(photo courtesy of LDS Smile - https://www.facebook.com/LDS.SMILE)
I’m not really sure what to write. Or if I can even express what it is I’m feeling right now. I’ve spent so much of today crying and feeling like I’m going to cry or just trying to forget any of it happened. Not that any of the damage or people affected directly impact my life, but I know that area. I lived there. I went to those businesses and drove by those homes. I probably saw a lot of those people while grocery shopping and putting gas in my car, but will never really know. Living somewhere makes it a part of you, no matter whether your experiences there were good or bad.
Anyone who knows me knows I wanted out of Oklahoma and wasn’t super happy while I was living there. I was super bummed when I found out my ex-husband got orders to move there and couldn’t wait for him to get orders to leave. Oklahoma felt barren, flat and empty. After my divorce, the feeling just got stronger. I just wanted out of there and to get back to my mountains. I couldn’t afford to move, though, so I just waited. And waited. And waited until some miraculous event occurred to get me out of there. But over time, I grew to like things about Oklahoma: how some people were just the nicest people you’d ever met. How strangers would stop to help you on the freeway when your car was having problems. How someone would walk up and offer to change your tire for you so your church clothes wouldn’t get dirty. How people you’d just met would fight for your job when someone lied and got you fired. And how some girls would be crazy mean for a while and then realize you really aren’t as bad as they thought and then they’d be confidants and cheerleaders for you from that point forward. Oklahoma has their share of not-so-great people, just like everywhere else, but Oklahoma also has its own breed of down-to-earth, helpful and good people. So many of the people there have good hearts and genuinely care about the people around them. Even the flat landscape lends a certain beauty. Sunsets there fill the entire sky and paint as far as the eye can see with a myriad of dazzling color. Oklahoma also has storms that can be majestic and entrancing one moment, then go to deadly and devastating the next.
I first heard about the tornadoes a few days ago when I saw on Facebook that there were tornadoes up in Edmond. I lived just south of Edmond right before Troy and I moved to Malaysia. Most of my ward lives in Edmond and almost all of Troy’s coworkers live there. I sent emails and texts and Facebook messages to make sure all of my people were okay and emailed Troy to let him know so he could check on his friends. Troy was able to get a hold of some of his friends and was happy to hear they were okay. All my friends are fine, too. And we thought that was that.
Today, though, after I got home from the gym and was killing time waiting for the shower to warm up, I saw a post on Facebook about another tornado. And children trapped inside a school. And a high fatality count. So I went to an Oklahoma City news website and started watching the live feed. What I saw was the neighborhood I lived in before my divorce totally demolished. The school I drove past every day on the way to and from work destroyed. The road I drove to church every Sunday lined with homes that have been reduced to broken boards and jutting pipes. The theater known for formal uniforms, fancy theater rooms, a new imax and grand service reduced to a shell.
I only lived in that neighborhood for a year, but I loved that area. I loved the quiet street my ex-husband and I lived on. I loved all the trees and the pretty yards full of flowers. I loved the kids riding their bikes down the usually empty neighborhood streets and playing in their yards. I loved how convenient it was to get anywhere and how the coolest movie theater with regular and imax screens was less than 5 minutes away. I loved how church was only about 7 minutes away and most of our friends were less than 10 minutes away. There was a cool horse farm (similar to Staheli’s, but with animals in addition to the other stuff, for those who live in St. George) just down the street and an iconic oil pump right around the corner. There were tons of fun stores and shops and a HUGE variety of eateries and entertainment all within 10 minutes, so working on the other side of town was the only reason to leave this section of town.
Now, though, it’s all gone. Homes and businesses have been destroyed and obliterated.
This is Plaza Towers Elementary before the tornado.
This is the school after the tornado.
Those poor children who were trapped inside. 7 drowned. An unknown number are still missing. There are several conflicting reports about whether or not children are deceased or just fine or unaccounted for. So much chaos and scrambling and it will take time before everyone knows for sure what happened to their child. Some may never know. Who knows if any of the children were carried off by the tornado. The tornado threw cars around, why not people, too? Those families whose children have been recovered are truly blessed.
As for the other school, I can only find pictures with part of Briarwood Elementary behind rescuers and other people, but it pretty much looks the same: destroyed and gone. Thankfully all the children from there are safe and accounted for. The rest of the neighborhood could only be so lucky.
This is the path the tornado took.
This is where I lived in relation to all of this:
A is where I lived with my ex-husband. B is Briarwood Elementary school, which was destroyed. C is Plaza Towers Elementary school, which was also destroyed and the children were trapped. D is the Warren Theater. Less than 5 minutes from A-D if you go straight there.
I lived at that house until January 2010, when I moved to North OKC, a couple of streets south of Edmond, which was also hit with tornadoes.
Aerial view of some of the devastation.
Someone’s home. Gone.
I bet someone loved this truck.
This used to be the Moore Hospital parking lot. I guess it still is. Kind of.
A neighborhood obliterated.
Warren Theater before.
Several news agencies say that the theater isn’t as bad inside as it looks outside and it is being used as a triage center.
