Okiemommy's Journal **What I realized today about our journey**

[Dace]

Glad to hear that you made it thru unscathed!

 

[Okiemommy]

Thank you Punkin and Dace.

It really is terrible. I had that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach all day yesterday. I know when I get that feeling it isn't good.

On the day of the May 3rd 1999 tornado, the same feeling haunted me all morning and afternoon. I went to my grandmothers house to visit. I was 7 months pregnant at the time with our first child. I was 19 about to turn 20. My husband was away at Marine Corps boot camp. I lingered there for a long, long time, and took a long hard look at everything around me. Almost like I was catalogueing the house in my memory. That house was my refuge in so many ways while growing up. I wanted to take some of my grandmothers things and take them to my house because I felt I needed to save them. I had no idea why I felt that way. It was so strange. I didn't know about the storms yet, or that the meteorologists predicted it would be one of the worst storm days in history. I just had to go and be there, and smell the smells and see the things and look at them for a long time.

A couple of hours later they started tracking storms on the news. Large thunderstorms had started forming around the Lawton and again at the Chickasha areas which are cities directly SW of us. A tornado began forming near Chickasha. It kept going, and didn't stop. It stayed on the ground for hours. When it got to Moore it was recorded as an F-5, when it got to Del City it was recorded as an F-4, and then F-3. I called my grandmothers house to ask them if they were watching the news. They were and said they would be getting in the closet, and that my brother was throwing things out of the closet as we spoke to clear a place for them. I had gone to work hours before the threat of the tornado begun and was at work when it hit. I watched it hit my grandma's neighborhood on the radar. I waited until after I knew it had passed completely and called the house. The phone just gave me a fast busy signal. The kind of busy signals that you get when the phone is disconnected. I started bawling and left work to get down there. My work was several miles away and a straight shot. I finally got over to the crest of the hill, and I could see Tinker AFB...You're not supposed to be able to see Tinker. There are supposed to be houses, and trees... And there were more police cars in one place than I had ever seen in my life. I stopped counting at forty. I started having contractions. Our old piece of &%$@! blazer started overheating. Sobbing uncontrollably, I had to turn around and go to my parents house(where I was staying until my husband got back from boot camp) to see if anyone knew what was going on. I came home to an empty house. The neighbors told me that my parents left to go find my grandma and brother. The power was out-the tornado had hit less than 100 yards from my parents house-so I sat in the dark and cried, and tried to calm down. About 45 minutes later my parents drive up with my brother and grandma, and a complete stranger in the truck. I thought they were dead. My brother got out of the truck and I ran up to him and threw my arms around him and just lost it. I hugged my grandma and then they told us what happened.

My grandma was cooking dinner when they started to cover the storms over in Moore. My brother began to clean out the closet and get things ready. As soon as they heard the tornado coming, they got into the closet. A lot of people say that it sounds like a freight train. But we disagree. The Air Force tests Jet Engines at the air Force base. Anyone who has heard the test engines says that it sounds nothing like a freight train, but like Jet engines. My brother had to hold the closet door shut and the closet ceiling got pulled up and sat back down again. Some sheet rock fell on my grandmas head and cut her up a bit. After it was over, they came out to blue sky above them. the roof was gone over every room in the house except for the kitchen and entry way. The garage was collapsed. The front door was still there and passable(actually a bit of a nice thing to have while cleaning up, to still be able to walk through the front door a few more times.) The neighbors houses around hers were either flattened or in the same condition except for a few. Some of them are still standing today. Five of them in all including the one across the street. My grandma went over the the neighbors across the street. They had been friends for over 40 years. All of the families moved here basically together to work for Tinker when their bases were closed. My brother went to help people get out of their storm shelters. They picked the stranger up on the way out of the neighborhood. He was in his closet when the storm hit also. The only part of his house that was left was the closet he was in.

 

[dacjohns]

What a traumatic experience. I can imagine how you must feel in tornado weather.

 

[lorihadams]

Bless your heart! I know you must have been scared out of your mind, not to mention how scared your brother and grandma must have been. Whew, that gave me goose bumps just reading it. Glad everything is okay tonight....

 

[Okiemommy]

Thank you guys

It didn't really bother for me for a couple of years. Then slowly I began to get more and more freaked out by storms. Probably after several more smaller tornadoes that followed part of the same track, that I was always in the vicinity of! There was a girl I used to work with that was in the May 3rd Tornado and she lived in Bridgecreek. It's a small town that sustained several fatalities. It was hit really badly by that tonado and Every time it would start raining, she would have panic attacks. I really felt for her, b/c she could not help it.

