Cole, Shawnee, OBU reeling after tornadoes tear across Oklahoma this week

A series of tornadoes battered central Oklahoma on Wednesday night, leaving three dead and countless devastated.

“Everyone talks about, ‘you’ll buy a new car, you’ll buy a new house,’” said Larry Paul Bridwell, 48, of Cole, standing in front of the remnants of two homes that had been passed down through his family for decades. “I don’t want any of that. I want my house. These can’t be replaced.”

Late in the afternoon Wednesday, thunderstorms formed a long line across Oklahoma and quickly worsened. According to preliminary reports from the National Weather Service in Norman, these supercells produced large hail 1-3 inches in diameter and at least eight tornadoes.

One strong and damaging tornado killed three people in McClain County near the town of Cole. More tornadoes occurred near Tinker Air Force Base, Etowah, Pink, Bethel Acres and Shawnee.

See the damage: Before, after satellite photos show tornado damage in Cole

Weather Service teams are conducting storm damage surveys in and near Cole, the Shawnee-Bethel Acres area, the Etowah-Pink-Stella area, and near Lake Stanley Draper.

Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, attended by 1,399 students, many of whom were sheltering in basements across campus as the storm passed Wednesday night, was littered with trees and building debris Thursday morning.

OBU President Heath Thomas said it’s the worst natural disaster the university has experienced, and he’s thankful for the help that has come to campus. Some students were displaced by the storms, and classroom and residential buildings alike were without power, along with much of Shawnee.

“OBU has a wide array of public and private partners in the community and around the state,” Thomas said in a statement. “Because of that, several architects, construction firms, engineers, disaster relief specialists and remediation experts have volunteered their time to serve in our OBU community to ensure that we have a safe and secure campus.”

Classes are suspended for the remainder of the week, but the university still intends to hold final exams for the semester as planned, though things could be moved online, officials said.

More: See what tornadoes in Cole, Shawnee and other storms look like across Oklahoma

Shawnee homes and businesses affected

In view of OBU’s campus, just south of Midland Street, homeowner J.T. Langham surveyed the neighborhood as fellow resident Justin Bone hauled downed tree branches and sheet metal to the curb away from neighbors' homes.

Langham and his family rode the storm out in their cellar, which had begun to take on water, for 30-45 minutes.

“I think a lot of the roar was deadened being in there,” Langham said. “It wasn’t probably the freight train that it felt like to them because they were in a hallway, our neighbors to the west of us.”

South of the OBU campus, near the intersection of Kickapoo and Federal streets, the Shawnee Colonial Estates Nursing and Rehabilitation Center took damage to all three wings of its building. The center’s storage buildings were destroyed, while the old cinder-block Humpty Dumpty building next door had toppled.

The location, which houses 79 seniors, was evacuated within seven hours of the storm. Residents were sent to five different locations across the state while damage is assessed and repaired, administrator Karen Phelps said.

“Obviously, we're wanting to get them back as fast as we can, because they're used to us,” Phelps said.

More: Storm damage? These groups offering cleanup, shelter assistance resources in Oklahoma

Shawnee Public Schools damaged, but students safe

Like OBU, Shawnee Public Schools also experienced damage from Wednesday night's storms.

District Superintendent April Grace said a gymnasium the district used for wrestling duels and similar events was destroyed. A tornado safe room big enough to hold the district's entire student population right next door was OK. However, it was not in use last night, given schools were out for the day.

"It was good to know that if we had needed it, it worked exactly like you would hope a safe room would act," Grace said.

Grace said Shawnee's high school campus also was significantly damaged, its baseball complex, press box at the football stadium, an alternative school and small animal ag barn also were destroyed while all of Shawnee's buses but four or five were damaged.

Shawnee's other buildings were damaged to lesser degrees.

Grace said classes for Shawnee students are canceled for the remainder of the week while she and her staff assess what might be possible, based on how many buildings it can use and how easy it will be for its buses to operate.

