More than 60 homes damaged, 19 hurt in Ardmore
Ardmore is left picking up the pieces following a devastating tornado Saturday night that was a part of the storms that rolled through Oklahoma.
ARDMORE, Okla. (KFOR) — Ardmore is left picking up the pieces following a devastating tornado Saturday night that was a part of the storms that rolled through Oklahoma.
Of the 52 total homes effected, 17 of them were a total loss. The residents we spoke to say things can be replaced, but people can't.
"I didn't make it to the shelter. I was in the laundry room and pretty much got in the fetal position," said Shelby Borger-Wright, Ardmore resident. "The sirens were blaring, the wind was whipping and debris was flying outside just moments before the tornado hit."
"We started moving towards the storm shelter when the sirens went off," said Steven Hill, Ardmore resident. "But then when our windows started collapsing in and smashing on us, we we booked it into the storm shelter."
I said, 'hurry, hurry' and she's carrying the cats," said Dennis Wright, Ardmore resident. "And the door came in the garage door and when it did, I just dove into the hole
Emergency management assessed the damage across the city yesterday and today.
"For the county, we've got 17 houses destroyed, a total of 52 affected in one way or another," said Amber Wilson, director of Ardmore Emergency Management.
Thankfully no one was killed, but Wilson says there were 19 people with injuries.
"A lot of that was just from afterwards, you know, maybe going through debris and things like that. But we were very fortunate," said Wilson.
She says they have already done a proclamation of disaster with the governor and are applying for federal assistance as well. While money will help rebuild, it won't replace what was lost.
"It's sinking in. We don't have a house. We don't have we don't know where we're going to stay," said Wright
"And so now it's just kind of rebuilding and starting over," said Borger-Wright.