I used to really enjoy heavy thunderstorms. Now I wonder what else will be coming with them. Puts a damper on it, but I can handle it. I know what to do in case of a tornado

 

[justusnak]

OKiemommy....I was there in 99, when that tornado hit. We lived just off MWBLV and 15th. I too used to love storms...now...even clouds make my blood run cold. The smell afterwards is something you can not explain. My husband was stationed at TAFB. He was at the base when it hit, I was home alone with 4 kids. We now live in INdiana. Its not near as bad here, as it is there with the tornados..but some days..I wonder. Last fall when our bad season hit..I of course came to the basement. Safe...right!? One would think. Well... I was sitting in my chair..in the corner...watching the weather reports on the tv across the room about 10 feet away, when BAM!! Lightening stuck outside..came IN the window across the room from me, and out the other side of the basement. To say I was freaked out is an understatement. I just dont "do storms" Doesnt seem there is any place safe from them. Stay safe!

 

[2dream]

Okie - glad you are safe and did not have a direct hit. I really feel for all those people having to deal with this.

Living in Mississippi we deal with the tornados and hurricanes each season. I know how scary and devastating they are. Hurricanes do more wides spread damage when they hit but tornados do more overall damage because they hit more often.

And justusnak - you are right. Sometimes there is just no safe place. All we can do is the best we can and know that some places are safer than others.

Weather wise - its been a bad winter for a lot of folks. Hope the spring brings better news.

 

[Okiemommy]

So you know exactly how I feel justusnak : I related to everything you said in your post. Especially the smell after wards. It's almost like (metaphorically speaking) the souls of the homes uprooted and become exposed to the world. The insulation, the lumber, the gas leaks, the obvious void of familiar smells. It's like the entire infrastructure of the home and it's family's memories were put into a giant blender, someone hit puree and left the lid off for it to explode out onto the face of the earth for everyone to see, taste, smell and hear.

I remember now that there used to be a horse barn on the corner of the Base that got hit. I think all of the horses were killed or had to be put down? One horse, somewhere, not sure where, was impaled by a two by four and was running around in circles in his paddock. I'm wanting to say that happened at Tinker, but could have been somewhere else. I had a friend that I went to highschool with that lived in a neighborhood in OKC just across the road from my parents neighborhood. The neighborhood was grandfathered in to be able to keep livestock of all kinds, horses, sheep chickens etc. My friend broke and trained some of the horses down the street. Out of the 25 horses in that neighborhood, 2 of them lived. His neighborhood took a direct hit from the tornado. Some of those houses only had a concrete slab left. He went down the street to check on the horses he had trained and broke. His favorite was still alive with her eyes sucked out. Bawling his eyes out, he put her down.

ugh I can't imagine going through that tornado with four kids. I think as we have added more children to our brood my panic has risen. Especially if I'm by myself and a bad storm hits. I'm clearly outnumbered and can I get them to the shelter in time? What if one hits suddenly and there is no warning? I'm glued to the TV or something that would alert me to severe weather all storm season. Here in tornado alley especially Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, I feel like we can't afford not to pay attention to the weather every day in the spring.

Idk, but a basement makes it more scary for me, it just seems like it's a huge underground space for the whole house to fall into! But then I didn't grow up with basements in tornado alley, so I imagine that is just ignorance on my part.

I was driving on 29th and Penn a couple of years after the Tornado and lightning struck a transformer about 30 feet from me one night. I nearly had a heart attack. I couldn't imagine it striking feet from me! That is scary justusnak!!!


oh btw for anyone who reads this that has noticed, heard or ever hears that oklahoma doesn't have basements, we don't have many at all here because of several reasons that all work together that would make basements a bad choice here. Water table, hard clay soil, drastic temperature and humidity changes from one day to the next, and a million fault plates are just some of the reasons that our houses don't have basements. Just FYI for anyone who comes along b/c I have heard alot of statements like this: "Why don't you crazy people have basements?!?! ^_^ It's because we can't have them; the ground shifts too much, and we have bad enough foundation issues as it is.

Okie - glad you are safe and did not have a direct hit. I really feel for all those people having to deal with this.

Living in Mississippi we deal with the tornados and hurricanes each season. I know how scary and devastating they are. Hurricanes do more wides spread damage when they hit but tornados do more overall damage because they hit more often.

