A severe thunderstorm with high winds ripped through the Green Country towns of Muskogee, Fort Gibson, Braggs, Checotah, Eufaula and Webbers Falls among others and eft more than 8,000 OG&E customers without power, officials say.
Muskogee County Emergency Management Services Manager Jeff Smith said the storm affected all those aforementioned towns. He said several trees are down east of Fort Gibson, and power lines are down on roads near Highway 100 and Webbers Falls.
"I was told there was a barn blown away in Warner and it was sitting on the highway," said Muskogee City Emergency Manager Mark Bolding. "I saw confirmation that winds up to 42 mph came through and pea-sized hail. It looked like to me just straight winds. I saw no rotation."
Bolding said he saw trees down and branches snapped off, a semi trailer on its side in a parking lot and one highway sign that was ripped up.
City of Muskogee official Kimbra Scott said she and others were in the vicinity and felt the full effect of a strong storm passing overhead.
Tornadoes have not been reported in that area during the time of the storm, but they are a possibility. Warner Police Department said the entire town of Warner was without power and that there was some damage done between Warner and Webber Falls.
"We saw barns blown onto roads between here and there," the WPD said. "Lots of power lines down. The whole town is dark. There was some damage done out by the Webber Falls Dam. But no one hurt that we know of. We've had people tell us they saw rotation. So we may have had a small tornado making a path."
OG&E reports 8,145 people lost power due to this storm - 2,867 in Checotah, 1,547 in Eufaula, 1,030 in Oktaha, 863 in Warner, 815 in Gore, 330 in Fort Gibson, 61 in Muskogee and 53 in Webbers Falls.
Spokesperson Christina Dukeman of OG&E said the storm was the major cause of the outages, damage to the power plant was only minor.
Muskogee's G-Fest with singers and entertainment was not affected by the storm and their schedule is to continue with the original agenda for the final day, according to Casey Thompson, promoter of the event.
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