Recovery in Oklahoma

Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to those affected by the devastating tornados in Oklahoma earlier this week.  The following update was provided by Shellie Chard-McClary, our Oklahoma drinking water administrator:

It has been a rough few days, as I am sure you can imagine.  Most at the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) were very lucky.  We have three employees who lost everything except their lives and children.  We had dozens of employees with significant roof damage, etc., but will be able to salvage most of their belongings and make repairs to their homes.  We had three employee’s children at Plaza Towers Elementary.  Although it took many hours to be reunited, two children had only minor injuries and one was hospitalized but is expected to make a full recovery.

We had tornados hit 10 or 11 cities and towns Sunday and Monday.  I am happy to say that all public water and wastewater systems except one are fully functioning.  We appreciate everyone’s concerns, thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and offers of help.  We had 13 Rural Water Associations offer manpower and equipment as well as six or eight states offer to send drinking water or wastewater experts.  

It is going to be a long road to recovery but it has already started  If someone wants to know how they can help Oklahoma DEQ, I would suggest a contribution to the fund we set up to help our impacted employees who lost everything or whose homes are uninhabitable due to damage:

DEQ Employee Disaster Relief Fund
RCB Bank OKC Downtown
701 N Broadway Ave, Ste 100
Oklahoma City, OK 73102