A likely tornado destroyed a motel, swept through a nearby mobile home park and caused significant damage in the Oklahoma City area, according to the National Weather Service.
Meteorologist Rick Smith in Norman told The Associated Press that the suspected twister hit El Reno on Saturday night as a powerful storm system rolled through the state. Crews were expected to arrive on the scene Sunday to determine the severity of the damage to the town located just west of Oklahoma City.
The American Budget Value Inn was destroyed by the storm. Images from the scene showed emergency crews sifting through rubble after part of the motel's second story collapsed into a pile of debris strewn about the first floor and parking lot. Elsewhere, overturned cars and twisted metal could be seen briefly as intermittent lightning flashed across the sky and the wailing sirens of approaching emergency vehicles were heard in the distance.
Emergency workers search through debris from a mobile home park, Sunday, May 26, 2019, in El Reno, Ok., following a likely tornado touchdown late Saturday night. (AP PhotoSue Ogrocki)
Trailers at the Skyview Estates mobile home park adjacent to the motel also were damaged, as was part of a nearby car dealership.
"We have absolutely experienced a traumatic event," El Reno Mayor Matt White said during a news conference early Sunday.
White said several people were transported to hospitals in Oklahoma City, but did not give an exact number. No information was immediately available about possible fatalities.
"We're doing a search and rescue right now ... we have all hands on deck," White said.
Tweety Garrison, 63, told The Associated Press early Sunday that she was inside her mobile home — along with her husband, two young grandchildren and a family friend — when the storm hit. Garrison said when she heard the storm coming she immediately hit the ground. Moments later, she said, she heard the mobile home next door slam into hers, before it flipped over and landed on her roof.
Garrison said the incident lasted five to 10 minutes. She said there was a tornado warning on her phone but the sirens did not go off until after tornado hit.
Garrison's 32-year-old son, Elton, said he'd heard the wailing tornado sirens and had just laid down at home about a half-mile (.8 kilometer) away when his phone rang. He recognized his mother's number, but there was no voice on the other end when he answered. "I thought, 'That's weird,'" Elton Garrison said.
Then his mother called back, and delivered a chilling message: "We're trapped."
Elton said when he arrived at his parent's home, he found it blocked by debris and sitting with another trailer on top of it. He immediately began clearing a path to the home so that he could eventually lift a portion of an outside wall just enough so that all five occupants could slip beneath it and escape.
"My parents were in there and two of my kids, one 9 and the other 12 ... my main emotion was fear," Garrison said, who has lived in El Reno for about 26 years. "I couldn't get them out of there quick enough."
Garrison said he was not alarmed by the warning sirens when he first heard them at home. "We hear them all the time here, so it didn't seem like a big deal ... I heard a lot of rain with the wind. But when it kinda got calm all of a sudden, that's when it didn't feel right."
Garrison, whose sport utility vehicle remained at the mobile park early Sunday because the area had since been cordoned off by authorities, said his parents had only recently recovered after losing their previous home to a fire a few years ago.
"Now this," he said, before expressing gratitude that everyone inside his parents' home had emerged without serious injury.
In the next breath, Garrison added: "Items can be replaced. Lives cant."
Associated Press photographer Sue Ogrocki contributed to this report.
TOKYO (AP) — The American envoy to the United Nations called Friday for countries armed with atomic weapons to pursue nuclear disarmament as she visited the atomic bomb museum in Nagasaki, Japan.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who became the first U.S. cabinet member to visit Nagasaki, stressed the importance of dialogue and diplomacy amid a growing nuclear threat in the region.
“We must continue to work together to create an environment for nuclear disarmament. We must continue to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in every corner of the world,” she said after a tour of the atomic bomb museum.
“For those of us who already have those weapons, we must pursue arms control. We can and must work to ensure that Nagasaki is the last place to ever experience the horror of nuclear weapons,” she added, standing in front of colorful hanging origami cranes, a symbol of peace.
The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. A second attack three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.
Nagasaki Gov. Kengo Oishi said in a statement that he believed Thomas-Greenfield's visit and her first-person experience at the museum “will be a strong message in promoting momentum of nuclear disarmament for the international society at a time the world faces a severe environment surrounding atomic weapons.”
Oishi said he conveyed to the ambassador the increasingly important role of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in emphasizing the need of nuclear disarmament.
Thomas-Greenfield's visit to Japan comes on the heels of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's official visit to the United States last week and is aimed at deepening Washington's trilateral ties with Tokyo and Seoul. During her visit to South Korea earlier this week, she held talks with South Korean officials, met with defectors from North Korea and visited the demilitarized zone.
The ambassador said the United States is looking into setting up a new mechanism for monitoring North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Russia and China have thwarted U.S.-led efforts to step up U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile testing since 2022, underscoring a deepening divide between permanent Security Council members over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
She said it would be “optimal” to launch the new system next month, though it is uncertain if that is possible.
The U.N. Security Council established a committee to monitor sanctions, and the mandate for its panel of experts to investigate violations had been renewed for 14 years until last month, when Russia vetoed another renewal.
In its most recent report, the panel of experts said it is investigating 58 suspected North Korean cyberattacks between 2017 and 2023 valued at approximately $3 billion, with the money reportedly being used to help fund its weapons development.
The United States, Japan and South Korea have been deepening security ties amid growing tension in the region from North Korea and China.
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, speaks to Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, second right, as they wait for a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, right, walk to meet Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, talk prior to a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, prepare to talk during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
