By John Dobberstein, Editor
A powerful storm system from the west pounded Oklahoma Friday with 70-mph plus winds and dust, but Broken Arrow emerged relatively unscathed.
A milky haze hung over the city from mid-morning until mid-afternoon, when winds kicked up even more and a blanket of orange dust hung in the atmosphere. The Broken Arrow Fire Department spent much of the day traversing the central and eastern parts of the city putting out some minor fires and responding to electrical emergencies.
Some power poles buffeted by the high winds were pushed over, and Broken Arrow police officers responded to secure the area from traffic. As of 8 p.m. Friday, Public Service Company of Oklahoma reported more than 13,000 power outages in the Tulsa area, although in Broken Arrow they were light and spread around.
The story was much worse in western Oklahoma, where there were chain-reaction accidents due to poor visibility, and wildfires too numerous to count broke out. Evacuations were ordered in Stillwater where a raging fire sending an ominous plume of smoke over the town started approaching a neighborhood.
Evacuations were also ongoing Friday night in Mannford, where some structures burned in a wildfire and Highway 51 was closed. Firefighters were working to stop the blaze but high winds were making that difficult.
All lanes of Interstate 44 about 17 miles southwest of Randlett, in Cotton County were closed at about 7 p.m. due to low visibility from blowing dust and multiple vehicle accidents, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.
Gov. Kevin Stitt, Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Blayne Arthur and Annie Mack Vest, Director of the Department of Emergency Management are expected to hold a press conference about the wildfire damage and response Saturday morning at 9 a.m.
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