MOORE, Okla. (AP) - Two years after a massive tornado destroyed homes and businesses in Moore, residents are still recovering.
The May 20, 2013, tornado carved a 17-mile-long path of destruction through the southern Oklahoma City suburb, killing 24 people including seven children inside the Plaza Towers Elementary School.
Moore resident Cathy McGuire’s house was destroyed by the tornado along with the school and much of the rest of the neighborhood. On April 26, McGuire moved into a new house built where her old house had stood. Like many in her neighborhood, she got assistance from several nonprofit relief agencies, The Oklahoman reported Sunday (https://bit.ly/1Q4T3Fd ).
“It just has been a godsend to all of us,” she said. “I don’t know where we would have been without them.”
In the weeks after the storm, McGuire met with case managers from the Oklahoma Disaster Recovery Project. The agency is a coalition of several nonprofit and faith-based organizations, including the American Red Cross and Catholic Charities. The group came up with enough money to rebuild McGuire’s house and helped her manage the project.
“I knew I wanted to live here,” she said. “But it made me feel more like I belonged here.”
Robin Eddy, program director for the Oklahoma Disaster Recovery Project, said the agency still is managing 519 open cases statewide from the May 2013 tornadoes.
In some cases, those residents received FEMA disaster assistance money or insurance settlements, only to learn the money wouldn’t cover the total cost of rebuilding or repairing their homes, Eddy said. In those cases, the group can provide gap funding to cover the rest of the cost, she said.
Although the program has been working with most of those residents for months, some of them are fairly new, Eddy said. Within the past two weeks, the group has opened eight new cases from the May 2013 tornadoes, she said.
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Information from: The Oklahoman, https://www.newsok.com
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