Lessons Learned From A Natural Disaster in Moore, Oklahoma

In the wake of any terrible or devastating event, once all the dust has settled and the people affected by the incident come together to regroup and rebuild, one of the questions that is almost always asked is “did we learn anything from this incident?”

It’s a question that’s asked by nearly everyone affected by a disaster of any sort. And in the case of a large-scale tornado, the question is asked by severe weather forecasters, emergency services personnel, law enforcement, city planners, government, non-governmental humanitarian groups (Red Cross), as well as the businesses and residents that were directly affected. Even after the devastating Moore, Oklahoma tornado event of last May that still has many of us putting our lives, our businesses, and our homes back together again, many pondered this simple question. Because it’s human nature. It’s how we prepare ourselves for a better outcome in the case of a similar event in the future. When the power goes out, and you’re left overnight in the dark, you learn that you need to have a stash of candles and matches on-hand for the next time the power goes out. It’s the same with natural disasters and emergency preparedness – just on a much bigger scale.

So, considering that people of all walks learn from their experiences (good and bad) every day, it makes sense to look back at something even as unpredictable and unstoppable as an F5 tornado and try to find a learning opportunity that they can take away from the experience. Here at Storage ‘R’ Us self storage in Moore, Oklahoma, we watched as some of our friends in the local self storage industry lost large percentages of their facilities to wind and debris damage in the May 2013 Moore, Oklahoma tornado event. We watched in horror as the news reported an estimated 1,150 homes were destroyed, along with Briarwood and Plaza Towers elementary schools. Moore Medical was also heavily damaged, displacing a number of patients.

In the wake of this terrible event, we learned that hundreds of area residents would need a secure place to store their remaining belongings as they started the process of picking up and rebuilding. We knew that many were so affected by the event, that they wouldn’t know where to turn initially for that kind of assistance. We learned that we needed to be ready to help any time one of these events occurred near our Moore self storage facility.

In the days after the Moore tornado last May, Storage ‘R’ Us opened up a large number of available self storage units in our Moore location. We charged the renters affected by the Moore tornado nothing for the first month. For those who needed more time to collect their belongings and store them safely until they had new living accommodations, we gladly cut our rental fees in half. In the end, we think that we can be ready to help when (if ever) the next major weather event hits an area in which we have a self storage facility. We think we’ve learned how to react. And when to react. Hopefully, those in Moore, Oklahoma that we’ve helped have learned that they can turn to us when something of this magnitude strikes the area.

If you’re looking for a self-storage solution, feel free to stop by one of our Storage ‘R’ Us locations in Moore, Duncan, Lawton, Newcastle, Norman or Chickasha, Oklahoma today, and see what our full-featured self-storage facilities can do for you and your family.