Picher | In brief

Published: May 13, 2008

The enormity of Saturday tornado's damage in Picher wasn't revealed to the public until Monday morning, since police and patrol officers had barricaded much of the town.

The southern half of the town was all but bulldozed by the storm. Emergency management officials said they counted at least 101 homes that were demolished by the tornado, and they're not finished searching.

John Sparkman, director of the Picher Housing Authority, said 295 homes were leveled. He based that number on a comparison between aerial photographs taken before the storm and on-the-ground observations.

Before a federal pollution buyout began, about 1,000 people lived in the town. More than 200 homes have been vacated since the program started — a fact celebrated by many people who said the death toll otherwise might have been much higher. Before the buyout, there were about 700 buildings in Picher, according to city officials.

Picher's main street, which has felt like a ghost town since the mining companies left, was not hit by the storm. Some houses on the north side of town, and the town's school complex, were also spared.

Sparkman said the school superintendent, who could not be reached, told him that school will not resume this year. Sparkman also said it's not likely the school will reopen.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and David Paulison, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will tour the tornado-stricken town of Picher today.

Gov. Brad Henry said President Bush expressed to him his desire to survey the damage as well, but he had a trip to Israel already scheduled.

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, and U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, D-Muskogee, are set to accompany the federal officials.

Henry will join them for tours of the damage.

Henry said the tornado might expedite the buyout process for homeowners in Picher, which is in the center of the Tar Creek Superfund site.

"We're trying to allay the fears of those who lost their homes and didn't have any kind of insurance, primarily because of the buyout,” Henry said. "I'm told EPA will continue with the buyout.”

Henry said he and Inhofe are committed to the buyout and "we believe that those homes can still be valued at their pre-storm value and the buyout can proceed.”

Nellie Kelly, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross in Tulsa, said a shelter has been set up in Miami for the victims. Only eight people stayed in the shelter Sunday night, she said, adding that the total could rise or fall as people find places to live or get more distressed.

Mental health counselors are in Picher to help victims, and the Red Cross is taking food and toiletries to displaced people, she said.

It is "far too early” to talk about federal housing for the victims, said Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Management. A federal disaster declaration would have to come first, she said.

"Over the next several weeks, we're going to need a lot of help,” Mayor Sam Freeman said.

More than a third of the 23 people killed by a tornado that smashed parts of Oklahoma and Missouri over the weekend died in cars, troubling experts who say vehicles are one of the worst places to be during a twister.

"It's like taking a handful of Matchbox cars and rolling them across the kitchen floor,” said Sgt. Dan Bracker of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, surveying the damage in and around Seneca, near the Oklahoma line, the hardest hit area. "This is devastating.”

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