Big Storms Hit OK, Thousands WIthout Power

A major complex of thunderstorms developed late Tuesday over north-central Oklahoma from Enid to Woodward and then drifted slowly to the southeast, dumping nearly 2 inches of rain in Oklahoma City.

Golfball-sized hail and wind gusts of up to 67 mph were reported in Woodward, where several power lines were damaged, said Ty Judd, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Norman.

Another band of storms pushed from the Oklahoma-Texas Panhandle region into southwest Oklahoma, where wind gusts of between 65 and 75 mph were reported. Lawton received 2½ inches of rain.

At the peak of the storm, about 15,000 customers of Public Service Company of Oklahoma, most of those in the Tulsa area, were without power, said PSO spokesman Ed Bettinger. Tulsa received nearly three-quarters of an inch of rain.