Winds shred Southern Plains; California to see more snow
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Parts of the Southern Plains counted the injured and surveyed the damage Monday after tornadoes and other powerful winds swept through, while some Michigan residents faced a fifth consecutive day without power following last week’s ice storm.
Thunderstorms were forecast Monday to produce damaging gusts across the Ohio Valley, according to the Storm Prediction Center. At least a few tornadoes were possible, especially in Ohio. The weather service forecast strong winds Monday in Kansas and Missouri, with gusts topping 60 mph (96 kph).
Officials in Norman, Oklahoma, confirmed 12 weather-related injuries after tornadoes and wind gusts as high as 90 mph were reported in the state Sunday night. The winds toppled trees and power lines, closed roads and damaged homes and businesses around Norman, Shawnee and Cheyenne.
The line of quick-moving thunderstorms that produced a swath of damaging wind gusts across likely qualified as a derecho, although that’s not an official designation, said Nolan Meister, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
Meister said a wind gust of 114 mph was recorded in Texas, with gusts between 70 and 90 mph in central Oklahoma.
“It hit real hard in about 20 minutes and it was gone,” said Cindy Woodard, city secretary in the Texas Panhandle city of Memphis, about 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Amarillo, where the 114 mph gust was recorded.
More than 76,000 customers lost power in Oklahoma, but most had it restored by Monday morning, Oklahoma’s Office of Emergency Management reported.
There were reports of nine tornadoes in Kansas, Oklahoma and northwestern Texas, weather officials said.
Blizzard warnings went into effect Monday in the Sierra Nevada range as more rounds of rain and snow moved into California.
East of Los Angeles, all roads to San Bernardino Mountain resort communities around Big Bear Lake remained closed because of last week’s huge snowfall.
Suburban Santa Clarita, in hills north of Los Angeles, received its first significant snowfall since 1989.
“We went outside and we let our sons play in the snow,” Cesar Torres told the Santa Clarita Signal. “We figured, while the snow’s there, might as well make a snowman out of it.”
In Michigan, still reeling from last week’s ice storm and high winds, more than 180,000 customers were without power Monday, according to PowerOutage.us. That was down from more than 800,000 at one point last week. Crews continued their work to restore all electricity.
Leah Thomas, whose home north of Detroit lost power Wednesday night, finally got her power back Sunday afternoon — only to have it go out again at midday Monday.
“It’s very frustrating, very frustrating,” she said. “I’m just going to hope and cross my fingers that it comes back on here soon.”