SULPHUR, Okla. — Four days after a tornado ravaged through the Sulphur community, the city is condemning their public storm shelter.
This comes after residents complained about the state of the space, and a chief engineer with the city inspected the building on May 1.
The city said the shelter's closure was effective immediately. This news was frustrating for Laura Carter, who had no other option but the public shelter.
Carter is a CAN and private caregiver, and was called by a family to help get them to safety as the storms rolled in.
Her first thought was to head towards the school in town, which she said is known to be open during severe weather events. When she found that building locked, she headed to the city shelter.
Although it was open, it was not a feasible option for Carter, her mother, and the family she was caring for.
“There’s three inches of water that they are standing in for hours,” said Carter. “Most of these people that are down there are in sandals or barefoot, and the chairs that are down there are rusted and are falling through. They’re falling through, they don’t even have a place to sit for hours, as a tornado is ripping through our town.”
Carter said a lack of official personnel and the condition of the shelter did nothing to alleviate her anxiety.
The woman Carter needed to get to safety was wheelchair-bound and unable to walk. With such steep stairs to get down and no real support to physically assist getting the woman down the stairs, they had no choice but to abandon the city shelter.
After a few other failed attempts to get to safety, the four women did ultimately find shelter just in time at the Artesian Hotel.
Carter said as she loaded the woman out of the car and into her wheelchair to go inside, she turned over her shoulder and saw the tornado tearing through downtown streets.
“I ran into a city worker the other day who was actually down there helping us, and I asked, I was like ‘has the shelter always been flooded like this?,’” said Carter. “He said, ‘Yes ma’am, our boss told us last year to go down there and pump all the water out and just leave the rusted chairs down there, I highly doubt we’ll ever have to use them.’”
At that point, Carter started asking more questions. She said she learned the law states that the city doesn’t have to provide a public shelter.
“I asked, ‘Where do we go for a shelter? What about people who rent a home and don’t have a shelter? What about people who just bought a house and can’t afford a shelter?’ I just bought a house two years ago, I can’t afford to by a shelter right now. Those shelters cost over a thousand dollars. I don’t have that kind of money. And he said, ‘You either buy one yourself or you find someone who has one.’”
The city’s surrounding Sulphur have accessible shelters for their community, Carter said, so she is not sure why her town hasn’t made proper arrangements for severe events like this one.
Beating the tornado by just moments just to have a safe place to go for a differently abled woman was infuriating and terrifying for her.
“I understand that were not used to this, but there should be plans in place for this, for things exactly like this,” said Carter. “There is no reason that we don’t have a public place, and shame on the city of Sulphur to say it’s not their responsibility to provide public shelter for us. Shame on them.”
Carter plans to go before the school board and city council as soon as she is able to to bring up concerns of accessibility, and more planning before the next disaster.
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