‘It's just heartbreaking’ Stitt tours Barnsdall after EF-4 tornado devastates town

BARNSDALL, Okla. (KFOR) — Governor Kevin Stitt toured damage in the town of Barnsdall Tuesday afternoon after an EF-4 tornado devastated the town Monday night.

The images from Barnsdall are hard to take in. Many homes and businesses were obliterated, leaving behind empty concrete slabs where they once stood.

“When you when you see this type of damage, it's just heartbreaking,” Governor Kevin Stitt told reporters after touring the damage in the town Tuesday afternoon. “You just don't know how anybody could survive.”

Stitt said as he toured the damage, rescuers were still searching for at least one man who hasn’t been accounted for.

“[He was] in a trailer house,” Stitt said. “[He’d] talked to [his] son just earlier in the day, really just a couple of minutes before the tornado hit. And he was telling his dad, ‘Dad, you got to get out…’ His whole house was blown away. And we've gone up and down the creek ten times looking for him. We've got K-9 units out there.”

Aside from that man, Stitt said one person was killed in the storm, and another had to be hospitalized.

Local authorities blocked public access to a large portion of the town on Tuesday, not allowing media inside to get pictures.

Upon learning that, Governor Stitt requested camera crews be allowed inside, saying the public needs to get a full understanding of the devastation.

“I think it's really important for Oklahomans to see the damage and because—as a lifelong Oklahoman—sometimes when you don't experience this or see it, you don't have an appreciation for how bad this can be and why it's so important that we take the advice of our meteorologists whenever they're telling us that we got to take cover,” Stitt said. “Because—an EF-4 tornado—I mean, you've got to be underground or you have to be in a safe room because if it hits the house, it's going to blow it away.”

Meanwhile, those fortunate enough to get through it unscathed were already lending help where they could on Tuesday.

“Neighbors are pitching to help people try to kind of go through their personal belongings and salvage what they can,” Barnsdall Mayor Johnny Kelly said.

Kelly said he’s looking to put a nighttime curfew in place for the town as the cleanup continues.

“We're going to put a curfew in place just to try to keep the looting down and everything until we can make a fresh start tomorrow to begin cleanup and moving forward,” he said.

Gov. Stitt said he wants the state house and senate to include relief funding for Barnsdall and other communities damaged in Monday’s storms in their conversations as they continue negotiating the state budget.  

“We're in session right now to make sure that they have the resources they need to match some federal funding to get these communities built back up,” Stitt said.

State emergency managers said they’ve also been in contact with the federal government to get several more counties, including Osage and Washington, added to the disaster declaration made after severe storms caused damage across the state a couple weeks ago.