SULPHUR, OK – Late Wednesday afternoon, high winds and severe thunderstorms ripped through the Sulphur area, knocking down trees and power lines. But by Thursday afternoon the howling winds, and the sound of rain had been replaced with the buzz of chainsaws, as many homeowners worked to cut-up downed trees and clean-up their property.

"Trees were on the vehicles and all over the place, you just had to start the saw and dive in somewhere,” homeowner Dave Tomlinson explained.

Tomlinson wasn’t home when the storms hit, he was out working. But the Sulphur resident had to take Thursday off from the Ardmore Fire Department to work in his own yard on 7th Street East.

"I've got most of (tree branches and limbs) chopped up, ready to go on the trailer and I think (Friday is) going to spent back and forth to the land fill,” Tomlinson said.

Tomlinson said he’s also had lots of on-lookers driving back and forth, looking at the damage. The huge hackberry tree that once stood in his front yard, actually split in half and fell down on top of his two vehicles that were parked in the driveway.

"I talked to my wife on the phone; everyone was ok, number one. The house was ok. The next thing, the vehicles number three, but they didn't fare so well,” Tomlinson said.

The family’s new fuel efficient silver sedan was buried under the downed tree branches. While Tomlinson said it’s upsetting the new family purchase is not drivable, he's grateful his house wasn't hit. But he knows some of his neighbors on 8th Street East weren't as lucky.

"There are four or five on the next road up. The trees took a lot of damage. A lot of them came down on the houses,” Tomlinson said.

The city estimates at least four homes were actually damaged by the storm, and dozens more had yard damage. Tomlinson said the damage is some of the worst he’s seen in a number of years, but he's thankful it wasn't worse and he thankful for his little helper.

"My little one she thinks this is better than a carnival, so we'll spend sometime in the front yard tomorrow and everyone will be happy.

The city of Sulphur told First News it’s hard to estimate the exact amount of damage done to homeowner’s property. As public property goes, no severe damage was reported, but the city’s fire chief said it should take about a week to clean up debris from area streets and repair the downed power lines