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Town of Porter, Oklahoma sustains damage following Thursday night's storms

Posted at 4:12 PM, May 19, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-19 18:00:14-04

PORTER, Okla. -- High winds from last night's storm spared most of the town of Porter, but some on the outskirts weren't as lucky.

“This was pretty amazing. Weird stuff with tornadoes isn't it?” said Porter teacher Terri Roberts.

Every piece of classroom material is still where Roberts left it in storage...only now there's no roof to protect them.

“This is just storage. So I'm kinda glad we were hit the way we were,” she said.

But for others who share the building...

“People's personal belongings, baby pictures, things of that nature are in all of these units. So we want to make sure that's safe,” said Porter Mayor Steve Dickey.

People coming to check on their belongings at East Side Storage in Porter were greeted by Dickey since Thursday night.

He's been helping folks load up...and keeping personal watch over everything that's left.

“This was probably the worst part here in town,” said Dickey. “It's like the whole building just lifted straight up into the air.”

He considers it a personal mission to help.

“I've lived here my whole life...my grandparents lived here so you kinda know everybody. You kinda get emotional about it,” he said.

It's a calling to not just serve the town of Porter daily, but to lean down and pick its residents up from the latest springtime blow.

“I feel very comforted. They were johnny-on-the-spot with the tornado warnings, so I know people were watching us,” said Roberts.

“We'll make it. There was no loss of life, nobody got hurt, so that's the main thing,” said Dickey.

The National Weather Service will determine whether the damage was caused by a tornado or straight line winds.

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