Congresswoman Jodie Revard emerged from her cellar Monday night unscathed, only to receive a phone call that her brother’s roof had been torn off his house in Barnsdall.
A category EF4 tornado, which has 166 to 200 mph winds, hit the small town that evening, the second tornado to hit the community in five weeks. But this time was different. The southeast side of the town was leveled, including severe damage to the wax factory that employs many of the town’s inhabitants. Some say it’s one of the worst disasters to ever hit the area. The tornado killed one person and a man is still missing.
Revard’s brother, Pawhuska District elder John Henry Mashunkashey, 77, was still inside his house with his adult granddaughter Lauren when the tornado hit. Revard grew increasingly worried after his son Russell Mashunkashey called her and said he couldn’t reach his dad on the phone. And worse, the police wouldn’t let him through the barricade to check on his dad. Revard turned to her companion Guy Ray Pocowatchit and friend Warren Queton, who was visiting Revard with his wife Welana. Queton and Pocowatchit acted quickly, worried Mashunkashey’s house might fall in. Revard lives about 10 minutes from Barnsdall on Highway 11.
Queton, a U.S. Army Major who has been deployed three times to Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq, was “lucky” to have his work truck onsite, which had his tools and medical kit. With Pocowatchit at the wheel, they rushed into Barnsdall, careful not to go too fast, as first responders and trucks were already arriving in town. The town was completely dark, as the tornado had wiped out power lines.
“Of course, the main road in Barnsdall was blocked and you couldn’t go to the right. There were obstructions. There were already a couple of police cars there kind of just blocking people from going any further,” Queton said.
He and Pocowatchit found Chestnut Street and were searching for Second Street, where Mashunkashey’s house was located. It was hard to see street signs, some were still standing and some weren’t. They had to call Revard for the exact address so their map could take them to the location.
“Oh gosh, it was just terrible. We got closer and closer to Second Street. I could kind of tell this was the main hit area. Then I got really worried and concerned because as we got closer and closer … I just saw houses kind of increasingly demolished,” Queton said. “My thought was, what is he going to be like in there? And what does the house look like? I couldn’t really see anything, but I’m seeing these other houses, totally unhinged, taken off their foundations, and just set over here, you know? It looked like a war zone.”



“I heard the train. Have you ever heard that before?”
Mashunkashey said as the storm approached, he and his granddaughter heard the “train.” Many say that when tornados hit, they sound like a train rumbling through, some can even hear a whistling sound. The swirling high-speed winds of a tornado, coupled with metal debris inside, make the sound.
“I told my granddaughter I said, ‘You hear that train?’ She said, ‘What train?’ And I said, ‘Get in the closet.’ We no more got into that closet, and she was hanging on to the doorknob and it hit. It all but took this house off its foundation. But it totally wrecked it inside and out. And so she was holding on to the door and it was swinging her back and forth. I was afraid it was gonna take her on out, but it didn’t,” Mashunkashey said. “The wind turns the gravel and sand and the leaves and trees, turns it into little bullets. I said, ‘now lay down there and stay down. Because pretty soon you’re gonna hear the BB’s coming.’ And the BBs are stuck in my brick veneer right now. It’s dirt and gravel, stuck in my house. And I’ve got steel siding and brick veneer. It pulled the brick veneer right off the north side of my house. It was a disaster. This, is a disaster.”
Fortunately for Mashunkashey and his granddaughter, his late wife Ahnawake had installed a storm room when she built the house.
“That’s the one thing that saved us because everything else around us was gone. Windows, my cars were destroyed. And it just goes on and on and on,” he said. “If you come down the street where I live, along Chestnut and Second, you’re going to see a disaster. The church across from me, they’re going to just raise it to the ground and rebuild. You know where the carwash was? That’s gone … you can see across the creek now because it took the trees out.”