And justusnak - you are right. Sometimes there is just no safe place. All we can do is the best we can and know that some places are safer than others.

Weather wise - its been a bad winter for a lot of folks. Hope the spring brings better news.

Thank you 2dream Mee too.

I couldn't imagine dealing with both tornadoes and hurricanes.

although we did have a tropical depression that made it all the way up here that I had to drive 30 miles home in! That was weird! Good thing that I forgot at the time(right up until I was almost home) that the dang things spawn tornadoes! I probably would have had a nervous breakdown lol

It has been a bad winter this year. I remember someone starting a thread on BYC back in the early fall or late summer saying that the farmers almanac predicted a harsh/cold winter for most of the country.

ha ha spring...Tornado season. :/

 

[justusnak]

Okie.....you are right to be " glues to the TV in bad weather" I lived in MWC for 11 yrs. 1981 - 1992. Went to Alaska for 6 yrs, then back to MWC 98-99. Moved to Indiana in 99, and am still here.
Yes there was a horse barn on the corner there on TAFB. I was devastated to hear, no one had the time to get there and free those poor horses.
Dont think you wont have time to get those kiddos in a safe place. Trust me..."momma bear" kicks in when there is danger, and you will be surprised what you can accomplish. I was able to get 4 kids, a golden retriever, and a siberian husky in the bathtub. All were settled in..and safe with a mattress close by...in case. The dogs were glad to lay in there all snuggled up with 4 kids with piles of blankets, and treats. It wierd, dogs just know....and the dogs kept the kids calm. Try not to panic. I know...easier said than done. But, when the times get scarey...as a mother...instinct kicks in. You will be just fine. Have a plan...empty closet...pile in pillows and blankets..and IF you have a single mattress....throw that in on top of you all. Also...ALWAYS take in a few family pics, flashlight, and stuffed animal,(favorite toy) for the wee ones. I say family pics...cause while you are sitting in there, if the kids are old enough, its a distraction to talk about the pics. This DOES WORK!
I have to say...tornados are one of my biggest fears. Haveing lived through several..and a few really devestateing ones like the one there.....I have a LOT more respect for thier power.
The store of your friends horse brought tears to my eyes. I cant imagine the pain the BOTH went through. How horrid! If I remember right, all the horses on TAFB were killed in that one.
When we left there, I never looked back. Im sure some of those homes were rebuilt there next to the base.....but it will never be the same.

 

[Okiemommy]

Yep all of the horses on Tinker Died, I'm pretty sure.

That's a good point about the momma bear thing. I felt that way the other day when the storms were headed our way. Good thing they went farther North. They usually do in the Winter time, but not always. You just never know. :/

Yep most of the homes have been rebuilt. Remember how you could see people's backyards on Sooner? Now there is a walking/jogging trail there back behind everyone's house and a memorial to the people from Del City who died. It's a tall black marble slab with an Eagle, and four green iron park benches placed around it. They have rebuilt most of the houses now. Many people built some really large houses when they re-built. A few of them take up two lots. It's the nicest neighborhood in Del City. The rest of the city has seemed to Decline. I don't know how much of that has to do with the govt that was elected, but I have heard things about all of that, or how much of it was to do with the tornado, or both. When I graduated Del City, our grad class was 420 something. Now it's like high 200's. My senior year we had 41 validictorians (SP??HAHAcan you tell I was not one and last year they had sevenI think

We take the kids trick r treating there every year (because of tradition from when I was a kid, and b/c we don't have a neighborhood persay since we live on acreage. We go to see my grandma's friends across the street every Halloween while taking the kids out. I went to school with his grandson, and he would baby sit me a couple of times when my parents were working and when my grandparents were out of town visiting family in PA. Before I met him he got throat cancer and had to have his voice box taken out so you have to listen really close to understand him. I used to shadow him when he did projects around his yard. One time he bricked in a front Garden bed and a sidewalk next to it, and I was there the duration of it like a little shadow. He always enjoyed answering my relentlessly curious questions. ^_^

There was also another neighbor of my grandparents that lived next door to them. She made it through the tornado also. She was an eccentric woman. At least once a year we would see her name in the paper for an obituary from that town. And really how many with her name lived in that town? ^_^ So we would go to check on her and see how she was, hoping that she was okay, and there she would be. She eventually did actually die, but I would swear that woman wrote out her obituary and put it in the paper every so often to get people to come visit her. ^_^ I looked at her real obituary and it was identical. Seriously.