Oklahomans survey devastation after hundreds of homes are destroyed and damaged by wildfires

DALLAS (AP) — As Oklahomans assessed the devastation from wildfires that whipped across the state, damaging or destroying hundreds of homes, officials in both Oklahoma and Texas warned Sunday of an increased risk of fire danger in the coming week.

“We’re going to be back into a critical area,” Oklahoma Forestry Services spokesperson Keith Merckx said Sunday.

Wildfires fueled by high winds swept across the state on Friday. The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said Sunday evening that over 400 homes were damaged statewide Officials said Sunday that at least four people had died because of the severe weather in Oklahoma.

Jeremy Cook was among the residents in Stillwater, a city of about 50,000 located about 65 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City, who returned home Saturday morning to find that his house was gone. Cook told The Oklahoman that when his family fled Friday, they loaded up three cars with photographs, pets, books and paintings.

After returning to find his home burned to the foundation, he said he was going back and forth “between laughing and crying.”

At least 74 homes in and around Stillwater were destroyed by wildfires, Mayor Will Joyce said Sunday night on Facebook. Fire Chief Terry Essary said at a news conference Saturday that the fires spread rapidly and crews had difficulty containing each one because of the high winds and low humidity. He said they quickly became overwhelmed.

“Nobody has enough resources to fight fires when the wind is blowing 70 mph,” Essary said. “It's an insurmountable task.”

The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said on Sunday evening that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had confirmed four fatalities related to the fires or high winds across the state. There was one death each in Lincoln, Garfield, Haskell and Pawnee counties.

Details were not given on the deaths in Haskell and Pawnee counties. Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokesperson Keli Cain said the person in Garfield County was killed in a vehicle accident due to poor visibility due to dust or smoke and that a man died in Lincoln County.

Deborah Ferguson told News 9 that her husband, Allen Ferguson, was killed in Lincoln County. She said that her husband and her 15-year-old son had been fighting a wildfire in a pasture on Friday and as they fled on a four-wheeler, it crashed into a tree amid heavy smoke. She said her son was badly burned and is hospitalized.

Erin O’Connor, a spokesperson with the Texas A&M Forest Service, said the region on Friday had the “perfect recipe for wildfires” with high winds, dry conditions and above normal temperatures. She said that less wind on Sunday had helped crews get a handle on the fires but that more fire activity was expected this coming week.

One of the largest fires in Texas currently had burned about 14 square miles (36 square kilometers) near Fredericksburg, west of Austin, but was 40% contained by Sunday, she said.

The winds that swept across Texas and Oklahoma were so strong that they turned over several tractor-trailers. Authorities have said three people were killed in car crashes during a dust storm caused by high winds in the Texas Panhandle on Friday.

After touring the damage in Stillwater and Mannford, a city of about 3,000 located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Tulsa, on Saturday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt went on to survey the damage at his ranch outside of Oklahoma City, where his home there had burned to the ground.

“We’ll be rebuilding with the rest of Oklahoma,” Stitt said in a video posted on X. “You never think it’s going to happen to your place and these wildfires just come out of nowhere and can really take over.”

A house still was still smoldering Saturday, March 15, 2025, in Stillwater, Okla., following Friday’s wildfires throughout central Oklahoma. (Jason Elmquist/The News Press via AP)

A wildfire burns through a field Friday, March 14, 2025, south of Langston, Okla. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

The Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on the campus of the University of Oklahoma is seen covered by dusk and smoke as wildfires spread across Oklahoma on Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

This photo provided by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol shows a tractor-trailer overturned on highway US 183 just south of Hobart, Oklahoma on Thursday, March 13, 2025. (Oklahoma Highway Patrol via AP)

Families evacuated from wildfires near Norman, Okla. talk and watch the latest news information on tv at CrossPoint Church in Norman on Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Norman Oklahoma fire crews put out hot spots following a wildfire SE of Norman on Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Fire crews battle a wildfire Friday, March 14, 2025, south of Langston, Okla. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

A wildfire burns a home down on Friday, March 14, 2025, south of Langston, Okla. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

A wildfire spread through the country side SE of Norman, Okla. on Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

This image provided by shows aerials over the damage caused by the wildfires in Logan County, Okla. (KOCO via AP)

This image provided by shows aerials over the damage caused by the wildfires in Logan County, Okla. (KOCO via AP)

This image provided by shows aerials over the damage caused by the wildfires in Logan County, Okla. (KOCO via AP)

BOSTON (AP) — A doctor from Lebanon who arrived at the Boston airport was deported over the weekend without explanation, despite having a U.S. visa and a job teaching at Brown University.

A judge had ordered she not be sent back until there was a hearing, but government lawyers said customs officials did not get word in time.

It's the latest deportation of a foreign-born person with a U.S. visa in the past week, after a student at Columbia who led protests of the Gaza war was arrested, and another student's visa was revoked. The Trump administration also transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, had been granted the visa on March 11 and arrived at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday, according to a complaint filed on her behalf by a cousin in federal court.

Alawieh, who had worked and lived in Rhode Island previously, was detained at least 36 hours, through Friday, and was going to be sent back to Lebanon, the complaint said. Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist, was to start work at Brown University as an assistant professor of medicine.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin issued an order on Friday that an in-person hearing be scheduled Monday, with Alawieh brought to court.

“Whether or not she is in custody of the United States, the court anticipates proceeding with this hearing,” he wrote.

But by Saturday, the cousin filed a motion that customs officials “willfully” disobeyed the order by sending Alawieh back to Lebanon.

Lawyers for the government explained in a court filing Monday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Boston Logan International Airport did not receive notice of the order until she “had already departed the United States,” the judge noted. They asked that the petition be dismissed.

The judge put a hearing on her case on hold, to give Alawieh's lawyers time to prepare.

Alawieh has worked at Brown prior to the issuance of her H1B visa, the complaint said. It said she has held fellowships and residencies at three universities in the United States.

A spokesperson for Brown said Alawieh is an employee of Brown Medicine with a clinical appointment to Brown.

Brown Medicine is a not-for-profit medical practice that is its own organization and serves its own patients directly. It is affiliated with Brown University's medical school.

“My colleagues and I are outraged over Dr Alawieh’s deportation. She is a valued colleague and we hope for justice and her return to Rhode Island,” said George Bayliss, an associate professor of medicine at Brown University.

U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo of Rhode Island, a Democrat, said in a statement over the weekend that is "committed to getting answers from the Department of Homeland Security to provide Dr. Alawieh, her family, her colleagues, and our community the clarity we all deserve.”

A rally was planned to support her Monday night at the Rhode Island statehouse.

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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the doctor's last name throughout. Her name is Rasha Alawieh, not Rasha Alawiech.

People walk past the the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Attorney Stephanie Marzouk, who represents deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, speaks to reporters outside the Moakley Federal Courthouse, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

FILE - Pedestrians make their way past a building housing the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Jan. 30, 2019, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott, File)