As for a lack of usable buses, Grace said an abundance of other districts are offering vehicles to Shawnee to use.

"We have got a lot of friends out in the education community and it is just a matter of us figuring out what we need," Grace said.

Losses in Cole include 3 lives, numerous homes, wedding venue

Meanwhile, in Cole — a small McClain County community of about 600 people — a family carrying the well-known name of a local farmer is reeling from the devastation of two houses they’d owned for decades.

Larry Paul Bridwell, his wife, Robbie, their 17-year-old daughter, Taylor, and Bridwell’s mother, Paula, all survived a tornado that struck their block on May Avenue on Wednesday night by hunkering in a storm shelter above ground next to Paula’s garage.

“I honestly thought it was going to be the end of us,” Robbie Bridwell said. “It lasted for a long time. It was more like six minutes, eight minutes, and then it stopped, and then it started again. So, it just kept coming, and I kept praying and praying that God would protect us.”

By the time the Bridwells emerged from the shelter, they found both Paula’s house and Larry Paul’s house next-door had been almost completely ravaged.

“My husband first opened the (shelter) door and then slammed it shut right back,” Robbie Bridwell said. “He didn’t want us to see it yet.”

Walls had caved in, ceilings had been ripped off, windows had been smashed and doors had been blown away. It was as if a path had torn through the core of both homes.

“It was my grandpa’s house,” Larry Paul Bridwell said of the home he’d moved into 15 years ago. “He built it. But after he passed away, I couldn’t see anyone else living in it. I bought it and moved into it because I wanted to keep it in the family, but now it’s gone.”

Residents from surrounding areas helped the Bridwells begin surveying and cleaning up the damage, including volunteers from Blanchard Church of Christ. Among the workers was Kent Reynolds, 60, of Tuttle, Larry Paul Bridwell’s brother-in-law, who was hauling piles of debris away from his mother-in-law’s house Thursday.

“It amazes me, you walk through this house, all of the closets are intact, but the rest of the rooms are gone and there’s no ceiling above them,” Reynolds said. “She had just put in new windows, and a back door last weekend, I think. But the family is all safe, and that’s the main thing.”

More: What to do if you've got hail or wind damage to your home or car

'It’s just mind-boggling'

Across the street from the Bridwells, what was once a mill and feed store formerly owned by the family years ago had since been converted into a wedding venue. But it, too, was no longer standing after Wednesday night.

Dahl and Kimber Hendrickson, both 57, hid in manholes under a drive-over weight scale at their own residence near the Bridwells'. When the Hendricksons felt the tornado had finally passed, they left the manholes to find Scissortail Silos, a next-door event center where the owners had hosted weddings since 2018, had nearly blown away.

Side walls in the front of the event center had toppled inward, with an “EXIT” sign dangling and nearly touching the concrete floor. Beams that had once supported the ceiling had crashed atop tables inside, and wooden planks and glass shards were scattered throughout what once was the entrance.

“It’s just mind-boggling,” Kimber Hendrickson said. “I’ve got 40-something brides to call.”

A young woman from outside of the state had planned to hold a wedding at Scissortail Silos this Saturday, the Hendricksons said, and she’d kept her wedding dress there. Even despite the tornado’s destruction of the venue, cleanup crews in the area managed to find it and hoped to return it to her.

The Hendricksons couldn’t explain why the venue’s bar, located in the back of the event center behind another door and its wall, remained virtually untouched, aside from a shelf and its glass jars. Even the bar room’s windows and mounted television showed no damage.

“I guess God knew I’d need vodka after something like this,” Kimber Hendrickson said with a laugh.

More: Shawnee and Cole residents clean up after tornadoes hit

The Hendricksons retired after a quarter of a century spent working for Oklahoma’s prison system, and had invested in several other businesses throughout central Oklahoma. But the Scissortail Silos was something Kimber Hendrickson had poured her heart and soul into, said 45-year-old Kambrie Shannon, an extended relative who came Thursday volunteering to help them and the neighboring Bridwells.

