Annual event moved from Saturday to Sunday night when Mother Nature provided her own fireworks show

The annual Red Oak White & Blue Fireworks event scheduled for Saturday night, June 29 ended up being rescheduled when Mother Nature decided to show Red Oak and surrounding areas her own fireworks show.

A severe level thunderstorm blew up over Lancaster and DeSoto and raced south down I-35E, engulfing Red Oak just when the parking lot was opening for the event.

Red Oak Police and Red Oak Fire Rescue made the call to not let anyone into the event due to the storm’s intensity and placed all the vendors inside The Oaks Church. This turned out to be a great decision as winds estimated between 55-60 mph rocked Red Oak and nearby communities. Hundreds of small and large trees were uprooted, large tree branches were split with many ending up on power lines, or taking them down.

Frequent cloud to ground lighting also caused power outages. Nearly 20-30 minutes of intense rain accompanied the storm. With steady rain continuing, the call was made to cancel Saturday’s event and move forward with a Sunday fireworks show.

Since most of the vendors could not return on Sunday, June 30, ROPD opened The Oaks parking lot at 7:30 p.m. for those who wanted to watch the fireworks show.

Even though the event had been rescheduled, it still drew in a large viewing audience and a few food vendors. Spectators were treated to a beautiful sunset, somewhat cooler evening than years past, and spectacular fireworks show sponsored by Citizens National Bank. The first firework shells were launched into the night sky about 9:40 p.m. and lasted until nearly 10:00, with a two minute grand finale.