Barnsdall Woman Staying At Emergency Shelter After Tornado Damages Home

A 73-year-old woman was forced to evacuate her home Monday night after the Barnsdall tornado.

Joy Washington is staying at a Red Cross emergency shelter in Pawhuska. She lost much of her roof and several structures on the backside of her property in the storm.

Washington said she has lived in Barnsdall for close to 50 years and knows all of her neighbors by name.

Before the tornado she was putting together photo albums and went back to her home on Tuesday morning to try and save them. She was shocked by the damage.

"I am still nervous. I am still shaking and jittery all over, and I am in shock," Washington added. "I just cannot believe that it blown away houses, and there was a trader house right on the corner from me, and it is all gone."

When the tornado sirens sounded, she took shelter in her hallway bathroom. Washington recalls the moment it hit, saying, "I heard all this crashing, and booming, and breaking glass."

However, she said all she could think about were her three dogs. "After I seen everything was blown away and blown down, I thought, oh my gosh, they may be dead."

Two of her dogs emerged from the rubble a short time later, but one was still missing. 

"The lady, she came to talk to me and said we have to go because there is a gas leak down there, and I said I still have a dog in there, I need to go get my dog, and my purse is in there, and she said no we have got to go. We got to go now," said Washington.

Local animal rescue 4Paws in Pawhuska found her dog and reunited the pair at the Red Cross shelter on Tuesday morning.

"I cannot say enough about them," she continued saying, "They went and got my 14-year-old dog out of the house that I could not get and brought her to me, and I got to hold her."

One last moment of joy before she had to return home to the damage.

"It could have been a lot worse," Washington continued, saying, "Angels were definitely watching over me, or I would not be here today."

As she tries to figure out what is next, Washington says she feels hopeful.

"I think we will all pull together," Washington continued, saying, "I think everybody will help each other, and I think we will just be just fine."