For residents of one Moore
neighborhood, the tornado's approach was too familiar. When the
area was hit by a tornado in October, Ronna Johnson and her family took cover in a closet. But when
they heard the warnings Monday,
they headed for a neighbor's cellar.
"And Then I Started
Crying. I Said,
'This Is Not Right ... .'"
"I think it was close to 7:30. And
God, it just hit. It was so loud. It
was so much louder than the last
time," said Johnson, who lives on
Windermere Drive, north of 12th
Street between Janeway and Santa
Fe.
She said her husband and her 19-
year-old son held tight to the door.
"We came out and noticed we
had tons of debris all over our yard
and some rafters impaled in our
lawn. And our house was just covered with mud. And to the west, it
was just rubble.
"And then I started crying. I
said, 'This is not right ... .'
"And I am so fortunate that my
family is safe and we have a roof
over our head," Johnson said.
"I actually started crying, because I saw what happened. It just
tore me up."
Johnson said neighbors came
running, asking for anyone who
could do CPR in an area about a
block away.
"My husband, Nelson, went
down there ... it's about a block
away from us. There's nothing. It's
just lumber," Johnson said.
"We went down there, because
they said they needed anybody
who could do CPR. So, he ran
down, and I don't know the exact
status, but we're a little bit scared
that there's people dead and maybe
a little girl," Johnson said.
A house was burning.
"We can't get out of the neighborhood. They've got it completely
shut down," Johnson said about
9:30 p.m.
"When the Lights Went
Off, I Was Just Waiting
for the Roof
to Peel Off."
Linda and Keith Plunkett's
Moore home survived the torrent.
Linda Plunkett rode out the tornado in her home's bathtub, listening to storm reports on a battery-
powered radio.
"I'd been watching it since
Chickasha. When they mentioned
it was in Newcastle and then
Southwest 149th Street, I started to
get a little shaky. Then they said it
turned left, and they mentioned
89th Street -- we live off of 89th
and Bryant -- I knew it was just a
few miles away. I thought we were
directly in its path.
"I grabbed our dogs and shoved
them into the bathroom. I got in
the bathtub with the radio and covered up with a comforter. When
the lights went off, I was just waiting for the roof to peel off.
"I could hear the hail and wind,
debris hitting the rooftop. It didn't
sound like a train; it just sounded
like a loud, roaring wind. But it
seemed like it lasted only a few
seconds."
The storm blew down their
fences and tore shingles off the
roof. Debris, including children's
clothing, was strewn in the Plunketts' back yard.
"Some neighbors were walking
around and said there were duplexes two blocks away that were
destroyed, and there were some
dead dogs in the street," Linda
Plunkett said.