Earlier this year, we had a huge tornado rush through the southern part of Oklahoma City. In particular, people lost homes and businesses throughout Moore and Norman. Down Highway 9, east of Norman, the twister took out the Little Axe football stadium, the administration building, the grocery store, part of a church and many homes. Trees and trees and more trees were lost. So many trees.

mess

Devastation was all around us.

Country Boy

camper IN a mobile home

It quickly became apparent which homeowners had good homeowners insurance and which ones didn’t.

A drive down Highway 9 from Norman headed east would show rooftop after rooftop with damage. Quickly the homes with good insurance began displaying blue tarps on their rooftops. House after house all sported blue squares. The local hardware stores sold out of all manner of tarps pretty quickly and had to have different ones brought in from other parts of the country, even some hurricane tarps . I even saw one house sporting a makeship tarp made out of a vinyl billboard sign.

As time passed and more construction crews came in, the roof tarps started getting replaced with shingles.

But today, several months after the tornado you can still see homes that haven’t been repaired. There aren’t as many but looking out over the horizon you still see a few blue squares. You can still see twisted metal frames laying on the side of the road, and mangled aluminum in what trees are left.

You also see the homes where nothing at all has been done. It’s apparent those homeowners probably didn’t have enough coverage, if they had coverage at all. Many of those folks are displaced, some of the houses sit empty. Some of the homes sit half there, half gone.

It’s sad. We can’t always determine when a twister will hit, we can only be prepared. Have you checked ‘your’ insurance coverage lately?