Residents in Midwest City picking up pieces after storm

MIDWEST CITY, Okla. (KFOR) — The metro spent the day picking up the pieces after a severe storm ripped through the area Tuesday night.

The intense rain, wind and hail left a trail of damage tearing up homes, tipping over campers and plunging tens of thousands of families into darkness with no electricity.

A tree at least 60 feet tall uprooted in the front yard gave one resident in Midwest City a scare, and says if his tree would have fell the other direction onto his house, he probably wouldn't be alive today.

"I was concerned, I was glad it fell where it did," Jim Dixon, resident in Midwest City who suffered storm damage said.

Dixon says he was woken up by the storm with winds reaching 80 mph, knocking down powerlines and even uprooting 40-plus year old trees.

"My phone rang about midnight and my neighbor across the street said, 'have you seen your front yard?' And I said, no, let's take a look at it," Dixon said. "I got up, turned the light on and that's what I've seen."

One of the two trees he planted in his front yard nearly 50 years ago, gutted and laying on its side.

"I figured those trees were good for another 10 or 15 years," Dixon said.

He wasn't the only one in awe after the storm passed through.

"We have a lot of crazy storms here, but that was the first one that we felt shaking the house," said Isaiah Cutler, resident in Midwest City who suffered storm damage.

Cutler says the storm started like a normal Oklahoma storm, but then it picked up.

"Then eventually the thunder started rolling in, and later in the night, we heard a massive bang," Cutler said. "I guess it was that over there."

While both men are thankful that no one got hurt, Dixon says he is worried about his other tree moving forward.

"I'm concerned about the other tree and because it lost some limbs over on the west side," said Dixon. "So, it's wide on that side and it's heavy on this side. In another storm, if it falls, it's going to fall on the house."

They have started the process of cleaning up, but said it may take a few days, just like many other areas across the metro that were hit hard by the storms Tuesday night.