EDMONTON- The U.S. National Weather Service issued a tornado emergency for the Oklahoma City metropolitan area Friday evening.
Tornadoes rolled in from the prairie and slammed Oklahoma City and its suburbs. The broad storm hit during the evening rush hour, causing havoc on Interstate 40, a major artery connecting suburbs east and west of the city.
The storm happened while the Oklahoma City Barons, the Edmonton Oilers farm team, were getting ready to hit the ice for their pre-game warm up. But, the warm up and the game was postponed.
“It looks like a tornado is coming right in our direction at the moment, so they told us about 20 minutes ago to leave the arena bowl and we’re hunkered down in the parking garage now, where everybody who was in the building is, including all the players,” Ryan Dittrick, a writer for edmontonoilers.com who is in Oklahoma City to cover the game, explained over the phone Friday night.
Dittrick said there were about 2,000 to 3,000 people in the garage, including fans, arena staff and players.
“I just had a chance to speak with some of the Barons players. Travis Ewanyk, who played for the Oil Kings, he was like ‘wow, this is pretty crazy isn’t it?’ I think we’re all a little bit nervous, but we also know we’re in probably the safest place in the building.”
The weather has been ‘weird’ all day, according to Dittrick, who says he’d been paying close attention to the local weather broadcasts all day.
“It was really sticky in the air, humid, it just felt like there was rain coming at the time. But, it’s been a very, very hot day,” he said. “We were speaking with some of the staff of the Barons and they made it clear that the Cox Convention Center, the arena that the Barons play at, is one of the safest places to be.”
Dittrick says they were relying on the locals to help keep their nerves at bay.
“They have a pretty good calming influence because they’ve been here before and they know how to deal with situations like this.”
He arrived in Oklahoma City on Sunday, to cover the series between the Barons and Grand Rapids Griffiths, just six days after a tornado ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, killing 24 people and injuring hundreds.
The power went out in the parking garage for a brief moment before Dittrick and the others were allowed out, shortly before 7:00 p.m. Edmonton time.
“Some of the arena staff came down and said the storm had passed … And it was going to be safe to go back into the arena,” Dittrick said over the phone Friday night. “There was a little bit of celebration, a little bit of cheer that went after that from everybody down there.”
Dittrick says the arena staff were well prepared for the incident and crews have already begun cleaning up the facility, which suffered quite a bit of flood damage.
“It sounded like there was water pouring in from everywhere,” he said. “Along the walls where the roof meets and it was kind of running down the stairs and just making a mess of everything.”
“As soon as rain started coming in it seemed like everybody was springing into action; they had squeegees and everything like that so they were getting the water out as quickly as they could.”
The following video was shot and provided by Dittrick:
The Barons’ locker room also suffered water damage. Josh Green of the Barons tweeted the following picture Friday night, after surveying the damage.
The Barons have another game scheduled for Saturday night. Friday’s game has be re-scheduled for Sunday.
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