Moore, OK Tornado: May 21, 2013

"On the afternoon of May 20, 2013, an EF5 tornado, with peak winds estimated at 210 miles per hour, struck Moore, Oklahoma, and adjacent areas, killing 23 people (and an additional person indirectly), and injuring 377 others. The tornado was part of a larger weather system that had produced several other tornadoes over the previous two days. The tornado touched down west of Newcastle at 2:56 p.m., staying on the ground for 39 minutes over a 17-mile path, crossing through a heavily populated section of Moore. The tornado was 1.3 miles wide at its peak. Despite the tornado following a roughly similar track to the even deadlier 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado, very few homes and neither of the stricken schools had purpose-built storm shelters," (Wikipedia).

None of the images of tornado damage are my own - for obvious reasons, we have been asked to keep the photos we take in the disaster zone to a zero.

May 21, 2013 Oklahoma Tornado Path

Having been born and raised in Russia and spending the last 12 years of my life in New York, I have never experienced a tornado. I saw one once while on vacation in Pensacola, FL., but it was small and touched down on water. Aside from watching dozens of videos and looking through hundreds of pictures of the devastation, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I expected it to be bad, but in reality it was much, much worse.

We left Denver early on Memorial Day, and made our way to Kansas where we spent the night. A very stormy, windy night, but I suppose that comes with traveling through "tornado alley." We made it to Oklahoma City the following day, where we had to study up on FEMA's disaster relief course. I do have to mention here that as far as housing on disaster relief goes we got EXTREMELY lucky - Oklahoma University agreed to house volunteers in their honors dorms, give us access to all of their facilities (HUGE gym included, score), and feed us.

Honors dorm at Oklahoma University

The following morning we began with 6:30 a.m. breakfast followed by a 7 a.m. brief. For the first few days I was assigned to work at a donations warehouse on the Shawnee Absentee Tribe land, coordinating volunteers, unloading 18 wheelers full of donations that came from as far as NY (it was amazing to meet the FDNY disaster response team who was also one of the first teams to respond to 9/11), and sorting through piles and piles of donations. Clothing, toiletries, canned goods, baby items, medical supplies, the list is endless. Seeing a community come together after a disaster, neighbor helping neighbor, asking for nothing but a smile in return was truly touching. People drove from different states and set up tents on warehouse property just to be able to help out. I feel so fortunate to be a part of this experience.

Donations warehouse, Shawnee Absentee Tribe land

FDNY and fellow New Yorkers in Oklahoma!

Lunch is served, courtesy of the American Red Cross