Tornado Slams Manufacturing Plant in Oklahoma

Workers barely had time to take cover Wednesday afternoon before a tornado ripped through a wire manufacturing plant in Madill, Oklahoma.

“Oklahoma Steel and Wire and Mid America Steel and Wire have taken a substantial hit from one of the several tornadoes that have gone through Oklahoma this afternoon,” the company’s Facebook page states. “We are very fortunate and blessed that all of our people are safe and accounted for.”

An employee told KFOR-TV that he made it to the shelter seconds before the winds began tearing away walls and taking off the roof.

“When everything quit shaking and rumbling, we stepped out and found this,” OSW employee Jason Yow said.

Other workers in Oklahoma were not as lucky. The body of an employee at J & I Manufacturing, also in Marshall County, was found after the storm nearly half a mile from the plant.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol report that Chad L. Weyant, 46, of Madill was driving home after his shift when his vehicle was struck by the tornado. Pulled from behind the wheel, Weyant’s body was thrown an unknown distance.

One other fatality was reported in Marshall County was attributed to the storm.