Prayer's to Oklahoma

[3Phase]

LMAO! You guys are in deep enough with the rain and them tornadoes and mud and stuff so I didn't want to get all sedimental.

Still feelin' the love....

Good to hear from you Scott.

[BA80]

Still feelin' the love....

Good to hear from you Scott.

[3Phase]

My step-sister lives in Oklahoma City. I haven't heard anything from my family about it yet so a phone call is on the list.

Greg, Tod: I haven't been on the site here or over at dot.org for a long time but I asked motoman about you two the other day and he said you guys were physically alright. I know mentally is pretty much out of the question but it's good to see you both alive and kickin'!

[XSive Okie]

All good in Enid for now. You never know in the "Alley" though. Everyone needs to stay weather aware.

[rlearned]

Oklahomie

I'm not in Oklahoma right now but originally from OKC and was thankful to hear that my family made it through the tornados

[madmax-im]

Thankyou Tod for all you are doing to help...It is amazing to me that when a tragedy strikes how people rally and come together to help one another...Doesnt matter if its the 9-11 attack in NYC or if its the Boston
marathon or Sandy Hook CT...Americans come together...and that is or saving grace. With all the evil and bad things happening in our world it is heart
warming to see all the good things we can do to help each other in times of need. That is the true spirit of America...

[BA80]

I have a sister in El Reno. This weather is making my mom crazy.

http://www.ktul.com/story/22498590/el-reno-tornado-double-size-of-moore-tornado

[trbig]

And I'm sure that YOU had nothing to do with that growing up.. You need to come out and visit your sis somethime and give me a call. You might skip the visit in May or Sept though.. lol.

[dpotter58]

I have a sister in El Reno. This weather is making my mom crazy.

[trbig]

Here's a few of the pics I took while working in Moore, OK. last week just as a word of warning for those thinking a vehicle might be a safe place to ride out a tornado.





























That last one USED to be an F-150 extended cab pickup.

[Cuda 69]

tornado warnings here,just south of us.Were watching it closely,seeings were up to our camp. My parents are in the warning area.

[xsilerating]

Thanks, trbig, for your insightful post and, for your service to those in such dire straits. You're right, the pictures we see on television, the reporters stories... they don't really tell the whole story, certainly not as heartfelt as your words depict.

Again, thank you for this and, for a side of you not commonly seen.

[trbig]

LOL.. That's not my normal job any more, but during things like this and ice/snow storms, they still let me play with the big Tonka toys.

The guy that was changing tires for free? He apparently had a bad day, and yesterday, he had his arm in a brand new cast clear up to his fingertips... but he was still out there fixing flats for free. Amazing stuff.

[Cuda 69]

Thanks for posting this trbig,it restored my faith in humanity and I wasn't even there.I also drive dump truck and operate loaders,wish we were closer to help out.Don't feel bad about getting paid,your still doing God's work.

[trbig]

I posted this to facebook a few days ago after my first day. I just got home from working up there for 4 days.. and may be going to Shawnee OK, which also got hit a day or two before Moore did.

I just spent the last 12 hours helping clean up from the tornado in Moore, OK., and will probably be here at least a few more days. Anyone who's bothered to look has seen the devastation in picture form, but up close and personal, it's a totally different thing. You smell the rotting food from destroyed freezers and fridges. You see the tore up toys and dolls... a family's broken trinkets and shredded belongings... roofs completely gone with the insides flooded... or just a concrete foundation marking where someone called home.. that one place they felt the safest and most secure. If you've seen the photos, have you seen that splattered mud on everything? It's not mud. It's shredded dirty fiberglass that got wet and stuck to everything. Everywhere something moves.. a gloved wrist, a shirt collar, etc.. fiberglass gets in there.

Families were torn apart. Lives, dreams, cherished belongings, pets, plans... all gone. Many have no transportation. Pristine kept vehicles they religiously washed, waxed, vacuumed, now resembling wadded up tin cans by the thousands sometimes hundreds of yards away. Everywhere you look, there's destruction. There should be weeping and crying... lamenting everything worked a lifetime for and lost. Only... there wasn't.

We showed up in force. Over a hundred strong with dump trucks, front end loaders, clamshell loaders, shovels, rakes, pitchforks, etc... We were assigned a small residential city street, and off our crew of eight went. We were absolutely dwarfed by the army of people that began showing up. Every one of them giving up their time... their holiday weekend... to come help some people they have never met. It made me feel bad that I was actually paid to be there.

We would start with the first houses, and the owners would come out, grab a rake or shovel, and begin helping. Funny thing though.. after we'd finish with their yard,we'd move on to the next, and the owner of the first house would start helping with their neighbor's yard. This continued on, each house usually gaining an extra set of hands or two. Most had never even talked to their neighbors before this point. There were no somber moods. Everyone was joking, talking, and telling of their survival story. Every few minutes, some stranger would drive by offering water, Gatorade, food, etc.

Driving one of the filled trucks to the dump, I went down Hwy 37. On the corner, in a vacant lot where a gas station had been, a man had set up a portable shop with a big sign saying he was fixing any flat tires for free. Phone companies were giving away cell phones. Free bottled water by the truckloads, free blankets and bedding, clothing, etc. There were groups standing in church parking lots by the road with handtools and signs advertising free work crews. Several large companies like Church's Chicken, Pappa Johns, and others had free food, but as we were getting ready to head back to the hotel, we got waved over and basically FORCED to eat a burger and all the "Fixins". A couple young guys had driven from eastern Arkansas with cases and cases of burgers to cook up for people, just because they wanted to help out in some way. After eating a burger, we were walking to the truck, and were asked if we wanted "The best shrimp jumbalaya, red beans, and rice in the WORLD" from a VERY Cajun man who'd just driven up from New Orleans. We told him we'd just ate, but he said with a wink, "No problem. I'll be here all week!" So I guess we've got lunch or dinner for tomorrow figured out. These ordinary people are everywhere trying to feed people to do their small part to help.

One of the last things you see going out on Hwy 37, is the FEMA office, where they've set up in a school. The parking lot was nearly empty, even though they said they spoke Espanol, and "Engish". Nope, I didn't misspell that. lol. I'm sure the feds will be needed at some point. The costs here will be staggering. But it is so refreshing to see volunteering and charities getting to work exactly how they were designed to do without a bunch of government ham-fisted tactics and red tape.

The work is slow. We took 24 ten yard dump trucks of debris to the landfill, and after 12 hours, we only got about halfway down this one small residential street. But, it's some of the most satisfying work I've ever done, with strangers patting you on the back or shaking your hand and saying thank you, with genuine smiles. The saying, "The most important things in life aren't things." was never more true than today. If only these people knew that it is me that should be thanking them. They restoreth my soul...