Cushing Cleaning Up After 98 Mph Winds Tore Through City

Uprooted trees, downed powerlines and damaged homes: Cushing is cleaning up after wind gusts of nearly 100 mph whipped through the city over the weekend.

Gusts of up to 98 mph hit Cushing during a storm Saturday night, toppling trees onto structures and exposing businesses to the elements.

"We had some roofs that were actually taken off of commercial properties," said Cushing City Manager Terry Brannon. 

News 9 saw homes that suffered roof damage as well. At one residence, a large tree smashed into a carport and just missed hitting the house.

"Extremely, extremely heavy winds with a lot of roaring noise, a lot of trees that were bending over in my particular neighborhood," said Brannon. "At one time, my glass began to flex back and forth."

In addition, the storm knocked out power for a large portion of the city.

"When the event first began, we were about 60 to 65 percent of people without electricity. We brought that number down to 10 percent (Sunday)," Brannon said.

Brannon said crews from the Grand River Dam Authority and Edmond assisted the city with restoring power.

Despite the damage, there were no reported injuries or deaths in Cushing, Brannon said.

"Given the severity of the event, I thought we were extremely fortunate and blessed as a community," Brannon added.

The next step for the city is to help clear the debris.

"We already got a vegetation management plan set up and we will release that information (Tuesday) to allow people to deal with the vegetation," said Brannon. "And we're also working on a construction debris (plan), if you will, like shingles and tin and wood."