By Daniel Lapham/Staff Writer

After a tumultuous week of weather including flooded streets and sewers and tornadic winds sweeping through El Reno, the sun is beginning to shine.

Ty Judd, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Norman, said on Friday the flood watch over Canadian County was dropped on Thursday and the area should begin drying out over the weekend thanks to sun and warm temperatures.

“Keep in mind, though, that there could still be some flash flood possibilities,” Judd said. “We’ve gotten a lot of rain in the past several days. It is not going to magically go away.”

So flooding is still a possibility for next week with a possibility of more rain in the forecast for Tuesday, he said.

“It just depends on how much and how fast it falls,” Judd said.
The biggest obstacle for residents and business owners is the damage left be-hind by a tornado that plowed through businesses Tuesday night. That tornado focused its energy in the area between South Shepard Avenue, South Choctaw Avenue, Elm Street and West Jensen Road, said El Reno Police Capt. Ken Brown.

From the moment tornado sirens went off, emergency management personnel and city workers sprung into action, said Robert Coleman, who serves as emergency management director as well as community development director.

As of Friday, Coleman said crews had cleaned up a majority of the debris.

“We have a lot of the streets cleared,” he said. “Canadian County sent us a lot of help on this, that has made the clean-up much faster than it would have been without them. Most of the remaining problem areas still lie in the industrial areas and on private property,” Coleman said.

“All of the stuff on private property will need to be moved to the side of the road until we can do anything with it,” he said.

If property owners will move their debris as close to the road as they can without it blocking the streets, city crews can pick it up, Coleman said. Owners also can drop limbs off at the Oklahoma Environmental Management Authority, 1505 S. Rock Island Ave., or at the Canadian County fairgrounds, 1401 W. Foreman Road from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Photo identification and a current trash bill must be presented at the time of delivery, Coleman said.
Any disabled or elderly person needing assistance in moving debris should contact the City of El Reno Public Works Department at 262-4070 ext. 224.

Businesses suffering the most damage were Dexter Axle, Exiss Trailers, Gemini Coatings and Heritage Press, Coleman said. All have halted production, he said.

“We’ve estimated that more than 100 structures sustained some type of wind damage,” he said. “There is no way to estimate the dollar amount of damage at this point. We are going to be interviewing at least 120 property owners to see if they have insurance or if they don’t and to determine what the damages are. The commercial areas are especially difficult because when dealing with equipment, it is tough to get an exact estimate this soon.”

Others suffering damage include Diffee Ford-Lincoln-Mercury, Interstate 40 at south U.S. Highway 81, which suffered damage to several cars and destroyed a number of trucks along with one of their sales offices.

Employees of the J & K Restaurant on east state Highway 66 reported to work Wednesday to find broken glass and chairs thrown about the business.