tony Hugaboom.

About 50 structures, many of them homes, were damaged across a 5-square-mile area when winds of up to 90 miles per hour blew through North of Nowata.

Hugaboom is trying to save what's left at his moms home, but the house will have to be demolished. 

"It just hammered everything," he said.

Three people were killed in the Nowata area: Ronald, Rosella and Kenadie Inman.

9/10/2012 Related Story: Services Set Wednesday For Nowata Storm Victims

Rancher Sam Mensch is saddened by the loss of his neighbors. 

"Just saddening and sickening, because they were friends of mine. And it's a bad deal," said storm victim Sam Mensch.

He's also facing the challenge of losing just about everything on the ranch.

"The house is gone; the barns are gone; my office is gone," he said. "The bunkhouse for the boys is gone; the shop is gone. There's not much of nothing."

Mensch says the storm's sudden intensity was hard to believe. Debris is scattered everywhere.  

"Well there's nothing we can do," he said. "We can't control that. Only the man upstairs controls all that."

There are also downed power poles, and other hazards. Crews are working to clear county roads of hundreds of downed limbs. 

Instead of much needed precipitation, the storm rained down nothing but problems. 

"This was a very expensive rain. If it costs this kind of money to get a rain, I think I'll just stay in the drought business," said Sam Mensch, storm victim.

Services for the Inmans are scheduled for Wednesday.