Aid for Tara's Family in Tornado Aftermath

Hey everyone, my name is Tara. Some of y’all will know me, some I will be an absolute stranger to. I live in Florida and I’m trying to help my family in Oklahoma who were affected by the twister late last night. I would like to help them get back on their feet and make sure they have what they need as far as food and shelter.

I’m starting a GoFundMe for my grandpa (Claude), my aunt (Hazel), and her fiancé.

In the main picture above, my grandpa and my aunt are in the blue and black shirts, my mother to their left in a blue shirt, and my uncle in the back.

This is my family who live in Duke, Oklahoma. They were hit last night around 9 p.m. by a multi-vortex tornado named Medusa. As they were tracking the tornado last night, the news predicted it would stay out in some rural areas between about seven and nine. There is not a whole lot of information yet on what category this tornado was, I believe it was an EF4. Right now it is only known to have taken out a total of four houses and some barns with no known casualties. So this GoFundMe page is mainly for my grandpa as his house was one of the houses that were hit. It has taken the roof off of his house and has thrown some parts of his barn and his tractors into his house. Both my grandpa and my aunt Hazel's vehicles were destroyed. The bed of my grandpa‘s truck was thrown further than his roof. Making their property a mess, leaving them stranded, and making their home of 25+ years (to my knowledge) no longer livable.

Luckily, while tracking the tornado, my mom was on the phone with them and told them to clear out their storm shelter. The news had predicted that the tornado would pretty much remain stationary. After a while, it bounced around in Duke, Oklahoma to Olustee, Oklahoma. They had given my mom the green light and said that the tornado had made it past them.

About 15 minutes after getting off the phone with them, we received a call saying that they had made their way into the shelter because the tornado had turned around and that they had lost everything. As of right now, we only have some dark shots from last night and I will share those with you.

With things like this, especially in an area that they’re in, they can take six months to a year before they hear anything back from any about any coverages to help relieve what has been taken, from insurance.

As of the moment, they are going to stay with family nearby, which would be my uncle, the guy in the picture above. But they have nothing to take with them.

Our goal is to hit $20,000 and send it to my family in Oklahoma. They are not really tech-savvy and they’re not really known to ask for help.

My grandpa has been a hard-working man all his life. Matter of fact, he is 74 and currently works for a shuttle where he says that he “gets to drive the old people around”. He has been the sole provider for his family. My aunt who lives with him and is only a year older than myself, that would make her 26, is not able to provide for herself in the way that life demands. My cousin Pj, who is not in the picture above, has also lived with him for the majority of his life. He is a bit older than the both of us. I think he is about 34, he is also not fully capable, although working, able to meet the demands of life, in the way that a lot of us can.

I understand this is a big goal and that some of you are strangers. It doesn’t matter if you can only donate a dollar, anything will help contribute. We will never be able to get things that we lost, not even things that have been passed down from generation to generation throughout the farming years of my family, but it will be a start to my grandpa and a roof over his head again. I ask that you could share this with as many people as possible. I know that there are many kind hearts out there with the bare minimum, please keep them in your prayers. Things could have been much worse and luckily they were not, so all that tells me is that there is a chance.❤️