The Nation - News from July 18, 1989

Severe thunderstorms spawning torrential rains and high winds rolled through much of eastern Oklahoma and parts of western Arkansas, collapsing a roof at a Tulsa airport hotel and leaving up to 20,000 utility customers without power. Winds howled to 90 m.p.h. near Peggs and gusted to more than 80 m.p.h. near Bartlesville, Okla. Sections of eastern Oklahoma received three to five inches of rain, prompting flash flood watches. A 15- by 20-foot section of a lobby roof at the Sheraton Airport Hotel in Tulsa collapsed during the morning downpour, officials said. Hotel patrons, who saw the ceiling bulging downward before it collapsed, left the area. Scattered showers and thunderstorms fell over most of the Florida peninsula.