EL RENO, Okla. -- A tornado leveled a motel and tore through a mobile-home park near Oklahoma City, killing two people and injuring at least 29 others, authorities said Sunday.
The tornado touched down in El Reno, about 25 miles west of Oklahoma City, late Saturday night. It crossed an interstate and walloped the American Budget Value Inn before ripping through the Skyview Estates trailer park, flipping and leveling homes, Mayor Matt White said at a news conference.
"It's a tragic scene out there," White said, adding later that "people have absolutely lost everything." Several other businesses were damaged, though not to the same extent as the motel.
The two people who died were in the mobile home park, White said. He did not provide additional details about them. The 29 injured people were taken to hospitals, where some were undergoing surgery. Some of the injuries were deemed critical, he said.
The National Weather Service gave the tornado an EF3 rating, meaning it had wind speeds of 136-165 mph. Personnel who investigated the damage said the tornado began about 10:28 p.m. Saturday and lasted for four minutes. The tornado spanned about 75 yards at its widest point and was on the ground for 2.2 miles.
The tornado was spawned by a powerful storm system that rolled through the state -- the latest in a week of violent storms to hit the Plains and Midwest. The storms have been blamed in at least 11 deaths.
The storm dumped more rain on the region's already bloated waterways. In Tulsa, authorities advised residents of some neighborhoods on Sunday to consider leaving for higher ground because the Arkansas River is stressing the city's old levee system.
Earlier Sunday, another tornado destroyed several buildings and downed trees and power lines in the Tulsa suburb of Sapulpa, 110 miles northeast of El Reno. Pete Snyder, of the National Weather Service's office in Tulsa, said crews were assessing damage to determine the tornado's rating.
The Sapulpa Police Department said on its Facebook page that it hadn't heard of any deaths and that only a few minor injuries had been reported.
In El Reno, emergency crews sifted through the rubble at the trailer park and motel, where the second story collapsed.
Tweety Garrison, 63, said she was in her mobile home with her husband, two young grandchildren and a family friend when she heard the storm arriving. She said she immediately hit the ground, and moments later she heard her neighbor's mobile home slam into hers. It then flipped over and landed on her roof.
Garrison said she received a tornado warning on her phone but that the sirens didn't go off until after the twister hit.
Her 32-year-old son, Elton Garrison, said he heard the wailing tornado sirens and had just laid down at home about a half-mile away when his phone rang. He recognized his mother's number, he said, but there was no voice on the other end when he answered.
"I thought, 'That's weird,'" he said.
Then his mother called back and said, "We're trapped."
He said that when he arrived at his parents' home, he found it blocked by debris. The other trailer sat on top of it. He said he cleared a path to the home and eventually lifted a portion of an outside wall just enough so all five occupants could slip beneath it and escape.
Information for this article was contributed by David Aguilar and Jamie Stengle of The Associated Press.
A Section on 05/27/2019