Stormy Saturday

By ADAM CATLIN
NHJ Editor

Kay County was hit hard last Saturday evening by two rounds of severe storms that caused widespread damage in Ponca City, Blackwell, Tonkawa, Newkirk, and into rural areas of the county.
Flash flooding was also an issue following the storms. Some parts of Ponca City received over three inches of rainfall overnight Saturday. According to the Oklahoma Mesonet, Newkirk received less than half-an-inch of rain.
Kay County Emergency Management confirmed there were no tornados in the county from these storms.
The storms also forced the cancellation of night three of the 101 Ranch Rodeo that evening.
Newkirk City manager Jane Thomas said the city had tree damage and a few were without power for a few hours. She added that there was a transmission pole broken west of the city that the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority would have to replace.
“We were lucky compared to our neighbors,” she said, referring to the damage in the other major cities in Kay County.
On Sunday afternoon, that repair was handled starting so the pole could be replaced. Power began to be restored again to Newkirk by 7 p.m.
The first round of storms began moving into Kay County just after 6 p.m. Saturday with potential for two-inch hail and 60 mile per hour winds.
A tornado warning was soon issued for Kay County until 7:15 p.m. Storm spotters were seeing an area of rotation near Deer Creek moving east. Spotters were expecting the rotation to pass between Blackwell and Braman. The tornado warning was allowed to expire just after 7 p.m., although Newkirk was advised by spotters to take cover just after 7 p.m. The National Weather Service re-issued the tornado warning for Kay County until 7:45 p.m. as rotation was beginning to get tighter as it approached Ponca City from the west.
Just before 8 p.m. Kay County sheriff’s deputies posted to social media that they were surveying damage and located several power lines and poles down along US 177 between Tonkawa and Blackwell. US 177 was closed until the road could be cleared. It re-opened hours later.
By mid-evening, Ponca City law enforcement was alerting the public that local emergency crews were aware that multiple tree limbs were down from the winds that came through with that evening’s thunderstorms.
The number of outages for Kay Electric began pouring in during that time. By 8 p.m. that number had jumped to 450. At 10 p.m. that number had already climbed to 959 customers.
Kay County Commissioner Shane Jones warned of flooding on various back roads near Ponca City.
The second wave of storms came through Kay County shortly after 9 p.m. with the NWS reporting heavy rain and 80 mile per hour winds that dumped 4.8 inches of rainfall on I-35 near Braman.
The storm damaged a utility pole and downed lines on Peckham Road west of Newkirk.