MANNFORD, Okla. — It's been one month since wildfires devastated Oklahoma, uprooting the lives of many people.
2 News Oklahoma caught up with wildfire victims he previously spoke with and listened to them about their lives one month after this disaster.
“I have six vehicles,” Lonnie Turnipseed told the woman at the front desk of the Mannford Tag Agency. “I lost titles to all of them.”
WATCH: One month since Mannford wildfires:
Braff went with Turnipseed on Monday to replace the titles to his vehicles destroyed by the wildfires.
“It won't be the same address on the driver's license or the titles,” he told 2 News. “Not quite sure what we're gonna put on there.”
The fire’s devastation left practically nothing at their Birch Drive address, where they still get mail.
As for what’s left of the Turnipseed family’s Mannford home? The structure is cleared away, leaving only the foundation. But soon, they’ll even remove that concrete slab.
When asked about the most challenging part about the past month, Turnipseed said, “Just trying to figure out which way we're gonna go, where we're gonna live. Thinking about everything that we had. We've gotta write it down for insurance, trying to recall what we had. It's been quite an emotional up and down.”
Turnipseed and his wife Stacy told Braff in March it was painful to say goodbye to the place they called home since 1984. They have no plans to return to their home or rebuild it.
“We'll make it. We've done this before in a tornado. We'll do it again,” Turnipseed said, referencing how a tornado destroyed their home once before. “A little experience under our belt this time.”
As for what was the hardest part of Tara Upton’s month, she told us it was “waking up every day and seeing that it wasn't just a bad dream.”
Even though Upton lost just about everything she owned in the wildfires — including her house — she said she’s not leaving her land in the Cleveland area. It’s still her home.
“The travel trailer I have was gifted to me by a woman that lost her home when she was nine years old,” she said. “And so, she could feel that she had empathy and understood.”
Upton is living in this trailer parked on her property as she gets back on her feet. But she tells me money has limited her means.
“I don't see any fundraisers going around for people, you know, no big stuff to help those of us that don't have insurance,” she said.
She told us she doesn’t have insurance because she couldn’t afford it, explaining, “I'm on disability and there just wasn't enough money to go around.”
We asked her what’s gotten her through all this chaos this past month. She replied: “God and my family, no other way. No other way.”
She showed us some coffee mugs she found in the rubble with bible verses printed on them. They were unharmed and all in one piece.
What’s more, a tree standing right next to the remains of her house is charred black at its base. But up above, there are new green, budding leaves.
“I just don't want people to forget us,” said Upton.
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