Oologah Lake Marina Open Again After Being Damaged By Storms

Many people are spending their 4th of July on area lakes, but storm damage from over two weeks ago still lingers.

Oologah Lake is a popular place for sailing in Oklahoma, but severe weather a few weeks ago damaged a local marina there, threatening the 4th of July Holiday.

It was a beautiful day to be out on the lake. Osage SkyNews 6 Pilot Dustin Stone took advantage of the good weather on his boat Princess.

But June 18 was a different story, when high winds tore through the area. Sarah Hale was on her boat that night at Redbud Marina.

"You could feel the metal coming apart and twisting through the hull," said Hale.

She's helped run the marina for the last 10 years, and said this was a bad storm, ripping all but one dock away from it's connection.

Luckily no boats were seriously damaged, but she worried that the dock would be closed during one of the busiest times of year.

"Definitely affects business and right there close to a holiday weekend," she said.

But after days of hard work, the Marina is open this Independence Day, for people like Kevin Sartorius.

"There's still pieces of the dock that have kind of been ripped apart and are out here in the marina, but it doesn't keep us from sailing," said Sartorius.

He's happy the staff here at Redbud Marina did their part to get folks back on the water.

"For what they had to deal with, they came back pretty quick. I mean ya know PSO got us power and the marina got us our boats back," he said.

There's still work to be done, like removing debris and getting power back to the sailboat dock, but Sarah Hale is just glad to welcome people back.

"We're here and we're open and that's amazing. I'm very grateful," she said.