“Hey Pbah-bee!”
Queton said the first thing he smelled when they arrived to Mashunkashey’s house, was gas. He immediately told Pocowatchit not to turn off the truck because turning on the truck could ignite the gas. There were also down power lines everywhere and they put on their gloves and tested the lines near his house with wood, the power lines weren’t live.
As Queton and Pocowatchit walked up to the front door of what was once Mashunkashey’s house, everything was dark, except for a small blue light coming through the window. It was Mashunkashey’s phone.
“I knocked on the door and the door opened and there was John Henry and his granddaughter, Lauren, he was sitting on the couch. I think he was trying to call out. Lauren, I could tell that she was physically shocked. You know, just kind of like in shock, trying to get her and her grandfather to safety,” Queton said. “I was like, ‘Hi, I’m Warren Queton, I was just coming to check on John Henry and yourself.’ And by that time, John Henry responded and he said, ‘Hey, Pbah-bee!’ (Queton is Kiowa) You know, like ‘Hey brother,’ and I said, ‘Hello, John!’ I said, ‘John Henry, we’re just coming to check on you, what do you need,’ and he goes, ‘Well, I need to get out of here because I’m cold and wet.’”
When the roof came off Mashunkashey’s house water poured in on Mashunkashey, but other than that he and his granddaughter were physically fine. Queton and Pocowatchit loaded Mashunkashey, his granddaughter and her small dog into the truck and took them both back to Revard’s house and then Mashunkashey’s oldest son Russell came and picked them up.


Bart Perrier
Bart Perrier and his family headed into their storm cellar a little before 9:30 p.m., right around the time forecasters predicted it would hit Barnsdall.
“We definitely knew when it hit because a big tree hit the cellar door,” Perrier said.
“It sounded like a big bomb or gunshot going off and before that the pressure changed and our ears popped and you can feel a calm then you can feel the inflow,” he said of the experience being hunkered down with his family.
Perrier lives on his family’s original allotment east of Barnsdall and south of Woolaroc. He lost his home, his shop and all the property at his place. His grandmother’s house, which was built in 1919, withstood the storm with minimal damage. Part of the roof and a window were damaged, but not a total loss like his property about a mile away. His grandmother, Norma Jean was also uninjured but said this was one of the worst storms she’d seen in her 96 years.
His herd of Angus cattle was also mostly unfazed – some had minor abrasions and wounds, but all were accounted for.
He’s just thankful no one was hurt and has been helping some of his friends and family in Barnsdall, who also lost their homes.
“People lost their lives and Barnsdall needs a lot of prayers right now,” Perrier said.
Perrier, who is running for Sheriff in Osage County, was expected at a campaign event in Sand Springs on May 7, but canceled as he’s lending a hand in Barnsdall – his number one priority.
“We’ll get back on the campaign trail as soon as we can,” Perrier said.
“But to be honest, that’s the furthest thing from my mind. And you know, the reality of this has not sunk in,” he said.



It takes a village
Mashunkashey said he is overwhelmed with all the help they have received. Not just from first responders, but the multiple police agencies, fire departments, the American Red Cross, businesses, individuals and especially the Osage Nation.
“We made national headlines everywhere, with the media. And the tribe’s been down I don’t know how many times, which has been great. Seeing what we got. Insurance has given us estimates on this and that. I’m pretty well satisfied, with the community and all the operations that have been going on,” he said. “And as I said, Walmart showed up with a tractor-trailer full of food … you can’t imagine all the ice, medications, beds, American Red Cross, groceries, cans, nonperishable, perishable, they’re making hamburgers downtown. It’s unbelievable.”
More than 30 homes were destroyed on May 6, leaving those families without homes or basic necessities.
Mashunkashey said he is going to apply for one of the senior housing units the Osage Nation provides. His advice to everyone is to make sure your homes are ADA accessible and if you can manage it, build a storm room in your home.
You can donate to the Osage tribal members who were affected by the deadly May 6 tornado at https://www.osagefoundation.org/donate.
Reporter Allison Herrera contributed to this report.








