The other bus was not able to deliver any children to their normal drop off points, but parents came out and met the bus halfway to pick up their children, Lee said.

All parents had been contacted by about 4:45 p.m. and had picked up their children or were on their way to the school to pick up their children.

The district has a system in place to protect students should there be danger along bus paths, Lee said. Buses are generally rerouted or brought back to school for parents to pick students up there, she said.

Norman firefighters, in addition to battling a house fire and several small grass fires in Norman Thursday, also lent mutual aid support to several other metro fire departments battling grass blazes whipped into infernos by the strong winds with gusts reaching more than 55 miles per hour.

"Norman firefighters also are assisting Macomb, Cedar Country and Midwest City fire departtments," said Norman Fire Chief James Fullingim. "We've had only small grass fires in Norman today, and responded to three downed power lines associated with the weather."

Fullinghim said five Norman firefighters were assisting Midwest City firefighters, four were assisting Macomb, and nine were assisting firefighting efforts at 180th and Banner Road. "Thirteen firefighers are assigned to the house fire at 1608 Iowa St.," he said.

City officials, on engineers' advice, are establishing a "clear zone" around the Financial Center building in downtown Norman when wind gusts threaten structural faults with the structure.

Transcript Staff Jerry Laizure, Julianna Parker Jones, Meghan McCormick and Tom Blakey contributed to this report