Severe storms with tornado warnings tore across northern Oklahoma late Saturday, ripping down utility poles, shredding large tree limbs and leaving scattered structural damage in their wake across Kay and Noble counties. Emergency crews hustled through the night to push debris off roads and get power lines back in service, as residents from Tonkawa to Blackwell and Newkirk woke up Sunday to blocked streets, drooping wires and patchy outages.
National Weather Service Logs Newkirk Damage
The National Weather Service logged preliminary local storm reports of tree and power pole damage in Newkirk and other parts of Kay County on Saturday night, with time stamps around 7:57 p.m. local time. The National Weather Service said the details came in from emergency managers and reflect early on-the-ground observations as formal damage surveys get underway.
US-177 Closed After Poles Snapped, Troopers Say
State troopers told KOCO that roughly three miles of power lines and poles were knocked down on US-177 between Hubbard Road and South Avenue, forcing a road closure that officials expect to last a couple of days. The Kay County Sheriff's Office also reported downed lines between Tonkawa and Blackwell as crews fanned out for quick surveys. KOCO's storm-chase team shared images of tree damage and some structure damage near Marland in neighboring Noble County.
Outages, Clean-up And Safety Reminders
PowerOutage.com's map showed around 550 to 575 Kay County customers without electricity in the immediate aftermath of the storms. PowerOutage.com listed Kay County among the hardest hit counties in Oklahoma during morning checks. Ponca City officials said on social channels that utility crews and first responders were working to restore power and clear tree limbs from streets, and the city pointed residents to its website for outage-reporting tools.
With multiple broken poles to fix, troopers warned that the US-177 shutdown will likely snarl travel in parts of Kay County into midweek, and utility crews cautioned that power restorations could take time where equipment was heavily damaged. Authorities urged anyone with storm damage or outage information to contact their local utilities and to steer clear of blocked or debris-clogged roads while cleanup continues.
