Grateful Oklahomans salvage belongings after killer storm

Associated Press

SAND SPRINGS, Okla.

Oklahomans salvaged soggy belongings Thursday after the Plains’ first tornado outbreak of 2015, expressing gratitude that casualties were low but understanding that nature’s next punch could be far worse.

One person died and dozens of people were injured when tornadoes hit parts of the Oklahoma City and Tulsa areas during Wednesday’s evening rush hour. The mayor in Moore, an Oklahoma City suburb devastated by a massive tornado two years ago, called the storm that hit his city a “junior tornado.” But residents of hard-hit Sand Springs, just west of Tulsa, said the storm was agonizing.

“Tornadoes mean a loss for a lot of people and their property,” Lisa Reagle said as she rummaged through her father’s demolished mobile home looking for photographs of him playing music with Merle Haggard.

Deidre Maxwell scoured the debris for her parents’ prescription medications and any family keepsakes. She also was looking for the family car, a PT Cruiser that had been parked beside their mobile home.

“I don’t even know how I’m going to get in this,” she said, struggling to lift the front door from the nearly demolished trailer.

Wednesday’s storms broke a monthslong tornado drought in Oklahoma; a day earlier, an Arkansas waterspout was the first twister to hit the U.S. in a month.

Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency for 25 counties ahead of a visit to Moore, where seven school children were among 24 people killed in a top-scale EF-5 tornado in 2013. Wednesday’s storms were considerably weaker, and the governor said damage was still being assessed.