Winds Knock Out Power, Cause Widespread Damage In Bartlesville

Thunderstorms packing 80 mph winds rolled into Osage, Nowata and Washington counties Monday night knocking out power to thousands and damaging homes and buildings in Bartlesville and Dewey.

The Red Cross is providing emergency housing at Bluestem Baptist Church, 327 East Durham in Dewey, for Washington County residents who are still without power. 

Public Service Company of Oklahoma says more than 3,600 customers are still without power in Washington County. Verdigris Valley Electric reported more than 1,200 customers without power in Nowata, Osage and Washington counties.

Because of power outages at some of its schools, Bartlesville Public Schools canceled classes Tuesday.

PSO says at the peak of the storm, about 10,800 of their customers were without power. The vast majority of customers were to be restored by 5 p.m. with the exception of almost 800 customers in the northern and western portions of the city.

ConocoPhillips in Bartlesville has told its employees the company will closes its offices Tuesday due to city water issues. Bartlesville city manager Ed Gordon told Radio Oklahoma Network partner Bartlesville Radio the city's water plant is running and processing water but because of power problems, that process has slowed. He says the water is safe to drink.

Gordon asks residents and businesses to conserve water until production at the water plant returns to normal. He is expecting that to be by Thursday.

Washington County Emergency Management director Kary Cox said there are power lines down across Bartlesville and crews are on backup generator at the city's emergency operations center.

Cox said tornado sirens sounded in Copan due to rotation showing on radar, but no tornado was ever spotted on the ground.

Some of the hardest hit areas in Bartlesville area include the Oak Park subdivision in the northeast part of town and all of northeast Bartlesville. There have been no reports of any injuries.

PSO also is reporting over a hundred power outages in Okmulgee County.