Patrons ride out two tornadoes in Country Boy store east of Norman

Emergency personnel set up a medical staging area outside the Country Boy IGA grocery store on SH 9 just east of 180th Avenue, which Undersheriff Rhett Burnett and witnesses said was hit.

Store employee Delrose Callendar said a manager told everyone to get inside a freezer just before the first tornado hit.

Callendar said she figured no more than 20 people were in the store.

They got out briefly before returning to the freezer ahead of the second tornado, but Callendar said they couldn’t close the door that time because of store damage from the first tornado.

The undersheriff said the tornadoes hit an area between 180th and 192nd avenues from SH 9 north to Rock Creek Road.

"There are significant homes in that area and the majority of damage was in an area called Running Deer Hills,” he said.

"All of that area has been cleared, has been searched. Many casualties have been found and they have received medical treatment.”

Burnett said Monday evening that no resident in the area would be allowed back home until the area’s search for victims and damage was completed.

Burnett said he knew of no gas leaks in the area but there were power outages.

A few miles west in Slaughterville, a tornado destroyed a number of mobile homes at Prairie Creek Village on 120th Avenue, north of Maguire Road.

Slaughterville Fire Chief Paul Long said there were two minor injuries in the trailer park, which he said probably will remain evacuated until this morning.

"We’re very lucky there was no more damage,” he said. "We’re counting the number of homes (damaged) and we’ve searched every home to make sure no one else is home.”