Tornado turns Marin Iraq vet’s town into war zone

Tornado turns marine vet’s town into war zone
War veteran vows to rebuild home flattened in devastating Oklahoma storm
AFP
May 22, 2013

Moore, Oklahoma: Curtis Carver has every intention of rebuilding from scratch the house he lost in Monday’s powerful and deadly hurricane that devastated this Oklahoma City suburb. But first, the construction worker and 20-year veteran of the US Marine Corps, who spent two years on active duty in Iraq, wants to recover his memories from the rubble - and law enforcement is getting in the way.

“My pictures. That’s all I want - my pictures,” he said Tuesday while cooling his heels and suppressing his anger at a road block where a police officer politely but firmly denied him access to the disaster zone.

Other residents could enter with a valid proof of address, and many did, toting out by foot whatever they could in bags and luggage of all shapes and colours to their cars parked a few kilometers away.

But Carver’s house, in the vicinity of Southwest 14th Street and Santa Fe Avenue, was in an area deemed by authorities Tuesday to be still too hazardous to enter, although he did get a glimpse of it Monday evening.

“It was my home, my kids’ home,” said Carver, a 38-year-old father of two, wearing a camouflage jacket over an Oklahoma T-shirt. “Now it’s gone. There’s nothing left. It’s a pile of sticks, and they’re keeping me away.”
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