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

NORMAN â€” Workers and customers at a grocery story on State Highway 9 east of Norman rode out two tornadoes in the store's freezer, witnesses told officials.

BY JAMES TYREE | Published: May 11, 2010 Comment on this article

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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.

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