Severe storms and tornadoes wreaked havoc across southeastern Oklahoma Saturday night, causing major damage to property, dozens of injuries, at least four deaths and prompting the governor to declare a state emergency.

One of the deaths from the long-track tornado that ripped through Holdenville was a 4-month-old baby, according to a statement from Hughes County Emergency Management. The tornado moved through a mostly rural area northwest of the town, but destroyed several structures along the way.

The town of Sulphur, in Murray County, took a direct hit from a large twister that devastated neighborhoods and much of the downtown area. Two staff members from The Ada News observed the damage first hand.

Though most media outlets were reporting two deaths early Sunday, a press release from Gov. Kevin Stitt’s office later said four were dead, but did not offer details.

“This was my store,” Jamie Pittman Johnson said Sunday morning, gesturing to the remains of Snack Shack East in Sulphur. “We were a couple of blocks over when we saw the power flashes, trying to get to the store, because I knew we had two employees working, and I couldn’t get them on the phone.”

Pittman said power lines were down everywhere as she tried to get to the store.

“We tried to take back roads,” she said. “I finally got ahold of one of my girls, and she was freaking out. I told them to go inside the cooler, because that’s the standard shelter in a convenience store; it’s usually in the center of the store. But if my girls had been in that cooler, they wouldn’t have made it.”

Johnson said the employees took shelter in the women’s bathroom instead.

“It was the only room that remained intact on that end of the store,” she told The Ada News Sunday, adding that both employees were uninjured, and were extricated by firefighters. “I have nothing but good things to say about Sulphur Fire and Rescue, and I think Davis was there, too. I was on [the phone] with 911, and I don’t think it was more than five minutes before a guy pulled up, suited up and ready.”

The National Weather Service issued back-to-back-to-back tornado warnings for Murray County at 10:20 p.m., 10:38 p.m. and 11:13 p.m. Saturday.

Montana Riggle and Faith Travis were in Davis when the tornado struck.

“We heard what was coming, so we went to [Faith’s] house, because she has an underground shelter,” Riggle said. “We said sat back and listened to what was going on.”

Travis said she was reading in a group chat for her classes when the tornado hit.

“A couple of kids in my class were talking about the places they worked got blown over, or their family’s business got blown over,” she said. “You heard about stuff like this all the time, but when it’s people you know, it’s crazy.”

Residents wandered the streets, some just to see what happened, and others to begin the cleanup. The smell of natural gas and gasoline was in the air.

More than two dozen people were injured, and the statement from Gov. Kevin Stitt’s office said at least four people were dead as of Sunday afternoon. However, as search and rescue continued, that number could increase.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported one person is unaccounted for, and crews were searching a demolished sports bar in an attempt to find the missing person.

Pontotoc County Emergency Management Director Chad Letellier said there were two confirmed tornadoes in that area, and 10 tornado warnings were issued. And while at least two structures sustained serious damage, no tornado-related injuries had been reported there as of Sunday morning.

Letellier indicated the emergency operations center was extremely busy Saturday night and early Sunday morning as staff struggled to keep up with all the supercell storms that entered the county from the south.

“That was the craziest night I’ve ever had as an emergency manager here,” Letellier said. “I can’t imagine having to do that by myself, like I did for the first 10 years of this job. I had four people in the EOC helping me and it was still chaos at times.”

Letellier said most of the damage in Pontotoc County was due to flooding, which affected roads, bridges and culverts.

Crews made four water rescues in the county overnight, Letellier said. One occurred in a construction area on State Highway 99 between Ada and Fittstown. Another was reported near Pickett on County Road 3490, and then two more were in Byng.

“I have seen a lot of flooding in our county, but I’m seeing stuff this morning that I have never seen before,” Letellier said Sunday. “And I think it’s because the rain came so fast. We didn’t get an exorbitant amount of rain; I think we ended up with around 5.5 inches, but it just came so stinking fast.”

The Red Cross has established a shelter at Crossway First Baptist Church in Sulphur. Stitt issued an executive order Sunday declaring a state of emergency in 12 counties due to the fallout from the severe weather.

More than 30,000 customers were without power across the state at one point on Sunday, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks electric utility outages.