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A joint investigative series by Oklahoma Watch and KGOU Radio/The Oklahoma Tornado Project on how federal and state disaster aid is being spent in the wake of the violent tornadoes and storms in May 2013.

Auditing The Storm: Disaster 4117 - Moore Public Schools

Lindsay Whelchel
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Oklahoma Watch
A new Briarwood Elementary School in Moore is near completion, paid for by insurance and federal public assistance money.
Auditing The Storm: Disaster 4117 is a series of investigative reports tracking federal disaster aid following the Spring 2013 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This series represents a collaborative effort between The Oklahoma Tornado Project and Oklahoma Watch
Oklahoma Watch
"Auditing the Storm: Disaster 4117” is a joint investigative series by Oklahoma Watch and KGOU Radio/The Oklahoma Tornado Project on how federal and state disaster aid is being spent in the wake of the violent tornadoes and storms of spring 2013.

The smell of freshly cut lumber rides a south breeze to the front of the steel and concrete skeleton rising out of red clay. Construction workers and machines move about.

The new incarnation of Plaza Towers Elementary School, where seven children died in the May 20, 2013, tornado, is set to open this fall. And in front on this day stand Mikki Davis and family members, there for a rally calling for the state to help pay for safe rooms in schools. Davis holds a picture of her 8-year-old son Kyle, one of the seven children who died.

“I didn’t want him taken (from life),” Davis said. “I expected to come here (on May 20) and find him looking for mama to pick him up.”

Returning to the site brings back memories and emotions. But knowing that the new school will have a safe room gives Davis some consolation.

“If my son’s life was taken so that others in the future could be saved in the future, then that makes me proud to be his mom,” Davis said.

The inclusion of safe rooms in the three schools damaged or destroyed in last year’s tornadoes is part of the FEMA disaster aid enabling the district to  rebuild. The assistance covers three-fourths of the cost of what is not paid for by insurance and donations.

The work has gone fast.

Robert Romines, superintendent of Moore Public Schools
Credit Moore Public Schools
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Moore Public Schools
Robert Romines, superintendent of Moore Public Schools

The school district expects to open the new Plaza Towers and Briarwood elementary schools in August or September — a quick turnaround for such a large amount of devastation, said Superintendent Robert Romines. Highland East Junior High School, also damaged in the storm, is getting a safe room as well.

“Looking back, it’s pretty amazing we’ve come this far … I’m shocked and amazed we would be able to do it,” Romines said

The total value of property loss to the district was around $50 million, Romines said.

So far, Moore Public Schools has submitted 63 projects to FEMA for approval. Around 70 percent, or 44, have been approved, reflecting about $4.3 million in FEMA public assistance funds, according to FEMA data.

The district has had the most projects approved and awarded by FEMA, although it is fourth in the amount of dollars received.

Many of the large projects, such as the rebuilding of Plaza Towers and Briarwood,  repairs to the district’s administration building and repairs to the Highland East Junior High’s gymnasium, have yet to be completed. Thus the final insurance and construction paperwork has yet to be done for FEMA to calculate reimbursement to the district, Romines said.

“We’ve had some uphill climbs, but everybody’s worked together and we’ve gotten through the issues together,” Romines said. “We’re just about there.”

Romines was named the district’s superintendent only a week before the tornado struck. A day after the disaster, school bonds approved in February were scheduled to be sold. The district delayed the sale, since bonds are paid back through property taxes and the destruction of property in Moore would cause values to fall and make bond selling harder, he said.

“Blessed by fire,” Romines said.

Federal public-assistance funds and insurance are paying for the rebuilding of Plaza Towers Elementary School, in which seven children died in the May 20, 2013, tornado. The school is expected to open next month.
Credit Clifton Adcock / Oklahoma Watch
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Oklahoma Watch
Federal public-assistance funds and insurance are paying for the rebuilding of Plaza Towers Elementary School, in which seven children died in the May 20, 2013, tornado. The school is expected to open next month.

To help the district get back on its feet, former Superintendent Wayland Bonds and former Assistant Superintendent Jim Day were brought on board to be the district’s liaisons with FEMA. They had worked at the district when an EF5 tornado tore through Moore in 1999.

Bonds, who has been retired for 10 years, said the 2013 tornado was much more devastating than the 1999 tornado.

“What we were dealing with in ‘99, it was stressful, but we didn’t have to deal with the death (of students),” he said.

Bonds and Day said working with FEMA has been a good experience and that FEMA workers were knowledgeable and thorough.

One major difference from 1999, they said, was the process for applying for hazard mitigation funds to pay for safe rooms in schools.

In the 1999 tornado, when the district put shelters in the damaged Westmoore High School and Northmoor Elementary, it had to apply separately and it took nearly two years to get the funds, Bonds and Day said.

Knowing the funds would be available when the shelters were installed removed a lot of uncertainty, Day said.

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Oklahoma Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media service that produces in-depth and investigative journalism on public-policy issues facing the state. For more Oklahoma Watch content, go to www.oklahomawatch.org. The data team for Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Investigative News Network assisted with the project.

The Oklahoma Tornado Project is made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

As a community-supported news organization, KGOU relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online, or by contacting our Membershipdepartment.

Oklahoma Watch is a non-profit organization that produces in-depth and investigative journalism on important public-policy issues facing the state. Oklahoma Watch is non-partisan and strives to be balanced, fair, accurate and comprehensive. The reporting project collaborates on occasion with other news outlets. Topics of particular interest include poverty, education, health care, the young and the old, and the disadvantaged.
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