Tornadoes kill 1, leave several injured across central US
Significant damage was reported across the south-central United States Sunday night as a violent line of storms rumbled through the region. At least seven twisters were reported in Oklahoma alone.
Tony Laubach reports from Oklahoma where overnight severe weather did major damage in Norman and other towns.
At least one fatality and a dozen injuries were confirmed after a line of severe thunderstorms spawned several tornadoes across the southern Plains Sunday night. Thousands remained without power on Monday morning as crews worked to clean up the mess the severe weather left behind.
Officials confirmed 62-year-old Billy Trammell Jr. was killed when a tornado ripped through Roger Mills County in Oklahoma, FOX25 reported. Roger Mills County is located on the Texas-Oklahoma border.
One of the hardest-hit communities was Norman, Oklahoma, which sustained damage after a large tornado was reported late Sunday evening. Norman Mayor Larry Heikkila told AccuWeather that several roads were closed as debris was scattered about. Heikkila added that gas leaks were reported across the city due to multiple downed trees.
Photos and videos of the damage in Norman showed a car flipped upside down next to a significantly damaged home with its roof shredded. Another photo of damage in southeastern Norman showed the roof of a home torn apart and part of the garage collapsed.
“We’ve had several homes, businesses and schools that appear to have some damage from the storm,” Norman City Police Chief Kevin Foster said at a press conference on Monday morning. “There was a trailer park out east that was pretty severely damaged, but we don’t know of anyone that is missing from there.”
Foster added that Washington Elementary and Reagon Elementary schools closed for the day due to the damage. He was unsure of the extent of the damage at the time of the press conference.
“The most severe injury was a broken leg from a car accident that was caused by the storm,” Foster said.
The Norman tornado touched down dangerously close to three governmental weather forecasting buildings. Meteorologists on duty at the Oklahoma National Weather Service (OUN), Storm Prediction Center (SPC) and National Weather Center (NWC) all found shelter as the twister roared past.
“It’s been a bit busy and chaotic but everyone at OUN, SPC & NWC are fine,” SPC meteorologist Elizabeth Leitman wrote on Twitter. “Tornado just missed us at the building. We saw power flashes from ops and briefly lost power.”
The NWS has given the tornado a preliminary rating of EF2, with estimated peak winds of 130-135 mph.
Several other tornadoes were confirmed in Oklahoma on Sunday. To the west of Sweetwater, Oklahoma, a town near the Texas-Oklahoma border, a house and barn were significantly damaged. Buildings were destroyed, and several trees were uprooted and snapped.
“An agricultural barn and equipment was scattered across the farm to market road,” Wheeler County EMC Ken Daughtry told AccuWeather.
In Shawnee, Oklahoma, about 45 miles east of Norman, a local home was damaged, frightening resident Janet Malone. "We were watching TV, in our master bedroom, then the electricity went off ... all of a sudden, the wind just blew through our master bedroom and it just scared me to death," Malone told storm chaser Mike Scantlin. "We didn't have anywhere to go ... it was very, very scary."
Likely tornado damage in Norman, Oklahoma, as seen on the morning of Feb. 27, 2023.
Debris was thrown about in the small western Oklahoma town of Cheyenne, where school was canceled Monday after the storms. "It happened so fast ... everyone is helping (clean up), our whole community, that's what's so amazing about being part of a small community," Cheyenne resident Leisha Carlson told AccuWeather.
Severe weather first began to take shape just before 4 p.m. CST on Sunday, prompting several high wind gust reports as storms moved through Kansas and Oklahoma. Multiple wind gusts of 70 mph or higher were reported in locations such as Amarillo, Texas, and Hutchinson, Texas.
As the line of severe weather continued to move eastward, higher wind gusts were reported. By Sunday evening, an 81-mph thunderstorm wind gust was reported near Sublette, Kansas.
The highest wind gust report on Sunday came from Memphis, Texas, where a 114-mph gust was observed at 6:37 p.m. CST. Wind-driven hail also knocked out windows in the town, according to the National Weather Service. In McLean, Texas, a garage door was blown in on a business in the city.
The severe thunderstorm as it moved through Memphis, Texas.
The National Weather Service confirmed multiple tornadoes throughout the day on Sunday, with the first being observed to the northwest of Kalvesta, Kansas, located to the east of Garden City. To the south of Dodge City, damage was reported in the Kansas counties of Meade and Seward.
“In [the town of] Liberal, four to five homes had moderate to severe damage and another 10-12 experienced moderate damage,” Seward County Director of Emergency Management Greg Standard told AccuWeather.
Standard also said one person had minor injuries as a result of the storm and was treated and then released from a local hospital. Several power lines were damaged and in need of repairs in the county. More than 88,000 customers were without power in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas as of Sunday night.
Oklahoma led the region in power outages, reporting over 55,000 across the state as of early Monday morning. Over 11,000 of those customers without power were in Cleveland County. More than 5,000 outages were reported in Pottawatomie, Canadian and Comanche counties.
A severe thunderstorm in Donley County, Texas, on Feb. 26, 2023.
At least seven tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma on Sunday, and it was the first time tornadoes were spotted in the Sooner State in February in more than 10 years. The most recent time that a tornado was observed in February in the state came in 2011 when an EF0 twister touched down.
“Tornadoes are rare in Oklahoma in February,” AccuWeather Senior Weather Editor Jesse Ferrell said. “In fact, there have only been 16 since 1980.”
Sunday’s event will likely go down in history as the largest February tornado outbreak in the state’s history. Previously, six tornadoes formed during severe weather outbreaks in 2009 and 1975.
The threat of severe weather shifted eastward on Monday, something previously warned by AccuWeather forecasters. Several tornadoes were confirmed Monday afternoon, including two brief touchdowns near the Chicago suburbs of Joilet and Naperville, Illinois. Two more EF1 tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in Hancock County, Indiana, just outside of Indianapolis.
A tornado also passed just south of Dayton, Ohio, near the city of Carlisle during the afternoon hours. Dayton was previously hit by a devastating EF4 tornado in May of 2019, which decimated local buildings. Damage was reported in nearby Butler County, including downed trees and power lines, after an EF1 tornado with max winds estimated at 110 mph passed through.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that one fatality has been confirmed in Rogers Mills County, Oklahoma.
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