A powerful tornado ripped through the small town of Barnsdall, Oklahoma, on Monday night, destroying homes, forcing the evacuation of a nursing home, and toppling trees and power lines.
The twister, which struck the 1,000-person town about 40 minutes north of Tulsa, was one of several that erupted across the central United States amid a series of intense storms that stretched into Tuesday. At least one death was reported in Barnsdall, and one person is missing.
Footage of the destruction shows just how much damage was done —
First Light of Barnsdall, Oklahoma after last nights deadly #tornado #okwx
pic.twitter.com/i0xF1uYYhV— Jordan Hall (@JordanHallWX) May 7, 2024
According to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, there were 17 reports of tornadoes from Monday evening through early Tuesday in the central part of the country. Eight of the twisters were in Oklahoma, two each in Kansas, South Dakota, and Iowa, and one each in Nebraska, Missouri, and Tennessee.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported that at least 30 to 40 homes in the Barnsdall area were damaged Monday night. A nursing home evacuated its residents due to a gas leak that could not be turned off because of storm damage.
Numerous road closings due to debris were also reported, according to Osage County Emergency Management.
Osage County Undersheriff Gary Upton confirmed that one person died in Barnsdall and at least one is missing.
“It is a small town and it just pretty much went right through the center of it,” he said.
The Barnsdall Nursing Home posted online that all residents were accounted for with no injuries and were being taken to other facilities. They asked families to bear with them “as it is chaos in town” and requested prayers.
Damage was also reported in Bartlesville, about 20 miles northeast of Barnsdall.
Kary Fox of the Washington County Emergency Management said, “We did take a direct hit from a tornado in the city. Please stay off the roadways. Stay out of those damaged areas. We’re having a lot of difficulty getting in to do assessments to check on people, to see if they’ve got any injuries because of the traffic congestion.”
A survey team planned to head out Tuesday to evaluate damage in Barnsdall and Bartlesville, and in Arkansas said Joe Sellers, a meteorologist in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The tornado in Barnsdall was the second to hit the town in just five weeks. On April 1, a twister with maximum wind speeds of 90 to 100 mph damaged homes and knocked down trees and power poles in the area.
The storms also tore through Oklahoma areas including Sulphur and Holdenville, who are also still recovering from a tornado that killed four and left thousands without power late last month.
Oklahoma’s State Emergency Operations Center, which coordinates storm response from a bunker near the state Capitol, remains activated from last weekend’s deadly storms.