2 blocks...

Yesterday was so far the worst day of my life. My wife and I were separated, we had our son at a daycare (134th and Penn) and our daughter at her elementary school (134th and May). I met up with my wife, left my truck under a car wash because I heard hail was coming, and we were going to go pick up my daughter from school first because our son's daycare has a safe room. When we got to our daughter's school, they were already doing tornado precautions. The tornado was two minutes away and moving right towards us. We went to our daughters classroom where they had the kids all on their knees holding clipboards over their heads. REALLY?!!? I told the teacher to help me push their desks over the top of them and my wife, the building lost power, and the twister went right over her school. That was the longest few minutes of my life, I was sure the roof was going to rip off the building any second. It didn't and when we got the all clear, we went to pick up my son from daycare. It missed his daycare by 2 blocks. We then went to see if we still had a house. The closest we could get was about 1 mile away. I told my wife to wait in the car and I would walk to see what the damage was. The walk to our house was surreal. Several blocks were gone and nothing but a field stood in their place. Orr Family Farm was gone, dead and injured horses were all over the road. I got to my house and we ended up having only minor damage to the roof. The tornado once again missed us by 2 blocks. I called my wife and told her to go to her grandmothers because I was going to grab my gloves and flashlight and go see what I could do to help find others. I spent the next several hours helping pull peoples homes and belongings off of them and walking house to house with the national guard and others making sure each house was clear. It was like a scene out of a movie where a nuclear bomb had exploded. Walking around to the constant hiss of natural gas leaks from every bare foundation we passed, I couldn't help but thank the man upstairs for having spared us by those 2 blocks in multiple occasions. Finally late last night we headed to my wife's brother's home to stay since our home didn't have water, power or gas. We had to take the long way to Norman (I-44) due to the road closings, which brought us through Newcastle, where the tornado originally touched down and where our boat and many other belongings are stored. Once again, our storage was spared by only 2 blocks as the tornado crossed the highway at the river just north of the facility. We were lucky beyond belief yesterday in so many ways. Others were not so lucky. Anyway, sorry for the long rant, but it really makes you remember what's important in life! I feel so bad for the others out there and I slept with my arms wrapped around both of my children all night last night. Today we are doing what we can to help others, starting by donating blood at Riverwind Casino and going to see if anything is left at Sam's to take to the responders on the scene.

If there are any OSA members that need any help, including a place to stay, I have access to an furnished condo that has been offered by one of my clients.



If any of you are interested and haven't seen enough on the news, here is the link to my photobucket album of the pics I took along the way...

Moore Tornado

Thanks for your help with the victims bro. Glad the family is okay.

Glad you're ok... wow.

God was watching out for you and yours. Glad your family is safe!

Glad you and your family are ok SixSeven.

RKM said:

God was watching out for you and yours. Glad your family is safe!

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Does that mean God wasn't watching out for the others?

I'm glad your family is safe and the kiddos made it out safely. When you do good things for other people like yourself, karma has a way of paying you back.

I hope the lesson learned from this tragedy is the school system better prepares for future tornados. I honestly would have thought with the history of tornados in this area, they would have had shelters or safe rooms built to handle the number of children attending.

I hope the victims find comfort in knowing they are not alone during this time of tragedy and the people of Oklahoma will stand together and provide as much help as needed like we did during the Joplin tornado a few years ago.

I lived in that area as a kid, went to Southgate Elemetary which is 1 mile north of Plaza Towers. We lived close to KOMA and rode our bicycles all over this part of town. I was kinda taken back by a 7 year old girl saying she was hiding under her desk. I never remember tornado drills like that. We always went to the halls or and interior classroom (we didn't have any at Southgate) and huddled against a brick wall with our heads between our legs and hands on our heads. I discussed this with my daughter and my wife who is a teacher in Owasso and that is similiar to their precautions. I don't understand just hiding under the desk. I will never fault the teachers, my wife has been torn up for hours. She would do anything to protect her students and knows that my daughters teachers would do the same. That is what teachers do!

sixseven said:

Yesterday was so far the worst day of my life. [/URL]

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Glad you and your family are ok, but it sounds like you could look at this as the best day of your life, not so good for others.
God Bless

You are absolutely right. If its possible to have the best and worst day of your life at the same time, that was it.

Glad you and yours are all right. May God bless all those affected by the recent storms.