BANNER: FLOOD WATERS CAUSES HOME EVACUATIONS IN OKMULGEE
L3: ORA COPELAND/OKMULGEE EVACUATED RESIDENT
Ora Copeland is thankful she and her three sons are safe tonight.
"Blessed, very blessed, Ora Copeland said.
Copeland said she was home when her phone alerted her to take cover.
“It was getting pretty bad, so I was like oh, it’s just going to be thunder that’s going to wash away," she said. “It says to go to the nearest spot, where the windows aint going to break.”
When she thought the worst of the storm had passed, she began getting herself and her boys ready for bed. That's when she said she heard the fire department outside her home evacuating her neighbors.
“And I looked behind he back window, to see what was going on and I’d seen the water, up high with him on a boat, and I knocked what’s going on, what’s going on here…woah…get us out of here,” Copeland said.
First-responders evacuated them to a nearby emergency shelter.
“Then the fire department came back and asked us to get our clothes and stuff...what you can get right now, and then the fire department got us on a little boat, and we’ve been here since last night,” Copeland said.
Emergency management said flood waters have damaged 40 homes in Okmulgee, 58 in Lakeview manor, and 18 in Dewar, and several others in Henryetta.
“Take it very seriously because you never know, safety comes first,” Copeland said.
Although waters appear to be receding, Copeland said she does not know when they will return home.
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