PITTSBURG, Okla. — In 35 years of living in Pittsburg, Kelly Billingsley said they've always been lucky enough to avoid the eye of the storm coming down right on top of them.
This time, it seems their luck has run out.
"It was calm and then it wasn't calm," she said. “It hit like that quick and it came out of gray sky and there was not anything no really indication, you couldn’t see it.”
She raised all three of her kids in one of the homes on Indian Trail, one of the hardest hit roads in the area. Two of her daughters live there now and sustained severe damage to their homes.
But Billingsley is the one with the storm shelter, just a bit up the road, so everyone headed to her when the weather started turning. She was trying to convince her mother to get inside the shelter with everyone else when she realized she'd run out of time.
"By the time we got out on the patio and we got halfway out there, it hit," she said. "Chairs started flying in the swimming pool, trees started flying and I was like 'oh crap it’s too late.' So we hauled butt in the house, we got in the closet and we stayed in there until it went over. It was like really loud.”
WATCH: Tight-knit Pittsburg directly hit by storm
A few of them road out the storm for about fifteen minutes in a closet.
The trees at her house were down, and she was missing some shingles, but was spared from the brunt of the damage.
Her daughters and the others on Indian Trail were caught right in the crossfire. Billingsley said this home, which she spent so much of her life in, is likely a total loss.
“We don’t even really know where to start," she said.
Although they're just beginning to make sense of the chaos that unfolded Monday, Billingsley said her small but mighty community will undoubtedly come out the other side of this stronger than ever.
“Everybody’s like came together and been here, everybody showed up," said Billingsley. "We’ve got thousands of text messages and calls and everybody’s coming to help, bringing stuff so yeah we have an awesome community.”
For those in need of any resources or support after the storm, the American Red Cross of Oklahoma has set up a shelter at Pittsburg Public Schools in town.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Watch LIVE 24/7 on YouTube
