Inola Neighborhood Waits For Power To Be Restored

By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6

INOLA, OK -- An Inola neighborhood without power after Thursday's storms probably won't get it back until at least Friday or Saturday.

Shane Long's home is one of about 20 that doesn't have power in his Inola neighborhood and here is the reason why.

Power poles are down in both directions on old state Highway 33 and it could take crews a couple of days to get them fixed.

Shane's house is lucky by comparison, he's missing shingles and had to do patch jobs with tarps and his grill is toast.

"Just heard a loud sucking noise, like the roof was peeling off and within a minute, it was gone," Long said.

Across the street, his neighbor's workshop is obliterated, even while the children's playground, just yards away, remains untouched.

A truck was inside the shed when it collapsed, but, came out undamaged, other than being covered in insulation.

Next to them, though, windows were blown out of the family's van and their roof took the worst hit of all.

"Every other house has a few shingles missing here and there," George New said. "Our's is missing a roof.

Their roof lifted off during the storm and sucked their kitchen curtains outside, then the roof settled back into place, so while the curtains are still on their rods, they are also stuck underneath her roof.

The same is true of the bedroom curtains. And the trusses on this roof could collapse at any minute.

"All our neighbors came over and helped us put up tarps, to keep it kinda dry inside," Tamika New said.

The damage is great, but their dogs made it home and their eight-year-old son is safe, so they're thankful.

"I just thank God it didn't get any worse than it did. It could've," Tamika said. "All those bricks could've been right on top of us."

The big concern right now is to get the electricity back on and then after that, it will be making repairs where they can. Then, tearing down the things that can't be repaired and hopefully, rebuilding.

All of that is going to take some time.