Bartlesville Businesses Clean Up Following Tornado

The City of Bartlesville says no serious injuries were reported following the tornado, but the storm did damage homes and businesses.

The majority of the damage is off of Highway 75 between Frank Phillips Boulevard and Tuxedo Boulevard. Officials are still working to survey the full extent of the damage.

The Hampton Inn in town was hit pretty hard, the roof of a nearby business was torn off and dumped outside of the hotel. There are several streets closed today due to downed power lines. Witnesses say debris flew everywhere and landed all over the place, including the Hampton Inn hotel.

The sheet metal and a lot of the debris that ended up at the Hampton Inn is actually the roof of Gan’s Mall.

The manager says Gan’s is an antique mall full of about 80 individual stores and vendors, so in just one building, a lot of people are impacted.

“I think almost everything is a total loss, from the vendors, there’s going to be dishes and stuff like that you can clean, but anything that’s fabric, it’s got water damage,” said manager Randy Hawkins.

The roof blew off in the store, ending up across the street at the Hampton Inn.

Now, inside Gan’s, the sun peaks through.

“See that hole, there’s supposed to be an air conditioner up there, it’s not even there,” he said.

Hawkins says he heard the storm last night was headed toward Bartlesville so he packed up and took off to Kansas.

He only stayed about 10 minutes until everything was clear, and came back to Bartlesville to help.

“They said if we could get to Copan up toward Kansas, we’d be okay, so I didn’t wanna poke along and have it catch up with us,” he said.

Sheet metal, pieces of wood, and power lines are found along Highway 75.

Jean Edwards lives in an apartment nearby and says she heard the storm come through.

“There’s a lot of stuff all over the place, but it was an eerie feeling, not thinking that it’d be so close to home,” she said.

She says walking through the damage was emotional, and she’s glad she and her family are safe, but it’s hard to see.

“It’s just kind of scary, very scary, the fact that it could have been worse than it is right now,” she said.

The city of Bartlesville will be collecting tree debris this week and next at the rodeo arena on Highway 60.

Related Story: Some Injured, Major Damage Reported After Tornado Touches Bartlesville