Governor Declares State Of Emergency After Tornadoes Tear Through Oklahoma Communities

NewsOn6.com

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency for 26 Oklahoma counties impacted by severe weather on Thursday, April 14, 2011.

Included in the declaration are: Atoka, Carter, Coal, Creek, Custer, Delaware, Harper, Johnston, Latimer, LeFlore, Lincoln, Love, Marshall, Murray, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, Osage, Pittsburg, Pontotoc, Pushmataha, Rogers, Seminole, Tulsa, Wagoner, Washington, and Woodward.

Weather officials say preliminary assessments show at least five tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma as a powerful storm system rumbled through the state.

National Weather Service meteorologist Ty Judd said Friday the most powerful of the twisters hit the town of Tushka in southeast Oklahoma, where at least two people were killed and dozens injured.

4/14/2011 Related Story: Small Atoka County Community Devastated By Deadly Tornado

Judd says teams of meteorologists were in the field Friday surveying damage to determine the strength of the tornadoes.

Other twisters touched down briefly in Lincoln County, northwest of Stroud, and near Lake of the Arbuckles in southern Oklahoma. A small tornado also touched down near Madill, and a fifth tornado developed east of Tushka near the town of Lane.

Fallin is expected to tour damage in Tushka on Saturday.  She was supposed to visit the town on Friday, but her spokesman Aaron Cooper says she cancelled because winds were too strong for a helicopter flight to the area about 120 miles southeast of Oklahoma City.

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