Authorities say a signal tower for Woodward's tornado sirens was struck by lightning and hit by a tornado early Sunday morning.

Woodward Police Chief Harvey Rutherford said Sunday the tower that was supposed to send a repeating signal to the town's tornado siren system was knocked out of commission by the storm, which affected the signal.

He said he didn't know how many sirens or which sirens were affected by the outage.

Some residents still reported hearing mangled sirens before the tornado, which killed five people and injured 20.

Rutherford said that, considering that the tornado struck at night and that the sirens were damaged, it's remarkable that there wasn't a greater loss of life.

He says the town "had the hand of God to take care of us."

Copyright The Associated Press