We got an email from the church right after the tornado went through Moore, Oklahoma that they'd be taking teams down. We emailed that we were available and then started making plans. School wasn't even out yet. We almost went with the first team last weekend but I did not feel emotionally ready and Scott was still not 100percent from his spider bite. So we went Wednesday night to the meeting and committed to go this weekend.
I made several trips to thrift stores to get work gloves and snacks and work pants and to look for boots. I got some army pants at a thrift store and then looked at Walmart for boots. All they had were men's boots and they didn't fit me then a sales lady came out and showed me these awesome work shoes with steel toes, thick soles and pink on them! Perfect! I even found pink work gloves in the gardening section.
Tuesday Richard Bryant face booked messaged me to ask if we were going. I was happy since he was a lot of fun in Joplin. We went to the organizing meeting on Wednesday and met two of the guys who would be going, Roger, and Mike. Richard called Thursday night to say that his friend Mike was going too, Mike's first mission. Mike was going to take his truck and pull a trailer with a skid loader so we offered to take our car, too. Richard told us to meet at the church parking lot and we'd load up and try to get out of Manhattan by 3 putting us in Moore about 8:30.
We left the house early all packed and ready to go. We got the the church and waited and waited. We finally got a hold of Richard and he said he'd be there around 3. He showed up at 3:30. He had texted and said we should just hop in with them since the truck was a king cab. So we threw all our stuff into the back and started to load up. As we were loading, Scott commented that it was supposed to rain in Oklahoma and was concerned about the stuff getting wet. I happened to notice and point out a large split in one of the trailer tires. So they called to see if we could go get the tire changed. They had us follow them there and we all put our soft belongings in the back of our car. It was going to be awhile so Scott and I decided to just go ahead in our car.
As we left Kansas and got into Oklahoma, we could see huge black clouds on the horizon. We were listening to xm sports talk and I convinced Scott to put on a local station. They were reporting really bad storms and probable tornadoes. We kept going carefully then when they started reporting tornadoes for sure, we left the interstate and went to a McDonalds in Blackwell, Oklahoma. We looked at the radar and watched the news and heard about the tornadoes causing more damage and heading to the same area was that had been hit. There were many motorists on the interstate on Oklahoma where cars were flipped and people were injured and killed and then flash flooding. We were prayng hard for the people. We pretty much had decided to stay there in Blackwell when the team caught up with us. They decided to go on and see how far they could go even through the highway patrol was saying not to go into the city at all.
One of out team members, Mike, had gone ahead of us by himself since he had a wedding to attend near Moore. We got a call from him and he said that he was in Norman and a tornado was headed there, too. He ended up riding out part of the storm in a Walmart parking lot and slept all night in his truck.
Scott and I slept well in a Hotel in Blackwell and got up at 530 and got on the road by 6. We got to into Moore around 745 and there was power out and cars wrecked and stalled along the road blocks from the church.
We arrived at the small, older Weslyan church in May just as the team was starting their devotions. Mike arrived around the same time. We met 6 guys from a ministry called Poured Out. These guys run a not for profit ministry that go to all the natural disasters as well as building wells and purified water systems in third world countries. They are the guys who built a shower trailer that we used gratefully in Joplin. They had caravaned from Michigan with all kinds of large equipment and plan to stay in Moore for most of the summer. They started doing this with Katrina and had more recently done a lot of work with hurricane Sandy and all the disasters in between. These guys are sold out for Jesus and they are crazy fun.
So we set out to work Saturday morning after devotions at around 9. We went to one of the neighborhoods hardest hit, blocks of destroyed houses with various stacks of belongings, lots of belongings and materials strewn around the lots and smashed vehicles everywhere. There were groups of people milling around dressed alike in either bright t shirts or white hard hats. There are several groups that do disaster work around the country. We were wearing neon yellow shirts that the Poured Out guys gave us.
We pulled up near some of the skid loaders and no one really explained what to do. The equipment was pushing piles of stuff around. Finally they said to pull out scrap metal from the piles and put it in separate piles then eventually load it onto trailers. Turns out, that is one of the ways the Poured Out guys cover their costs. So perfect, recycle, help out a great ministry and allow them to really help the homeowners. That is what we did for much of the first day. Richard and I had a two hour side track as we agreed to go the the scrap metal yard which turned out to be closed and ran out of gas because gas pumps need electricity and much of Moore is still without electricity.
We slept at the church on cots. The church is old, leaky, and moldy but the people were very nice.
The second day, we went to the back of the lots where the skid loaders couldn't get because it was too muddy and we just cleaned. Much of what we cleaned up was house materials; boards, roof shingles, siding, but there are people's belongings all mixed in; clothes, toys, broken furniture, dishes, toothbrushes, etc. none of it salvageable. It's really sad.
This kind of work is extremely tiring and you have to let go of all sanitation and hygiene needs. We peed in a disgusting Johnny on the spot a long walk away. The weather was really nice, sunny, a cool breeze. We ate fabulously because there was a group from Texas there who had taken up donations, brought a large smoker and sat there grilling brisket, chicken, steak, and bacon which we had for three meals. And we snacked and munched all day.
On these trips, I always pray for divine appointments. I didn't feel that occurred so much this time but we did get lots of chances to talk to homeowners and let them tell their stories and just provide emotional support. We heard some stories about how they rode out the storm, five adults in a closet holding the door shut, several families with kids that had been in the school where kids died but theirs were ok, three dogs that a family found unharmed later, a guy wandering around looking for his car that must have gotten carried far. People were really scared again on Friday night when the second storm hit. Many tried to run. Most seemed really positive, grateful to be alive and uninjured, hopeful about rebuilding. All of those I spoke to, I estimate about eight, expressed a strong faith in God. We were able to offer help to two additional families. Two ladies had pulled up and just looked overwhelmed. When we said we'd sign them up for free assistance to get their lot cleaned up, they were really relieved and happy and hugged us. All the people were incredibly grateful to all the volunteers who had come to help.
The guys noticed another tire problem before we left but quickly got that changed out. We got home late Sunday evening.
We will be leading a group down again the end of June. This was a good experience overall but it feels like for the effort involved, we did so very little. I was happy to have gotten a chance to visit with so many of the homeowners. They will need continued prayer and help.
