Mulhall Residents Remember Twister a Decade Later

By Doug Warner, NEWS 9

MULHALL, Oklahoma -- A decade after a tornado tore through their town, Mulhall residents are still grateful to have survived.

Much of the Logan County town was flattened May 3, 1999 after an F-4 tornado rolled through in the dark of night.

John Pangburn was the mayor of Mulhall at the time. He, his wife Wanda and a dozen others took shelter in an underground cellar inside his home.

"You could hear the windows breaking out," he said.

But not everyone went underground. Catherine Harris never made it to her cellar. The arthritis in her knees kept her from making the steep climb down her cellar stairs.

"When I heard the tornado coming, I was really praying," she said. "I went to bed and I covered up good. I had pillows over my head."

The tornado engulfed Mulhall and knocked down the town's water tower.

"I felt the house come up, but I didn't feel it come down," Harris said.

Harris' house came about 20 feet off its foundation. No one knows if the winds for the water rushing from the water town picked up the house.

Harris later learned the rush of water had flooded her cellar, and her house had landed on her cellar doors.  Had she actually been able to make it underground she likely would have drown.

"Well, I just always thought the Lord took care of me," she said.