Felix Clary
ICT + Tulsa World
TULSA, Okla. – Tornado season is just beginning for Oklahomans, and while small towns like Sulphur are used to hearing storm sirens, Roshelle Sisneros never thought it would be her home those storms would sweep away.
“It’s not typical for tornadoes to come through town. … It’s usually on the outskirts, even though we have one every year. My brother and his family lost everything two years ago in the Kingston tornado, but you still never think it would happen to you until it does,” Sisneros said.
Thirty-five tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma on Saturday, April 27, most of them striking after 10 p.m. Central Time when residents were asleep. Twelve of them were in Sulphur, Oklahoma, a town within the Chickasaw Nation jurisdictional territory.
The tornadoes were rated as EF3 or higher, meaning they were strong enough to uproot and snap large trees and throw heavy vehicles.
Seventy-five homes were damaged. Cars, work vans and mail delivery trucks were toppled upside down, and several businesses were demolished.
The Sisneros family is of pueblo descent and closely connected to its community. Roshelle Sisneros works at the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur.
Sisneros was sleeping through the familiar sirens Saturday night when her son Garric woke her up to tell her the tornado was already at the front door.
“We couldn’t make it. We tried to go to the shelter and went to open the door, and it was right there,” she said.
Sisneros, her son and his two friends took the family pet shih tzu, Haffae, and crouched in the bathtub, listening to the train-like winds shred their home around them.
“The first thing was our roof was torn off. It fell all around us. The one thing left standing was that bathroom,” said Sisneros.
The family waited for the noises to die down before looking around them. They didn’t realize the full damage to the home until they crawled out of the tub and over the rubble.
The four walls of the house had all fallen and were blocking the doors. Part of the roof was covering the window. They made their way out of the pile, climbing over debris, passing Haffae from one person to the next as they scaled the wood, glass and furniture, gathering scratches and bruises along the way.
Finally they made it to their four vehicles, all of which were totaled. They piled into the car with the least damage.
“Its windows were shattered, but it was able to start,” Sisneros said.
The time was 2:30 a.m. Sunday when they drove off in search of shelter. They ran into some firefighters on the road who took them the rest of the way to meet Sisneros’s grandfather.
Since her grandfather’s home had lost electricity, Sisneros was able to get a temporary room at the Chickasaw Retreat Center just outside of town, courtesy of her boss at the Chickasaw Cultural Center.
On arrival at their reserved room, the Sisneros family was able to finally get cleaned up from the storm, tended to their minor wounds, and finally fell asleep around 7 a.m.
Video footage of tornado damage
As the sun came up, other Sulphur residents awoke to a town they no longer recognized. Quaint 1920s buildings were demolished. A swimming spot in Sulphur Park – a site of rich childhood memories for many – saw trees broken and uprooted.
Only a 1930s fountain, famous for its sulfurous scent that wafts from Sulphur Park to downtown, remains unscathed. The fountain’s foul smell was nostalgic to Sulphur residents, but it has now been replaced by the smell of smoke and floodwaters.
The tornados combed through a 15-block radius, mostly hitting downtown, while touching some rural areas as well.
The Department of Emergency Management said hospitals across the state reported about 100 injuries, including people who were apparently cut or struck by debris. Of the 5,000 Sulphur residents, four were found dead, including an infant and a woman found in the rubble of a downtown bar.
The Sisneros family plans to move into another family home left to Roshelle Sisneros by a late relative.
“They are fumigating the home now because my relative was a smoker, but we should be able to move in soon,” she said.
Tuesday morning, workers cleared the remains of her home.
“So many churches, random citizens, friends, firefighters, just everyone came together. We borrowed bulldozers, knocked everything left of our home down, and it’s all in dumpsters now,” Sisneros said.
A GoFundMe set up for the family had raised more than $3,000 by Tuesday morning.
FEMA officials visited Sulphur and other affected areas Tuesday, instructing citizens on resources available to them.
“Our hearts go out to those who lost family members, this is such a tragic incident but we also hear about the bravery of the first responders, and thank them for everything they did in the trying hours, ” said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell in a statement.
The Red Cross is also providing shelter for affected families, and several churches in Sulphur have opened their doors. Chickasaw Nation emergency personnel also have provided support.
“Our emergency management team and Lighthorse Police Department worked through the night and are still on site rendering support to all local teams, and authorities as needed. There is a significant amount of damage and assessment will be ongoing, but we will continue partnering and helping however we can,” said Chickasaw Governor Bill Anoatubby.
White House officials said President Joe Biden spoke to Gov. Kevin Stitt on Sunday and offered the government’s full support. Stitt declared a state of emergency in 12 counties.
A tornado near Holdenville killed two people and dilapidated more than a dozen homes, according to the Hughes County Emergency Medical Service. One person was killed along Interstate 35 near the southern Oklahoma community of Marietta.
The storms were part of severe weather that traveled across the middle of the U.S., also hitting Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.
This story is co-published by the Tulsa World and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Oklahoma area.
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