By: Stephanie Neeley
A local business has partnered with Power 96 and McDonalds to collect canned and non-perishable food items for the thousands of survivors in the Oklahoma City suburb that was devastated by a massive tornado Monday.
BMI Elite is collecting the food at its Boca Raton office and will send it to Moore on May 24 to be distributed to those who need it most.
“I am asking everyone to join our efforts to help out those who may have lost everything in the tornado,” CEO Brandon Rosen said. “Thousands of people are in need of some help to get through this difficult time, and BMI Elite is doing our part to support them.”
All items should be brought by noon May 24 to 1095 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 in Boca Raton.
“BMI Elite cares about our community and organizations that make the world a better place,” Rosen said. “We realize how far some food can go for the people who have no choice but to completely start over.”
The powerful storm, topping the National Weather Service scale for tornadoes, cut a swath of devastation through Moore (8776MF), a town of 55,000, destroying the Plaza Towers Elementary School and a medical center. At least 24 people were killed and 237 injured.
Winds in excess of 200 miles per hour (322 kilometers per hour) ripped off roofs and twisted sheet metal around splintered trees and utility poles. President Barack Obama called it “one of the
The National Weather Service gave the twister a rating of EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale for wind speed and breadth, and experts say it released an amount of energy that dwarfed even the power of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima.
EF5 tornadoes are the strongest tornadoes and have the most violent winds on Earth, more powerful than a hurricane.
The Oklahoma Insurance Department says a preliminary estimate suggests the cost of damage from the tornado could be more than $2 billion.
The five ranking puts the tornado in the same class as the deadliest in U.S. history, which hit Joplin, Mo., in 2011, killing 158 and injuring hundreds more.