Plaza Towers elementary five years after the EF-5 tornado

MOORE, Ok — “It’s coming, it’s coming!” The words teacher Kim Martinez remembers hearing another teacher scream as a monster EF-5 tornado bore down on Plaza Towers elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma on May 20th, 2013. Martinez and another teacher, Nikki McCurtain rushed their class into a bathroom and threw themselves on top of as many kids as possible. Seconds later, the tornado hit. “It sounded like a train and everything began spinning” Martinez continued.

The twister ripped through the school, leveling it and killing seven children inside.

“When it was over I remember looking up and the whole roof was gone,” Martinez told us. I even looked up and could still see the debris ball.”

When things settled Martinez and McCurtain’s students were shaken and bruised, but alive. Then they began looking for others. “That’s when it got really scary,” McCurtain began. “The 3rd graders were not coming out, it was really emotional and very, very scary.”

Seven of those 3rd-graders didn’t come out.

Today, Plaza Towers stands again. “It’s so beautiful and brings so much hope for our future” teacher McCurtain told KRMG as she stood near the school.

The entire kindergarten section of the school is an EF-5 rated tornado shelter large enough to  hold 650 people, that’s every student and staff member in the school.