Despite the destruction throughout the Oak Grove community, many feel lucky to be alive.
“When it was over I could tell it was over because the nose had stopped, I stepped out of my garage and it was getting rained, so I knew my, it rained so I knew it was gone,” said father of four Roger Hipster.
The National Weather Service tells 41 Action News deaths during an EF-3 tornado, like the one that hit Oak Grove, are usually isolated in nature. However, they also credit awareness campaigns before tornadoes in helping save lives.
They say people were given a 20 to 30-minute warning before the tornado hit Oak Grove, giving people plenty of time to take shelter. It also helps most people living in Oak Grove have basements to take shelter.
“Everybody knew that the tornado was coming we had the tornado sirens going,” said Ricky Romero, who had minor damage to the roof of her rental property.
Some fielded calls from loved ones, who were calling to tell them to take shelter.
“Our daughter called and was telling us get into the basement right now,” said Rick Parr.
Day two of clean up gave time for the reality of what happened in Oak Grove to sink in with homeowners. There were tears, but they were tears of joy that everyone is ok.
“You know you can’t get life back and that is all that matters so but yeah I was very surprised no one died especially up on the hill there is a lot of places, worse than this even so,” said Hipsher.
-----
Ali Hoxie can be reached at ali.hoxie@kshb.com
