MOORE, Okla. – Students from a suburban Oklahoma City school destroyed by this week’s tornado reunited with their teachers Thursday and collected whatever could be salvaged from the ruins.
Some children carried thank-you cards. A 7-year-old was eager to see her favourite gym teacher and for a chance to say goodbye for the school year.
It was one of many difficult goodbyes for the city of Moore. Family and friends attended the funeral of a 9-year-old girl who died at Plaza Towers Elementary School – the first since Monday’s storm, which killed 24 people.
Read more: Thunderstorms slow cleanup in Oklahoma town hit by tornado
Students who survived the storm’s onslaught at the school and those whose parents had pulled them out of class just before it hit gathered with their teachers at another Moore school that wasn’t damaged. Seven children died at Plaza Towers.
Authorities kept journalists at a distance, but Cheryle Dixon, a grandmother of Crisily Dixon, talked to a reporter about how hard it was for the little girl.
“A lot of tears, a lot of worry about her gym teacher, a lot of worry about a lot of the teachers that she knew, so she just can’t believe it,” Dixon said.
Crisily’s father had picked her up an hour before the tornado struck when he learned the severity of the approaching storm – a top-of-the-scale EF-5 that was on the ground for 40 minutes, according to the National Severe Storm Lab.
The police and the mayor’s office in Oklahoma City both estimate that around 12,000 homes were damaged and destroyed by the storm in the city and to the south in Moore.
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Moore Schools Superintendent Susan Pierce said Thursday that Plaza Towers and Briarwood Elementary schools will be rebuilt. Briarwood was heavily damaged but no one was killed there.
Gov. Mary Fallin said Thursday that as the removal of mountains of debris begins “we are also in a stage of healing.” She said a public memorial service would be held Sunday night at a church.
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