Love’s Travel Stops officials reopened a store May 15 that was destroyed when it was hit by a tornado on May 10, 2010. The store, at Interstate 40 and Choctaw Road, took a direct hit as Love’s general manager Warren Waltz and several employees and customers sought shelter inside. The new store is 11,000 square […]
tornado
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Moore’s code
Last week, the Moore City Council approved a measure to adopt new residential building codes. Beginning April 17, the city will require residential builders in Moore to add roof sheathing, hurricane clips or framing anchors, continuous plywood bracing and wind-resistant garage doors to their new homes. “We have seen from this (May 20, 2013) tornado […]
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Preaching relief
The state Baptist General Convention recently celebrated 40 years of its disaster-relief program that has assisted people from coast to coast in almost every type of tragedy, including hurricanes, floods, wildfires and tornadoes. In 2013, disaster-relief volunteers were spread thin as they helped clean up flooded homes in Colorado, provided assistance to superstorm Sandy victims […]
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Home cookin’
In July, she helped her dad raise nearly $2 million for the United Way of Central Oklahoma’s May Tornadoes Relief Fund. She performed for 60,000 people in Norman and with a lineup that included Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Trisha Yearwood and, of course, her daddy, Toby Keith. An Oklahoma native, her family has roots here […]
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Hunkered down
Kristi Conatzer said the governor has created an unneeded public debate over keeping children safe based on comments she made opposing an initiative petition. Conatzer’s daughter, Emily, was one of the seven children who died at Plaza Towers Elementary School. “There shouldn’t be an argument over this,” she said. “We lost something on May 20 […]
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Nowhere to hide
State Rep. Joe Dorman (D-Rush Springs) said the statewide figure demonstrates a greater problem because more than half a million students and teachers are without adequate protection from tornadoes. “It’s shocking how many school districts are without shelters,” he said at a meeting last week, highlighting a report released the week of Sept. 23. “I […]
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Resilient repetition
From our elected officials and our local celebrities to those survivors affected directly by the most current crisis, some version of these words gushes out each time: “You can replace things, not lives. We’re going to rebuild. Oklahomans are a resilient people.” The adjective “resilient,” in particular, has become the word du jour following a […]
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Culture wars
Sen. Kyle Loveless Credit: Shannon Cornman The money would have sealed the completion of the project, which originated 18 years ago as a concept for advancing Oklahoma’s Native American culture. Having faced numerous hurdles before, museum supporters advised legislative leaders to delay action and focus attention on the tornado victims. Bill Anoatubby, governor of the […]
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Back to class
In less than five minutes on May 20, that world was turned upside down when a tornado demolished her school as well as neighboring Plaza Towers Elementary. Between the two schools, Singleton and some 80 teachers lost most of the classroom supplies they had bought, made or borrowed during their careers. Such items either were […]
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None of your business
In fact, many of these individuals have eagerly stepped forward to help the tornado survivors. Whether they have or not, what business is it of Johnson what they do with their own money? —Carl Hall, Edmond