This whole thing is just devastating. I’ve been watching the news and listening to the news all day. Well, except for when I went to teach at the refugee school. Part of me wanted to just cancel and watch the news all day, but these kids are still here. These kids are still alive and have a chance to improve their futures. Sitting at home and watching newscaster talk about children buried in a collapsed school wasn’t going to do anyone any good. So, I went and taught. And felt a bit better. Then I came home and started watching the news again.
I feel kinda bad for my realtor today. He came over with some guys to fix my washer this afternoon and I told them I was keeping the news on and why. Normally I turn everything off so they don’t feel like they’re disrupting anything when they need to ask questions or talk about something. But they understood and were fine with it. About 30 minutes after they left, Jeremy came back and it was right after a little girl had been crying and talking about how she had blood in her hair and that the blood belonged to her friend who had been on top of her and hit with debris Naturally, I was bawling my head off. Jeremy sat and talked with me for a minute until I could act like a normal human being and then he left very quickly. lol. Troy is kinda the same way. He’ll give me an awkward hug and try to make as quick a getaway as possible whenever I’m crying about something sad. He’s actually banned me from watching anymore news because as soon as he got home I started bawling again and talking about what I’d seen on the news. That’s when he told me I couldn’t watch the news anymore because it is depressing and all it does is make me cry.
But this devastation. So many people have lost so much. Thankfully, the death toll has gone down as people have been accounted for and the medical examiner has been able to stabilize the situation a bit. 24 have been confirmed deceased, down from the 51 that was reported earlier. Apparently, some deceased individuals had been counted twice and they had also thought the number of children at the school had been higher. So far, they have only confirmed 9 children total for the entire area, down from the original 20-30 they said had died at the school. Thank goodness for that. Some news sources had said 91 fatalities, but maybe that was a typo? Who knows. I’m just glad the number has gone down.
It’s just so heartbreaking to see these children crying and scared. Also watching parents talk about searching for their children. The poor woman and one son were searching for the other son, who was at the school. The dad sitting outside the school, waiting for his son to be found. Children looking for parents. Parents looking for children and each other. My friend’s dad found her and then they had to look for her mother. Thankfully, they found her and were able to go home to an undamaged home. So many others were not so blessed.
I can’t get the image out of my mind of the newscaster talking about how the 7-11 behind her had the newly-found body of a mother and her 7-month-old baby. I keep hearing that poor little girl crying and talking about her friend’s blood in her hair.
Even with all the devastation and loss, there has been good. So many people are coming together to help. Offers of help and kind thoughts are flooding in from all over the world. So many people in OKC have donated truckloads of supplies to help those who have lost everything. Two guys said they filled their car and spent hours trying to get to a triage center to bring whatever they could to help the people. THAT, that right there, is the true heart of an Oklahoman. Ready to help when it is needed. Brave the aftermath of a tornado to rescue those who are trapped. A woman gathering pictures in a field to return them to families who have lost everything else. Comforting children who are waiting for parents. Consoling parents who are frantic over trapped children.
Oklahomans may be a different breed of people, but you can’t say they don’t put their differences aside and band together when it counts. I may still feel like crying about the children who have suffered and the families who have lost everything, but the one beautiful thing in all of this is how those who weren’t affected, and even those who were, are so willing to get down to it and do what needs to be done to help. Everyone is being a true follower of Christ and helping their neighbor. What a beautiful example of love and selflessness. What a wonderful confirmation that even in the darkest of times and the most difficult of circumstances, there are still those who are willing to sacrifice and put themselves in harm’s way to bring comfort and safety to those around them.
Though this storm is a dark day in Oklahoma’s history, the nation’s history, the love the people of Oklahoma have shown for each other and the example of neighborliness they have shown to the world is a beacon of hope and a ray of light for everyone to see. This is a terrible tragedy and so much has been lost, but so much strength has been shown in people’s willingness to care for the stranger in need and the friends they love. That is what we should be taking from this: there are good people and good deeds in this world. Though there is darkness and devastation, there is also love and kindness. There is beauty in picking up the pieces and helping others rebuild. There is beauty in giving of yourself for those you know and those you don’t and there is beauty in comforting those who stand in need of comfort. Can we not all do some small deed that will bring some beauty and light into these dark days?
- Tornadoes Rip Through Kansas, Oklahoma (huffingtonpost.com)
- Police: School near OKC directly hit by tornado (newsok.com)
- Oklahoma tornado: mother reunited with son (telegraph.co.uk)
- Raw video: Parents reunite with children after tornado levels Oklahoma elementary school (politics.kfyi.com)
- Massive Tornado Takes Aim At Moore, Oklahoma (npr.org)
- VIDEO: Oklahoma ravaged by tornadoes (bbc.co.uk)
- PHOTOS: Oklahoma Tornado (5newsonline.com)
- VIDEO: Oklahoma’s tornadoes (fox4kc.com)
- Tornadoes Sweep Across Kansas, Oklahoma (ktla.com)
- Massive Tornado Hits Oklahoma (voanews.com)