TULSA (KFSM)—Clean-up continues in Tulsa after a tornado ripped through town early Sunday (Aug. 6). A Fort Smith woman—Alli Chastain and her band The Violet hour were there.
They were performing at B.A.R. in Tulsa Saturday night. They finished about 1 a.m., loaded up their van and got ready to head back to Fort Smith.
“That was when we realized it was storming, which was pretty odd for that time of year for August,” Chastain said.
As they drove onto the interstate, Alli’s phone got a severe weather alert, but other than that, she said the storm came without warning.
“We started checking out the radar and realized [the tornado] was about two blocks away from us,” Chastain said.
Her husband and band member Jon Chastain was driving the van.
“My main thing was to make sure we were safe and not get caught in it,” he said.
They couldn’t see the tornado, but they could hear and feel it.
“[It sounded] like a freight train,” Jon said.
The NWS confirmed an EF-2 tornado tore through seven miles of town. It left at least 30 people injured and close to 150 businesses damaged.
“We are so grateful and we are very blessed that we made it home safely,” Alli Chastain said. “We saw all the pictures on the news and on Facebook of businesses we had just driven by.”
Several people got trapped under debris at the T.G.I. Friday’s not far from where the band was playing.
“Definitely our thoughts and prayers go out to anybody who was injured or had any problems,” said band member Jake Gibson.
Tornadoes in August in the region are rare. This is the third August tornado on record in Tulsa. The other two happened in the 1950s.