FEMA officials visited the city of Sulphur to assess the damage from Saturday's storm and offer help to those affected. They also met with Chickasaw Gov. Bill Anoatubby and Sen. James Lankford at the Artesian Hotel to discuss the current situation in Sulphur.
Both Anoatubby and Lankford expressed concern about the economic impact the storm damage will have on local businesses and the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, which attracts about 2 million visitors each year, according to Anoatubby.
"And of course, we're hoping that we can join forces and help others to bring that [recreation area] back to where it needs to be," Anoatubby said. "We worked with them on a lot of different projects, so this will be probably one of the priorities to bring them back to work with the whole community."
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell reassured the community: Sulphur can rebuild and navigate difficult times, coming out stronger on the other side.
"What I want to be able to do is go back and make sure we're bringing in the right federal partners – like I wouldn't have thought to bring in the National Park Service," Criswell said. "And because of the close relationship that you have with the work that you're doing, making sure that we're bringing in the right agencies to help the whole community get back to the way it was, but also to, again, make it stronger and make it more resilient because we're seeing severe weather events just increase in severity in not just tornadoes, but flooding."
Kelbie Kennedy is FEMA National Tribal Affairs Advocate and citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. She explained that FEMA's goal is to work directly with tribes to support their governments, which will, in turn, take care of tribal citizens.
"So the biggest thing I would say is tribal nations have been doing emergency management well before there was a term for emergency management," Kennedy said. "And so the Chickasaw Nation is no different. They have a wonderful team who has been out in the local communities coordinating with the counties, coordinating with the local governments in order to help protect lives."
Kennedy noted an online resource to help people prepare for situations like these, especially those living in Tornado Alley.
"And so I would really encourage people to, in addition to reaching out to their tribal nation, Chickasaw Nation, to also go to Ready.gov and look at ways for future disasters, how they can make plans and be able to be even more prepared for the next disaster," Kennedy said. "Because it takes the entire community in order to ensure that everybody across our reservations are safe."
A mobile medical van is parked north of the Artesian in the elevated parking lot for those impacted by the storm and needing minor medical assistance. Anyone can utilize the urgent care mobile center, including tribal citizens and non-tribal citizens, as well as people with or without insurance. For the time being, the medical van is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The Chickasaw Nation's social media page also shared resources for its citizens seeking relief assistance, suggesting they call the Chickasaw Nation area office directly or the disaster relief recovery team at 855-389-1740. Chickasaw citizens in Sulphur can call 580–622-2888 or visit the Crossway Church.
