May 13, 2008 - Picher, OK Tornado

The past few days in Picher have been filled with a lot of hard work. We have done everything from clear roads, pull cars out of trees, and help homeowners find their belongings by removing roofs, walls, and cars from their former homes. We have been so welcomed by this community. The locals have offered us places to stay, and the fire department has fed us.

Still, the situation here is sad. The tornado that hit Picher was an EF4 and destroyed almost 300 homes. At the time, the city was in the middle of what is called a “government buyout”. Years ago Picher was a thriving mining town but now many of the mined dirt piles are allegedly contaminated. Very few volunteer organizations have come to help due to the contamination. The Red Cross, Salvation Army, Southern Baptist Convention, and the First Response Team of America were the only help that arrived – and we are still the only ones that showed up with equipment.


When we first arrived, we were on standby with the generator and within 24 hours we were able to jumpstart the sewage system in the town. We were also told that our hovercraft may be needed since there were still some people missing, and it was speculated that some people trying to escape from the storm in their cars may have been thrown into the lake. Unfortunately, it was true – the dike holding back the lake was dug out, the water drained, and the bodies recovered. The situation in Picher was sad…there were bodies found in trees, homes, and cars. The city moral was already low due to the mandatory government buyout and now everything these people had left was destroyed – giving them no choice to rebuild and forcing them to move out.