Barnsdall sits still, two years since EF-4 tornado hits small town

BARNSDALL, Okla. — Two years later, Barnsdall stands still.

The EF-4 that hit the town of nearly 1,000 changed the community forever. Approximately 40 homes were destroyed, including the two main businesses.

Many cleared off what was left of their homes and never came back. But for those who rebuilt and stayed, like Landon Ramsey, the quiet reminds them of everything that changed that night.

WATCH: Barnsdall sits still, two years since EF-4 tornado hits small town

Barnsdall sits still, two years since EF-4 tornado hits small town

“A twister, all of a sudden about 8:30 to 9 o’clock, came through and wiped us out,” said Ramsey. “Wiped everybody out.”

When the sirens sounded, Ramsey and his wife sheltered in the bathroom of the home they’d lived in for the last 17 years.

After the storm cleared, they came out to a town they didn’t recognize.

“It hurts everybody,” he said. “I’m not the only one, but life has to go on. You can’t go back in the past, everything gone.”

Their sandstone house is what Ramsey said saved them. The strength of the winds destroyed it from the inside out.

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But they didn’t just lose the house — Ramsey said they lost everything inside that made it home.

“It’s hard getting back marriage time and back into childhood… you lose all your pictures and all your stuff that belong to way way back growing up,” he said. “Your anniversaries, everything like that, your pictures gone.”

Since the tornado, Ramsey said he’s seen the population dwindle.

He’s one of the few who rebuilt, only staying put while his grandchildren finish out school in town. Once they graduate, he said he plans on moving out of town.

But looking back two years later, the outpouring of support is something that still overwhelms Ramsey to this day.

“I had people from Missouri all over town, from New York, Chicago, all over the place, Hawaii came to see us, Oklahoma City people came to see us,” said Ramsey. “I mean we had people everywhere we didn’t even know.”

It is a different town than it was two years and a day ago, but it’s a new that Ramsey is choosing to find the beauty in.

“I love every bit of it out here, because the birds,” said Ramsey. “I never seen the birds flying around, upside down flying around here and there.”

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