Disaster Recovery Underway in Oklahoma

More than 430 homes were destroyed and many more severely damaged.

Oklahomans are pulling together with Federal, state, and local organizations to help recover from back-to-back tornadoes that struck Central Oklahoma on May 8 and 9. More than 430 single family dwellings were reported destroyed and several times that number sustained major or minor damage. Many businesses, such as the 3,000-employee General Motors Assembly Plant, were shut down or had operations curtailed by the storms. There was one fatality and more than 100 persons injured.

The greatest destruction occurred in the City of Moore (12 miles South of downtown Oklahoma City), which only four years earlier had taken the brunt of a massive F-5 tornado. Very quickly, on May 10, President Bush declared nine counties a disaster area, enabling residents and businesses to apply to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for individual assistance. The Counties are: Canadian, Cleveland, Grady, Kingfisher, Lincoln, Logan, McClain, Oklahoma, and Pottawatomie.

Disaster victims should contact FEMA for instructions on applying for assistance by calling 1-800-621-FEMA (TTY: 1-800-462-7585). If you are a homeowner with an FHA-insured mortgage, you should contact your lender for further information. If your records have been destroyed or you have any FHA-related questions, please call HUD's National Servicing Center at 1-888-297-8685.

On May 14, Cleveland, Lincoln, Oklahoma, and Osage Counties were made eligible for certain types of Public Assistance, such as debris removal. FEMA also opened five Disaster Recovery Centers at:

• 301 S. Howard , Moore, OK
  
  
• 300 W. Mid-America, Midwest City, OK
  
  
• T.H. Rogers Lumber Bldg., 211 N. 3rd Ave., Stroud, OK
  
  
• 6700 NW 36th Street, Bethany, OK (until May 23)
  
  
• 28 E. Main Street, Edmond, OK (until May 23)

Staff in the HUD Oklahoma City Field Office immediately canvassed public housing authorities and HUD-assisted multifamily properties. Thankfully, none had been seriously damaged. This and other information was shared with FEMA, even as they were still setting up their field office.

HUD also provided staff support at the Moore Disaster Recovery Center for several days. "FEMA has the lead responsibility in helping citizens during a presidential-declared disaster, but we wanted HUD to be right beside them to help identify temporary housing resources and assist in any way we can." said Bill Tolbert, Disaster Recovery Coordinator for HUD's Oklahoma City Field Office.

The process of clean-up, temporary housing, insurance adjusting, and rebuilding goes forward. It will be a long time before things are back to normal for a lot of families, but each day brings the communities closer to that goal.