Claremore Daily Progress

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June 12, 2009

<b><font color=red>UPDATE — </b></font color>Storm causes some damage in county, Claremore

By Krystal J. Carman

June 12, 2009 — Approximately 2,500 Claremore homes and businesses were without power during a powerful storm that hit Rogers County Friday morning.

The storm hit around 10:20 a.m. bringing with it some cloud rotation along with 80 mph winds that caused some damages in Claremore and Inola.

According to Stan Whiteford with Public Service Company of Oklahoma, approximately 50 to 60 customers in the Inola area were without power following the storm.

Cassie Sowers with the City of Claremore stated customers outages peaked at 2,500. In the 11 o’clock hour, Sowers stated there were still 1,500 customers without power and that Claremore Electric crews were still working to restore power.

Rogers County Emergency Management Director Bob Anderson was watching the storm from a camera atop the roof of the County Courthouse.

“It helped that (temperatures) were too cool here because the rotation could have dropped down here at any second,” Anderson said. “This is the perfect example of tornado formation. The inflow and outflow built up here and then went on to Jay where a tornado dropped down.”

Damage has been limited to some power lines down and tree limbs in the roadway, as well as one tree uprooted at 320 6th Street and sign and building damage at Nemar Center. The rear window of a mini-van parked near the sign damaged at Nemar was blown out as well.

Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton reported some power poles leaning near Highway 88 and Lowry and old Highway 88 and Blue Starr.

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