'Just a building.' Families, officials assess damage after tornadoes in central Oklahoma

NOBLE — Linda Edmondson, 72, was looking forward to celebrating her 54th wedding anniversary in late May. After decades in customer service, she retired, along with her husband, Bill, 79, to a property they’d long owned near Main Street and Etowah Road.

Plans for the immediate future grew more complicated after Thursday night, when a tornado touched down just south of Norman and forced the smaller Cleveland County community’s 7,000 residents to take shelter.

“To me, I didn’t hear a roar or anything; it just sounded like heavy rain, and then a lot of pressure, like when you hurt your ears,” Linda Edmondson told The Oklahoman. “So, I ran to my little dining room more in the center of the house, because in an 800-square-foot house, you don’t have much place to go. And I heard this loud bang, and then it was over.”

Flashlight in hand, Bill Edmondson stepped outside to find damage to their house’s roof. And the ceiling and walls of a decades-old workshop garage in their backyard had almost been completely stripped away by the wind.

“The sad part: We don’t have insurance on it,” Linda Edmondson said.

More: See photos, videos of tornadoes across Oklahoma shared by storm chasers and witnesses

At least 8 tornados tore across Oklahoma on Thursday night

The tornado that passed along Noble’s Main Street late Thursday was one of at least eight reported tornadoes in central Oklahoma that night, according to the National Weather Service in Norman.

Meteorologists confirmed “EF1” tornado damage Friday afternoon both in Noble and just southeast of Cole, indicating that wind gusts could have reached upward of 110 miles per hour.

Surveyors also were assessing likely tornado tracks in Bridge Creek, Dibble, Maud, Newcastle, and areas near Lake Thunderbird and Rush Springs.

“The number will probably change over the next few days,” said Erin Maxwell, a meteorologist with the Norman forecast office. “Hopefully we’ll have some better ratings on at least a few of them by the end of (Friday), but we’ll keep looking at them and seeing what people send in to us, as well.”

Noble, Cole residents report damage to buildings

For David Knight, who lives in the small McClain County town of Washington within 10 miles of Cole, the rating of the tornado’s intensity didn’t matter much.

Friday morning, a boat was flipped over into a mobile home on his property, with heavy damage to the roof and debris from trees scattered nearby.

“It hit us last night, just around 8:30, I guess,” Knight told The Oklahoman. “It did quite a bit of damage. It was just a small tornado, but it hit us and missed this (nearby) house and missed the house next over.”

“It just picked on us,” Knight said with a laugh.

McClain County, and Cole especially, had already been devastated by a similar tornado on April 19, which killed at least 3 people and destroyed several homes, farms and a wedding venue.

But despite several tornadoes throughout central Oklahoma Thursday, officials reported no deaths in the state from the severe storms.

Another home near Main Street and Etowah Road in Noble took extensive damage to its roof. The people living there reported no injuries, authorities said.

In Noble, damage from Thursday’s tornado was concentrated in the block of North Main Street. The block was closed off to traffic so crews could repair power lines. Heavy wind had stripped away parts of the roofs over Donut Palace and Shaggy Chic Pet Spaw N Boutique next door.

Loyd Superette, a nearby convenience store in Noble, saw significant damage to its roof and the canopy over its fuel station pumps. Another store, the Super C Mart, also was hit hard.

“I know Super C is going to have to redo the whole roof,” said Noble Fire Chief Phill Scott. “It had a big hole opening in it, so there was a lot of debris on the inside and on their aisles, and they had a lot of groceries scattered everywhere.”

No deaths or injuries reported, but communities still feeling shaken

Scott said that the grocery store was closed by the time of the tornado and that employees and management had left about 15 minutes before it hit the area.

“We have no injuries to report,” Scott said. “All of the businesses were closed, except for the Loyd’s convenience store. We’re still not sure if there were four people or two people inside of it at the time, but we still have no report of any injuries.”

No one at the Edmondson home was hurt, either. And to the couple about to celebrate 54 years of marriage in two weeks, that’s what really matters.

“It’s just a building,” Bill Edmondson said of the shop that once sat in his backyard that he’d built back in the 1970s. “Yeah, there’s a lot of history with it, but it’s family that you can’t replace.”

'I've lost everything': Norman widow survives tornado but loses home of nearly 60 years

Linda Edmondson said, thanks to a garage sale earlier in the week, they’d recently sold many antiques, dishes and tables they’d stored in the shop, but that several of the other items they’d hoped to donate in the following week were now too water damaged.

But to her amazement, many work tools were still hanging off the walls of what remained of the shop after Thursday’s tornado, and a miniature plastic American flag was still wedged in a sign above one of the shop’s doors.

“I think the fact that the flag is still there means a lot,” Linda Edmondson said. “This’ll all work out.”

Contributing: The Oklahoman's Doug Hoke

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Tornadoes in Oklahoma leave damage in Noble, Cole