Severe storm damage in Bixby

A Bixby business believes what may have been a tornado that blew out glass, bent steel poles and uprooted 100 year old trees Monday afternoon. <br/><br/>News on 6 anchor Lori Fullbright takes a look.

Monday, April 24th 2006, 12:53 pm

By: News On 6

A Bixby business believes what may have been a tornado that blew out glass, bent steel poles and uprooted 100 year old trees Monday afternoon.

News on 6 anchor Lori Fullbright takes a look.

George Eldridge is surveying the damage of his neighbors caused by a sudden blast of wind that also blew out the plate glass window of his car dealership, 200 feet into the parking lot. "I said to my salesman, hey, look at that, all these branches were floating in the wind, about a thousand of them and then it started circulating and I said, oh my God, here it comes."

The wind also blew out the windows of several vehicles and a truck liner was lifted out of a truck 400 feet away and tossed. Even the metal poles are now bent instead of standing straight. "The wind picked up probably within two seconds from 20 miles an hour to 60-plus and it came across the street and my sales manager ran down the hall and I ran down the hall and heard an explosion."

Part of the dealership's ceiling caved into the floor, but despite them having so little warning, nobody was hurt.

On the south end of the parking lot, one tree, maybe three feet in diameter was uprooted. It collapsed on a house and took a powerline down with it. Another tree was sheared in half. A nearby pine tree that some estimate is 100 years old was pulled up by its roots.

The storm was gone as quickly as it started. "It was instantaneous. It was amazing. It was exciting. I hate to say it, but, it was exciting." The kind of excitement George Eldridge hopes he doesn't see again anytime soon.