This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Moore, OK to help with the disaster relief. It was a crazy week of figuring out if we could even go, but I won't get into that, the point is, we decided to go, and left about 3 hours later.
Driving to Moore is about 14 hours, we drove 10 hours to Amarillo, TX, slept for about 3 then drove 4-5 more to Moore. One of the girls in our group has a sister that lives there (half a mile from the distruction) and offered us a place to stay.
We stopped in at the house around 11, dropped our stuff off and went to work.
We went to the church (which was kind of a hub), got our shirts and anything else we'd need (they had tables loaded with work gloves, safety glasses, ear plugs, masks, water, granola bars, hand sanitizer and so on...) and asked them to put us to work.
After a small stint at flattening boxes we were then sent to a park where loads of people were there cleaning debris and cutting down trees that had too much damage. By the time we got there it was pretty clean, but there was a destroyed neighborhood right behind it. So I went to see what we could do.
I walked through the neighborhood just awe struck. Houses completely destroyed, the only thing left standing were the support walls IF they even lasted. But, all through that, they had a sense of humor about things.
The thing was, you couldn't just start cleaning out a house. Insurance companies had to go through and check them first, so you had to see if the house had been marked first before you could go in. So we found a house that people were working on, and jumped in.
Basically we were told just to go through and clear out the house, if anything looked salvagable we would put it in a pile, but if not we threw it on the curb. It was a horrible feeling to know you are picking up someone's entire life and just tossing it in a wheelbarrow to be thrown away.
We worked on this house for about 3 hours (about 15-20 of us) and by the end it was pretty cleaned out, you felt a slight sense of accomplishment, then you'd look to your right, or left, or anywhere and realize, we had barely scratched the surface.
Our house:
After:
To the right and left:
All weekend we just kept telling ourselves, "We may not have made a big difference, nothing more than a bandaid on a bullet wound, but we made a difference to that family." It was really hard to not get discouraged.
After that house we walked to the park and saw this big duck pond, we found a little tunnel that channeled into the pond that was loaded with gunk, so we spent the next hour or so shoveling that out.
Once we were done there we were told we should go home, as a big thunderstorm was supposed to come through. We would have stayed, but the missionaries left and took all the shovels and wheelbarrows with them, so we didn't really have a lot that we could do. So we went home.
The next day was Sunday. The plan was to all meet at the church, have a brief meeting and then get to work. We were told to come in our jeans and work clothes, so that's what we did. It was incredibly spiritual, the sence of unity in that chapel. Boys passing the sacrament in their white shirts, ties, jeans and work boots. The stake president speaking at the pulpit, jeans and a t-shirt.
It was a girl's missionary farewell that Sunday. Sister Orr. Her family owned the Orr Family Farm, which had been destroyed. 150 horses died on that farm unable to get away. Complete devastation. She spoke beautifully starting out by saying, "When I imagined giving my farewell speech, I didn't think picture this many people, and I didn't picture jeans and t-shirts..." She gave a truly inspired/inspirational talk. She will enter the MTC this Wednesday before entering the mission field in Mesa, AZ. We made sure to talk to her after.
The hymns that day were inspired, ending with "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel" Admittedly one of my least favorite hymns, that now will be a part of me forever.
After the meeting the Stake President stood and said, "Alright now get out of the church and get to work.
After church we did a little of delivering boxes out to people. We then got in a bus and headed to the Orr Family Farm to help clean debris off the land. Man oh man... We get to this ginormous field and there is just crap all over the place. Wood, metal, personal belongings, just COVERING the place. The first round, will be getting all the big pieces into piles so the city can come through and forklift them outta there, then they'll go through and comb it again getting all the littler pieces into piles, then go through again getting the even smaller pieces. This will take months. We were out there for about 4.5 hours and again, barely scratched the surface.
On the bus, on the way to the farm.
After the farm, we drove around just looking for people to help. That was our last day there and we wanted to end helping specific people.
We found a house where a lady and her two daughters lived. They were in the house when the tornado hit and the house was leveled. The fact that they survived is amazing, the fact that they were unharmed, a miracle. We helped them clean up, we helped them tarp the "saved" items to leave for the night. I was talking to the son and he was telling me, that his father had passed away the week before and he was in town for the funeral, so on the one hand you can't help but think, "Why did all of this happen?" on the other had, he said, "Had it not been for the funeral, I wouldn't have been here to help them." Even thinking about that makes me tear up. How humble! A tender mercy, yes, but such an unfortunate one. As the day was nearing an end we wished them luck, they gave us hugs thanked us profusely and we left them... Lives altered, not enough done to help, we were soon to be going home and leaving it all behind. It was a horrible feeling. Walking away with so much more to do.
We then drove around as the sun was setting. We drove past Plaza Towers Elementary. They had crosses in the front for the 7 children that lost their lives. Two up front that you could sign, which I did. I almost felt undeserving of signing that sign, yes I was there, yes I helped a bit, but I didn't do enough.
We then drove back to the house, had dinner, packed up and left in the early morning on Memorial Day.
This was an experience I won't soon forget. The feeling of the whole community coming together. People on every street corner doing whatever they could to help, free food, free water, free tetanus shots, free tire repair, anything they could think of. People would drive by literally every half hour passing out water and gatorade, fresh cooked meals and snacks. Signs reading, "Moore Strong" "Moore families in our hearts" "We will rebuild" "You hit like a girl".
I felt unworthy to be there almost. Just a visitor coming to see the damage and then going home to my perfect life. I wanted to stay and do more, but I know no matter how long I stayed, I couldn't do enough.
It left a hole in my heart. Even as I write this post I just keep crying. Those people, those amazing people!
I am so grateful to have had this experience. To be humbled the way I was. I may never feel like I did enough, I may always feel a bit of discouragement, but I went there. Two days is small, but it's two days still.
Moore, Oklahoma will forever be a part of me.
