By ANDREA EGER World Staff Writer on Jul 6, 2013, at 2:23 AM??Updated on 7/06/13 at 9:05 AM
MOORE - Erin Cummings lives nearly 1,700 miles away in suburban Boston and had never been to Oklahoma in all of her 56 years.But as she sat watching news coverage of the May 20 tornado that killed 24 people and laid waste to structures across a span of 17 miles, she knew she had to come.
"There is a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness that comes with disasters," said Cummings, a social worker. "Having been through what we've just been through in Boston, we know that feeling - but with that there was nothing we could do."
So last Sunday, she and her accountant husband, Rich, 58, and their youngest child, Martin, 13, hopped a plane to Dallas and drove until they got to the headquarters of the biggest volunteer coordination group in Moore.
They've taken as many job referrals as they could every day except the Fourth of July holiday, cutting down trees, removing debris, rebuilding fences and even helping to unload a tractor trailer full of donated laundry supplies.
"I'm ready to move here because the people of Oklahoma are fabulously warm and welcoming. It has been the best week of my life," Erin Cummings said.
Moore City Manager Stephen Eddy said debris removal is way ahead of schedule largely because of the tens of thousands of volunteers who have descended onto his hometown.
"Having the misfortune of being the only city ever hit twice by an F-5 tornado has a lot of people feeling sorry for us," Eddy said. "We are already two-thirds to three-fourths done with debris removal, which is farther along than we were by this point in '99, even though there are several hundred more homes destroyed."
Faith-based FEMA
Serve Moore didn't exist before May 21, when volunteers from a dozen area churches organized what would soon become the largest coordinator of volunteer services in the tornado recovery effort.One pastor's slick website design and a full-court press on social media sites including Facebook and Twitter have made getting help and giving help more immediate and accessible than in previous storm cleanups here.
"It's the Internet," said Ben Whaley, who, as project coordinator at Serve Moore, has personally seen many of the 10,000-plus volunteers who have filtered through the doors of the church gymnasium that serves as the group's headquarters. "I am floored by the number of people who just drive in and say 'I want to help.' "
Friday's numbers were atypically low because of the holiday weekend, but among the 150 volunteers who had arrived by noon, only 10 were Oklahoma residents.
"We've had people from San Francisco, Los Angeles and a group of 50 from St. Louis that got on a bus in the middle of the night to come here," Whaley said.
A little more than six weeks since the tornado and less than two until the deadline for affected residents to have their slabs cleared, jobs involving large debris are dwindling. That has presented a unique challenge for some.
"A lot of people come picturing tree limbs and boards in their minds, but it's fiberglass, nails, and even chewing gum wrappers," Whaley said. "After the '99 tornado, a lot of small debris was left behind and built on top of but it sifted up to the surface for two to three years afterward. We don't want the memory of this to be sifting up for the next two to three years, but it's the hardest thing to get volunteers excited about."
Pitching in
Since parts of south Oklahoma City were affected by the May 20 tornado, as well as by a tornadic storm that swept through May 31, Serve Moore is also dispatching volunteers to meet needs in neighborhoods to the north.The Cummings' first of four jobs Friday was rebuilding a fence destroyed by a downed, 70-foot tall cottonwood tree. They worked alongside a couple from Burbank, Calif.
"I think it's crazy that they came all that way, but it's gracious and a godsend," said Charlie Barnhill, the resident of the house on Southeast 35th Street.
Other faith-based groups are working in the area, as well, including the First United Methodist-affiliated Oklahoma Volunteers in Mission.
One of their teams, a youth group from Hinton, made the 75-minute drive to arrive every morning this week by 7 a.m.
Even in an 8 a.m. rain shower Friday, they kept lifting, shoveling, and pushing the splintered remnants of a house on Southwest 14th Street, just a few blocks due west of Plaza Towers Elementary School.
"This is the third house on this street we've done this week and we're going to finish," said team leader Marla Pankratz. "I told the kids it's a lot cooler at 7 a.m. than 4 p.m., but I have to say, 'God is good,' because it's only been in the 80s and breezy all week."
Outlook for Moore
City Manager Eddy said experience has shown that Moore will be completely rebuilt and thriving once again within two to three years."It has happened before and it happened again, and we deal with it," he said. "It's hard to say, particularly because of the loss of life, but our community will be better than we were before."
City officials will soon turn their focus to the rebuilding of destroyed parks and encouraging the restoration of emergency medical services and the rebuilding of the many small business that were lost.
School district leaders, meanwhile, are already well on their way to approving architectural plans for the rebuilding of Plaza Towers and Briarwood elementary schools and the Highland East Junior High School gymnasium.
"We plan to break ground in August and reopen in August 2014," said new Superintendent Robert Romines. "We are just waiting on the clearance to remove the slabs."
While the timeline may seem ambitious, Moore school leaders are certain it is possible because they rebuilt another elementary school in the same period after it was razed by the May 1999 tornado.
"It seems so unreal, but the things we have been faced with these last six weeks seemed so unreal and we have gotten through them. We are a pretty resilient community," Romines said.
That resilience is what has won Moore not just one of its newest supporters, but also one of its biggest fans.
Since Serve Moore was closed for the holiday on Thursday, Erin Cummings and her family joined the city's residents for their annual, all-day festivities.
"Being here for the Fourth was special because it was packed - just a sea of people. To think how many of these people have lost everything, and here they are just six weeks later celebrating our freedom - that's what we're about as a country, isn't it? It's why we are supposed to help."
Moore tornado, by the numbers
Fatalities: 24Injured: Nearly 350
Debris removed by Moore city contractors: 95,940 tons
Individual assistance applications approved by FEMA: 2,990
Individual and Households Program funds approved by FEMA: $11.6 million
Housing assistance funds approved by FEMA: $8.2 million
Other needs assistance funds approved by FEMA: $3.4 million
Sources: Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, City of Moore, FEMA
Toby Keith's twister relief concert
With Toby Keith, Garth Brooks, Ronnie Dunn, Trisha Yearwood, Carrie Underwood (via satellite), Willie Nelson, Sammy Hagar, Mel Tillis, John Anderson, Krystal Keith, Kellie Coffey and more.When: 3 p.m. Saturday. Gates open 1:30 p.m.
Where: University of Oklahoma's Gaylord Family Stadium, 180 W. Brooks St., Norman
Tickets: Sold out. Venue capacity is about 80,000.
Note: Proceeds will benefit the United Way of Central Oklahoma May Tornadoes Relief Fund
Andrea Eger 918-581-8470
andrea.eger@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Moore help still offered
Only active print or digital subscribers of the Tulsa World are allowed to post comments on stories posted to Tulsaworld.com. After you fill out the form below and click submit, your comment will be published instantly online along with your screen name.
By clicking "Submit" you are agreeing to our terms and conditions.
nfl combine hugo hugo 84th annual academy awards beginners 2012 oscars the shore
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.