McIntosh County Emergency Management Director Leslie Phillips urges area residents to be alert to possible tornadoes Friday.

“There could be major severe weather outbreaks, possible tornadoes and high winds,” Phillips reported to the McIntosh County Commissioners at their Monday meeting.

He said the National Weather Service reports that temperatures Saturday and Sunday could hit 40 degrees.

Phillips said there was one definite tornado in the county on Tuesday, March 4, near new Texanna Road and Interstate 40, and a possible tornado at Airport Road and Bunny Creek.

He is waiting on a definitive report from the NWS on whether the damage west of Eufaula was a tornado or strong winds.

In either case, there was damage to a number of structures in that area.

“A barn was destroyed, another barn’s side wall was taken off and three roofs were destroyed,” he said.

The Texanna Road tornado took place a mile and a half south of I-40 and Texanna Road.

“A barn had major damage, a roof was partially removed from a house and eight power poles were broken,” he said.

Ambulance service

Commissioners agreed to a contract with Pafford EMS to allow the ambulance service to rent the offices of the former OSU Extension Service at the fairgrounds southeast of Eufaula.

Pafford has two ambulances that will be stationed permanently at that location when remodeling of the offices is completed in a month or two.

Also, the Commissioners denied a request by Checotah Ambulance Services to be a part of the rotation on ambulance calls.

Currently, CAS answers calls for Pafford when Pafford’s ambulances are busy. CAS wanted to be included on a rotation basis.

Pafford says it has a contract with the county and can’t agree to a rotation. Space issue

County Assessor Jen-nifer Ballard, who took office earlier this year, was taken by surprise when, she said, she learned that the Assessor’s office was not going to have all the space she was promised in the expansion/renovation now taking place at the courthouse.

“I was told before I came into the office that a small room was going to be ours as part of the remodeling,” she said.

Ballard was going to use it for storage, but instead she said the Commissioners assigned the space to Emergency Management.

She disagreed with the decision, but said, “We will figure it out.”