By Joey McWilliams
BRYAN COUNTY – Early summer storms blew through Bryan County on Friday night and again on Sunday night, with strong winds and rain and left many with damage and without power for hours afterward.
Spotters on the job late Friday night and into Saturday morning estimated straight line winds west of Bokchito at more than 60 miles per hour.
The winds blew down some trees and snapped others and sent branches of all sizes throughout the area.
Several branches hit power lines causing power outages in the early hours of Saturday morning, leaving county residents without power, some until late into Saturday evening.
Lightning and more storms resulted in more outages on Sunday evening.
Karen Kurtz, spokesperson for OG&E, said the damage from the wind and trees was significant.
“And we do have crews working and we hope to have everyone restored by this afternoon, if nothing else moves in,” Kurtz said. “I think they’re predicting storms for later on tonight.”
Kurtz said the outages began about 10 p.m. on Friday and continued through 10 p.m. on Saturday with new outages beginning at 7:45 on Sunday morning.
The total affected by the outages during those three days was about 3,100 customers.
Today, outages began around 1 p.m. and we’re still working on restoration,” Kurtz said.
Throughout the OG&E coverage era, it was estimated that at the peak of the outages during the weekend was 6,770 at midnight on Saturday morning. The high number in Bryan County was about 1,900.
County residents had much to clean up along the way and Durant street crews worked through the night and early Saturday morning hours to make sure roads were passable for local traffic.
And the Fraternal Order of Police assisted many elderly citizens that could not clean large branches out of their yards.