“She loved this,” Shannon said. “It was so beautiful, and such a wonderful place where people could go outside of the metropolitan area. She really wanted to help people with it. It’s heartbreaking.”

The Bridwells and the Hendricksons said the community response from Cole and nearby Blanchard has been immense, but they still aren’t certain how to move forward.

“I don’t know what to say,” Larry Paul Bridwell said. “Everyone has been very nice, but I just want my house back.”

Dahl Hendrickson doesn’t believe they’ll rebuild the wedding venue, but his wife said she thinks it might actually be for the best.

“I’d been thinking to myself, I’ve got too many projects,” Kimber Hendrickson said. “Maybe this is God’s way of telling me I need to slow down. I really don’t know.”

OBU student: ‘It looks like a warzone’

Students and staff could be found milling about the OBU campus Thursday morning, surveying the damage to their beloved Bison Hill, a nickname for the state’s Baptist four-year college campus.

Standing outside the iconic Raley Chapel, in awe of an uprooted tree whose root system was taller than them, were freshmen Kylee Mitchell and Ruby Dilts, both 19. Mitchell and Dilts spent Wednesday night in the basement of the WMU Memorial Dormitory, along with other residents as the storm passed over.

Both said they mostly just heard thunder and lightning, unaware of what kind of damage was taking place just outside.

“It kind of looks like a warzone,” Mitchell said as she and her friends were walking around campus Thursday morning.

The 108-year-old Raley Chapel, the first permanent building on OBU’s campus, was without some of its stained glass windows and part of its roof after the storm.

Other buildings that sustained the most damage were the Bailey Business Center and Shawnee Hall, both of which house many classrooms.

“We've sheltered a couple times before and nothing happened, so I wasn't really expecting any damage,” Dilts said. “And then you see the branches everywhere and pieces of metal and shingles … every building has enough damage that you're like, ‘Oh, what are we going to do the rest of the year?’”

Power has been out on campus since the storm went through, so the students are having to conserve electronic batteries where they can.

Buildings damaged, but school can ‘rebuild’

Hayden Cunningham, a 22-year-old OBU senior and a resident assistant in the freshmen boy’s Agee dorm, said he and other residents were sheltering in the basement when the storm came through.

Cunningham said besides a lot of busted windows and some fallen trees, the dorm building fared pretty well compared to other buildings on campus.

“All of a sudden, the wind just picked up and we heard doors fly open … one of the doors on the floor above us just got ripped off and thrown down the hall,” Cunningham said.

Caleb Griffin, a 22-year-old OBU senior, lives off campus but rushed over to take shelter in Raley Chapel, along with many other students and members of the community.

“We heard wind, lightning, thunder,” Griffin said. “And then I've heard people on the news before, like, ‘Oh, it sounded like a freight train,’ and it did.”

Griffin, who was surveying campus with some friends Thursday morning, said he’s confident OBU can “rebuild.” Looking at Shawnee Hall, which sustained damage to the roof and windows, Griffin recalled that the 108-year-old building was damaged in 1964 in a suicide plane crash.

OBU student’s car under tree after tornado

OBU freshman Kate Conrad was doing her homework in her dorm on campus when the tornado threat came in. She and others were evacuated to the basement by the resident assistants.

“We’ve done this a couple of times so I don’t think any of us were really worried about it,” she said. “They kept telling us to get closer and scoot away from the outside doors and then we could hear the tornado going over because our ears started popping and we could hear things outside breaking.”

Among the things breaking were trees, seen splintered and uprooted across Shawnee, one of which landed atop Conrad’s car.

“Insurance will hopefully cover a lot of it so I’m not too worried about it, it’s just a really weird situation to be in,” Conrad said.

Contributing: The Oklahoman's Jack Money

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Shawnee, Cole tornado damage devastates community, Oklahoma Baptist