Yale Cleaning Up After Storms

A Payne County community sustained some storm damage late Wednesday evening. <BR><BR><A href="http://kotv.com/utils/slideshow/?id=c4529df9-f972-40b4-a2dd-7c812205aeb4" target=_blank>Yale Storm Damage Slideshow</A>

Thursday, July 16th 2009, 12:32 pm

By: News On 6

By Craig Day, The News On 6

YALE, OK -- Storms caused quite a bit of damage in several parts of northeast Oklahoma. From strong winds to intense lightning, the storms packed a powerful punch. Before the storms blew through the Tulsa area on Wednesday night, they hit Yale in Payne County. Cleanup was underway on Thursday.

When storms moved through Yale, strong winds at more than 70 miles an hour hit fast and hit hard.

"Lot of rain, lot of high winds, lot of lightning," said Josh Robinson with the Yale Fire Department.

The storms left a lot of tree damage just about everywhere you look, including on Kirk Glenn's 26 acres. Glenn and his son, Derrick, were four hours into a cleanup job that would take many more hours to finish.

"It's been so hot, hotter than blazes for days, that I really, really didn't expect to see this kind of storm activity," said Kirk Glenn.

The damage isn't just limited to downed trees and broken limbs. The metal roof was ripped off a school's bus barn while metal was also peeled away from the ag barn.

"It's kind of unbelievable that something that big could get blown over like that," said Josh Robinson with the Yale Fire Department.

The wind also tumbled over part of the bleachers and press box at the football field. The ticket booth was also flattened.

"You know watching radar, it looked like it was going to stay to the north and then all of a sudden it dropped down and moved through," said Josh Robinson with the Yale Fire Department.

The storm knocked out power to about half of the town's residents and businesses.

Once those powerful storms with those strong winds swept through the Yale area, leaving all the downed tree limbs and snapped power poles and downed power lines behind, the storms moved to eastern Oklahoma, where the problem wasn't so much the winds, but the lightning.

Lightning caused a fire on the southeast side of Owasso. A man and woman inside were able to get out safely, but the home is a total loss.

By the way, Yale has a rodeo coming up July 31st and August 1st. But, people in the community are confident they can get repairs made to the ag barn in time for the event.