Moore remembers on anniversary of May, 20, 2013, tornado

May 21—MOORE — Lynn Herbel knew what was coming before it arrived. The Winding Creek Elementary School music teacher had seen it before, first in 1999 then again in 2003.

This time it was a Monday, May 20, 2013, the last week of school, and Herbel had opened the door to take a group of third-graders back to their classroom.

"I saw the color of the sky and I thought, 'it's time to go,' because it was pea soup green. It was awful because I've experienced that before," she recalled Saturday.

Herbel was choir director for First Christian Church in Moore in 2003 when a tornado leveled the building.

"You can feel it in the air," she said. "The air is thick on a day that a tornado is going to happen."

Herbel and some fellow teachers and about two dozen kids — including her son, a first-grader — sheltered in place, first in a classroom and then a centrally located bathroom. TV news reported the tornado was heading straight for Winding Creek, on Moore's east side.

"We had students in the bathroom and the sink room with desks over them and carpet over them," she said. "We were trying to protect them as best we could. We didn't have a storm shelter at the time."

Teachers spoke softly among themselves, relaying the news that Briarwood and Plaza Towers had been hit by the EF5 tornado.

"You could feel the anxiety, but we wanted to stay strong for our students," Herbel recalled. "Then we heard Plaza took a direct hit. We had no place else to go; we were just praying that we would be safe where we were."

'Time to pray'

For Herbel, now Moore High School's choir director, it was a moment in time that defined the courage and compassion of the teachers in her building.

"One of the kids, a boy, started crying," she said. "A PE teacher patted him on the back and said, 'This is not the time to cry, sweetie, this is a time to pray or hope.'"

The boy replied, "I don't how to pray."

Another teacher, who was retiring that week, said, 'Oh, honey, I've got you covered. I've been praying all day.'"

"I just looked at her," Herbel said. "I was so thankful for her at that moment. We were all crying."

The tornado that was heading for Winding Creek that day had other plans.

"When it hit the hospital and it got to I-35, it turned south and it went toward Highland East off of Fourth Street," she said.

Herbel called it a day of "strength and tears."

"It brings back memories. It was our last day of school, but we didn't know it was and we didn't get a proper goodbye with our students," she said. "This was the Monday of the last week and we were supposed to be done in three more days. There wasn't any closure for that year."

'Hope for a new beginning'

Fast forward to Friday, nearly 20 years to the day. Dozens attended ceremonies to mark the 10-year anniversary of the tornado that killed 25 people, including seven children who attended Plaza Towers Elementary School.

Herbel's choir students performed during a community day of healing and remembrance event hosted by Norman Regional Health Systems in collaboration with the city of Moore and Moore Public Schools.

One of those students, senior Denisyn Brown, delivered an impassioned poem that focused on hope.

"A siren sounded and the world we knew in that moment was altered," she read. "A feeling of anxiety of what the ominous clouds were doing filled us with dread.

"A roaring thunderstorm and then we began to understand. This wasn't anything we could simply comprehend."

'A lot of our landmarks were gone'

"Moore Public Schools Superintendent Robert Romines was on hand Friday for ceremonies at Highland East Junior High, Briarwood Elementary, and Plaza Towers.

Romines, who grew up in the community he serves today, recalled monitoring the local forecast early in the day and focusing his attention on thunderstorms and hail. Early that afternoon things began to "ramp up and change."

Romines and his team drove to Briarwood, which had sustained significant damage. They lost cell phone communication along the way and relied on radios to communicate.

"Driving up to Briarwood, a lot of our landmarks were gone. We somewhat struggled on where we were," he said. "Came up over the hill and literally felt like a bomb had gone off within the Briarwood community. Not just the school, but the community at large."

Romines praised first responders and pointed out the strength and resilience of the Moore community.

"Building buildings and putting things back on the map, that's easy ... to reconstruct and rebuild," he said. "I mean this community is known for doing that.

"But when you start looking at loss of life, that's not something that you can put back together and put it back together quickly."

Twenty years later, Herbel praised Romines for how he responded under difficult circumstances.

"I am grateful for his leadership, and it would be very difficult to work for another superintendent," she said. "He exemplifies leadership for me, not just his strength, but he's not afraid to show emotion.

"You want to protect these kids with a brick wall and you known you can't. He carries that weight. He takes that very seriously, the protection of his students."