CLAREMORE, Okla. (KTUL) — The irony is not lost for the people who live on and near Carefree Drive that last night was anything but.
“Wayne said I hear thunder and I said no you hear a roar.”
Glenda and Wayne Sappington, along with 11 year-old Lizzie, got into their storm shelter around 11:30 and when they came out…
“Found out the shop building was gone, storage building gone, fifth wheel was setting right here where we’re at,” said Wayne.
“And that end of the house we lost roof and the bedroom is just no ceiling to it at all,” said Glenda.
Just down the road…
“It was roaring, it was just a loud roar and I could feel everything shaking,” said Janet Hancock. She has some roof damage and a sycamore tree that was completely stripped.
“Yeah and that used to be huge it was one of the tallest trees in the neighborhood and it just pretty much stripped it of all the branches,” she said.
And just down the street from her…
“Thankful to be alive,” said Kara Croll. She felt the whole house move as the tornado slowly tore through the area.
“It roared and you could feel everything slamming and banging and moving, and then it got silent and I was like, ‘I don’t think this is over,’ and a few minutes later it started roaring again,” she said.
Wherever you looked roof damage was hard to miss.
“We just try to get to as many people as we can as fast as we can,” said Wilson Youman of Lewis Roofing. He was up on the Sappington’s house assessing damage and prepping to tarp.
“Everyone that we can help, as many people as possible, putting tarps on the roof, getting everything dried in cause if it rains again you don’t want any weather getting inside of the attic or causing any problems,” he said.
The Sappington’s have been flooded with calls of concern. Their outlook?
“I’ve always seen people interviewed and they say, ‘We can replace things, we’re alive that’s the main thing,’ that’s exactly right, that’s exactly the way we feel,” said Wayne.
And as for Lizzie…
“I wish she’d roll over on her back like she does a lot of times. Just lays on her back. There she goes,” said Glenda.
Her outlook is apparently in keeping with the name of the street, no matter what.
“That ought to make the highlight reel,” said Wayne.
