Precinct relocated due to storm damage
IDABEL — Early voting continued in Idabel Saturday, even as residents worked to recover from a tornado which struck the town late Friday evening.
At least one person was killed and several buildings, including Trinity Baptist Church, a medical center and a public school were destroyed, emergency officials said. Kelly Donaldson, the McCurtain County Election Board Secretary, said early voting continued to be strong, despite the storm.
“It’s been going very good,” she said. “We have had a real good turnout.”
Donaldson said the county election board office was unharmed however, the destruction of Trinity Baptist Church eliminated one of the county’s larger voting precincts. She said State Election Board Secretary Paul Zirax was in the process of issuing an emergency declaration which would allow the precinct to be moved.
“We’ been working on this since last night,” Donaldson said.
Donaldson said the new polling place would be the Calvary Missionary Baptist Church at 200 Calvary Lane in Idabel. Shesaid the new polling site was about a half-mile away from the Trinity church.
Saturday morning, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt traveled to Idabel to survey the damage. In a video posted on social media, Stitt said residents were out clearing limbs and debris.
“We’ve searched all the houses and there was only one fatality, a 90-year-old man was killed last night,” he said.
Stitt said he was preparing an executive order which will declare an emergency for McCurtain County
“We will get all the help we can right down here to McCurtain County,” he said.
In addition to Idabel, tornadoes were reported in Texas and Arkansas, the National Weather Service said.