OWASSO, Okla. — The City of Owasso is rolling out new disaster recovery cards to give local businesses a tool to help them recover faster when chaos hits, like the tornado that struck Enid Thursday night.
The cards feature QR codes that directly link businesses to disaster recovery resources, including FEMA, the Red Cross, Oklahoma Emergency Management and other recovery resources. The goal is to help business owners move from crisis to recovery as quickly as possible by putting all critical information in one place.
Wendy Gonzalez, owner of the Copper Kiln, told 2 News she wishes she had something like this back in 2018 when lightning struck her home.
"The following morning we woke and we had no clothes for myself and my children. Nothing. Everything was just completely gone overnight," Gonzalez said.
"If we know something about Oklahoma weather it’s that the weather is unpredictable and it can change within minutes," Gonzalez said.
"For us, we manufacture a lot of our product and we are not keeping record of all of that, it’s very difficult to go back after the fact to figure out what you had and what you lost and how you’re going to cover your items and if you don’t have record of what you own, it’s very hard to recover those items," Gonzalez said.
Just a few doors down, Kristi Baker at Art in Bloom Flower Shop knows how quickly disaster can change everything.
"My father was a firsthand tornado victim in 1991, an Andover tornado and it took out everything that he had," Baker said.
"I think that’s a wonderful idea. It’s always good to have a record of everything you have. You never know when something like this could happen," Baker said.
The cards are available at Owasso City Hall.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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