Long Term Recovery Team provides detailed updates
Community members are invited to join together Friday, March 14, to support one another for an observance on the one-year anniversary of the deadly tornado that devastated Logan County in 2024.
The community observance will take place at the Indian Lake High School auditorium and is being planned by a committee made up of local elected officials, first responders, and local churches, members of the Logan County Long Term Recovery Team report.
The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the community observance takes place 7 to 8 p.m., with speakers currently being confirmed.
The Long Term Recovery Team also recently published a summary report on its activities from March 14, 2024-Feb. 5, 2025.
The LTR is working with individuals and families who have requested assistance due to not being able to make a complete recovery through funding of their own or from FEMA and insurance proceeds. LTR assistance is focused on primary residences and prioritizes our help being sustainable by the recipient.
“There is still so much to do,” Logan County Emergency Management Director Helen Norris said. “But no one person can define what it all is, as every property owner is responsible for their own recovery.”
“We work hard not to place our families in a situation where their ongoing resources are not enough to cover the expenses of the new situation. This is in hope that they will prosper and not end up worse off in the future.”
Of the 97 cases referred to LTR, 66 are now in safe permanent housing and have received the assistance that was available and their cases are closed, according to the report. This assistance ranged from replacing lost household items such as furniture, bedding, appliances, furnaces, structural repairs, and moving and hook-ups for mobile homes and park models.
In addition, with the help of volunteers and other agencies, the LTR has replaced the furniture and or belongings of more than 50 families through donations and other agencies. More are underway or being assessed for needs.
The 31 remaining cases with LTR represent some families waiting for contractors or our volunteer groups who will be repairing their home that they are currently living in.
“Some represent cases where the family is precariously housed or in a camper and have large barriers between them and permanent housing,” the report states.
“Some of these barriers include choices to be made and we are waiting for the family to move forward with their part while we wait to assist.”
Following the March 2024 tornado, the Logan County EMA reports 1,443 total business and residential properties were assessed, including 87 businesses and 1356 residential properties.
Of those residential properties, 235 were destroyed; 253 sustained major damage; 417 sustained minor damage; 279 residences were affected; and 172 properties were not affected (348 properties also were found to be non-primary residences).
Many families in the minor and affected categories have recovered on their own and requested no assistance from LTR, according to the report.
During the past 10 months, LTR reached out to more than 700 families in the destroyed, major and minor categories.
“We have maintained contact with families who were unsure of their ability to recover on their own, or who knew they couldn’t,” members said in the report.
In those categories, a total of 121 families are known to have recovered with insurance and 40 families are waiting on insurance and expect to be completed.
The number of families referred to LTR is the previously mentioned 97 cases.
“Any assistance given by Logan County LTR is required to be sustainable. Everything is being done to get families moved into better yet sustainable housing,” members stated in the report.
“Through generous donations to Logan County LTR and our LTR partnering agencies, we are supplying the necessities to fill their living space once housing is acquired. We will continue this work until all possible sustainable recovery has been achieved.”
