25 To 30 Homes Reported Damaged In Cushing Earthquake

Crews in Cushing have been cleaning up debris trying to get streets back open, and they are making progress.  

Right now, the folks who live downtown can't go home.  The state Department of Emergency Management said about 25 to 30 people in Cushing have reported damage to their homes.

“It sounded like a huge bomb went off,” said Levi Peaslee as he described Sunday’s earthquake. 

The earthquake and the following aftershock cracked the foundation on three corners of his Cushing home.

“Came around the corner and it goes, comes up from there. Busted here and up by the gas lines,” explained Peaslee.

He pointed to the big cracks in his rock foundation.

The earthquake also knocked the roof of his front porch almost off.

“When I stepped out, I realized ‘Oh my Gosh,'” he said.

Giakob Beasley lives downtown.

“We had ceiling tiles coming down around us, lights everywhere,” Beasley said as he described the earthquake.

He can't go back into his upper floor downtown home until the City decides it's safe so he's not sure of the full extent of the damage, but he knows it's bad.

“Almost every wall has cracking throughout the entire building. We have brick walls in there so a lot of mortar has shaken loose. We had to sweep up a whole trash can of mortar so we know there’s cracking going on,” he said.

A tour of the town reveals more of the obvious scars from Sunday's shakeup.  A couple dozen residents have reported damage to state emergency management but Beasley thinks there's likely many, many more.        

“In our own staff of 45 people, we have more than five of our staff that have shown significant damage to their foundations,” he said. 

Cimarron Tower is still closed while structural engineers assess the damage.