Blog 7

Lead-in: Kaylin Despain and other members of the local Mormon Church help Sarah Capshaw clear the debris from her home after the tornado, in Norman, Okla. on Saturday, April 14, 2012. 

Men and women from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) came out Saturday morning to help Norman residents clean up the destruction left behind from Friday’s tornado. 

Kaylin Despain was amongst the helpers cutting down multiple trees at a house across the street from Andrew’s Park. Almost every tree in the front and backyard of the home was uprooted or had sustained serious damage by the tornado. The tornado was rated as an EF-2, according to the National Weather Service. 

According to Sarah Capshaw, a renter at the property, very little damage was done to the house. Most of the damage occurred to the yard and the cars. Three trees in the front yard were uprooted, falling across Capshaw’s car and blocking the front door. 

“When the storm was over you couldn’t even see the house because the trees were blocking it. We had to crawl over one and under the other to get to the front door,” Capshaw said. 

The volunteers from the LDS church described the house as one of the worst houses in the area, so they stopped to lend a hand. Ropes, ladders, chainsaws and tethers were all put to use to help clear the trees from the front and back yards. 

“So far we have cleared two trees and are working on the third, which is laying on the roof,” said Despain.

Members of the LDS Church didn’t stop at Capshaw’s home, but scoured the neighborhood helping multiple families clean the debris from their yards. 

Despite the effort to clear the front of the house, Capshaw and her roommate cannot live in the home just yet. The power was still disconnected and a window, which was shattered by the high-speed winds, still needed to be repaired.