Warner Begins Clean-up After Saturday Storms

Friends of Bailey Davis stopped by all day to look at the damage. The Davis antique auction is all but a total loss. The roof caved in and crashed down. Davis says he won't rebuild.<br/><br/>Bailey

Sunday, July 24th 2005, 6:46 pm

By: News On 6

Friends of Bailey Davis stopped by all day to look at the damage. The Davis antique auction is all but a total loss. The roof caved in and crashed down. Davis says he won't rebuild.

Bailey Davis, Auction Owner: "Absolutely not, we'll tear it down."

The damage to his roof came from next door. The metal roof of city hall flew off in the storm, and landed on the auction building. City Hall was damaged slightly, but nothing like the building where the roof landed.

Sherry Thompson, City Council Member: "Some major damage and that roof's not very old."

The storm blew through about 5:30 Saturday afternoon. It knocked out power and water service for the town. The water came back overnight. The last powerline, a feeder line in front of Conners State College, was repaired by 2 pm Sunday.

The storms also knocked down big trees and powerlines in Checotah, in Porum and Muskogee. But the worst damage was here in Warner.

Ira Collins, Warner: "Wind, lightning, it was a storm all right"

The damage downtown attracted some attention, and some people stopped to take pictures. Elsewhere in town, it was mainly limbs down and some trees knocked over.

Jason Hartin, Warner: "I went over to cover up my motorcycle and I heard the limb crack, it sounded like a shotgun or something."

The storm hit when city hall and the antique auction were empty, so no one was hurt.
Though the wind was strong enough to bend flagpoles - even old glory was still flying after the storm. Emory Bryan, The News on 6.