I spent the morning driving all of Moore’s tornado-struck area. It’s an incredible, sad, heartbreaking sight. It’s truly tough to comprehend the loss that south OKC and Moore have taken just by watching on TV.
As I noted in a previous post (Waiting to Help), the Oklahoma Chapter of the American Public Works Association has come together to help Moore in replacing, as quickly and efficiently as possible, all of the missing or broken street signs. The City of Edmond and the City of Norman will utilize their crews and available materials to manufacture street signs for 42 intersections, and they, along with Oklahoma County District 1 (at least), will then head to Moore to install the signs and fix 18 or more other signs that look like the one pictured above. The effort is a small gesture that should especially help insurance adjusters and volunteers as the come into Moore to assess damage and help people pick up.
A few observations from today’s drive:
- Moore has opened almost every street to public access. This is great for getting into the areas with volunteers, insurance adjusters and friends of people impacted, but it also is creating a bit of a mess in areas where the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, ODOT, OTA, OG&E, Xcel Energy, CenterPoint Energy and more are busy at work.
- ODOT and OTA have a huge amount of resources on the scene in Moore. It is extremely impressive.
- The area around Plaza Towers Elementary is surreal. It is now surrounded by a fence and guarded by members of the Army National Guard. The most distinctive, sad part to me, is that homes a block north are still standing. It weighs very heavy on the heart knowing the devastation that occurred inside.
Urban Lake Effect 