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The residents of Moore, Okla., began to pick up the pieces of their destroyed community Tuesday after a massive tornado more than a mile wide swept through the Oklahoma City suburb, destroying homes and killing at least 24 residents, including nine children. As survivors turn to state and federal authorities for immediate assistance, Oklahoma’s Republican senators, James Inhofe and Tom Coburn, are now faced with a dilemma as vocal critics of previous disaster-aid bills they deemed “wasteful federal spending.”
It was one of the worst storms that Brandon Sullivan had ever witnessed in his eight years chasing and recording storms across Oklahoma.
Meteorologists record the strength of tornadoes using the Enhanced Fujita scale, ranging from the weakest EF-0 to the strongest EF-5 storms. The scale is based upon wind speeds and the physical destruction caused by the storm.
“The tornado that struck Moore, Okla., yesterday was rated a very preliminary EF-4. They have not really been able to get a team out there and survey it yet, (but) they are doing that right now. It did appear that there was very catastrophic damage across the area. It’s unclear if it will be a [EF-4] or maybe higher than that,” Brandon Sullivan told Mint Press News.
Teams of researchers are currently surveying the damage after the National Weather Service recorded wind gusts up to 200 miles per hour during Monday’s storm.
Even in the central plains, an area known as “tornado alley” due to the large number of tornadoes that pass through each year, the latest tornado was one of the worst in recent years.
“It’s devastation. Homes are gone, the debris from individual houses are scattered all about. With a tornado of this magnitude, it’s not like the walls collapse and all your belongings are right there. Everything is just blown away… Cars are mangled and thrown into trees,” Sullivan said.
The storm was so powerful that debris was launched into the air, landing hundreds of miles away in neighboring Missouri. “I saw pictures from Missouri where debris was falling from the sky, from Moore a couple hundred miles away,” Sullivan said.
Relief efforts underway
Oklahoma Sens. Inhofe and Coburn will be put to the test in the wake of this disaster. Both are staunch fiscal conservatives who called for reductions in emergency aid during last year’s Hurricane Sandy. According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm killed hundreds and caused at least $50 billion in damage across the Eastern Seaboard. Despite the overwhelming need for immediate relief, the senators voted against a bill that would have provided about $50 billion in aid for hurricane victims.
Both have also called for reducing funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
President Barack Obama already declared a major disaster in Oklahoma on Monday, making federal funding available for affected areas. Workers from FEMA are expected to reach Moore in the coming days and private charitable organizations, like the Red Cross, are already on the scene.
The full impact is not yet known, but eyewitnesses believe that the recovery and cleanup will be substantial.
“I had heard that the tornado that hit Moore yesterday appeared to be a very large tornado. I can bet that we will be dealing with very significant numbers of people displaced from their homes. I know that there are shelters opening up all over, the Red Cross is obviously here doing what it can,” Sullivan said.
In addition to the traditional relief work agencies, new crowdsourced programs on the Internet are opening up new ways to meet the needs of affected residents.
Piratenpad, a new Internet site, is helping local residents organize relief efforts. Emergency numbers and shelter addresses are posted, as well as items that are needed by survivors. Items currently in need include ready-to-eat meals, canned goods, water, socks, underwear, T-shirts, bandages and basic first aid supplies, according to the site.
Piratenpad follows the model of grassroots relief organizing first seen during Hurricane Sandy, when faith-based groups and Occupy Sandy Recovery organized and dispatched volunteers to help affected communities after the October 2012 storm.