Remembering A Place He Once Called Home

Like many others, Beach Boulevard resident Bill Moss and his wife were horrified by the devastation in Moore, Oklahoma caused by the F4 tornado that ripped through the town on Monday.

And although that was a common reaction, the news literally hit home for the Moss family.

"We cried," Moss said. "My wife and I both cried."

Bill - a former hardware and paint manager for Sears - got to pick where they wanted to go when he was transferred back in 1977. California or Oklahoma. It was their choice. They picked Oklahoma.

The couple bought a spacious ranch home on South Main Street in Moore, where they settled in with their two young boys, Scott and Shaun. The boys had an easy walk to their school. The house was only 500 feet from the Plaza Towers School.

"My wife worked as a custodian in the school," Moss said.

The Plaza Towers School lies in ruins now. Seven children died there on Monday. The school had no safe place for them to go.

"The other schools had a safe room," Moss said. "A solid cement room. The state of Oklahoma was planning more but they ran out of money. The kids were in the hallway."

The family later sold their first home and bought another in Moore. Both houses were destroyed by the tornado.

"The only thing left right now is one garage door," he said. "I saw it on T.V. The rest of the house is gone. It was chilling to see my old house gone."

Oklahoma has a "literally flat terrain," he said. "There's no hills. Flat land for as far as you can see. It's hit 115 in the summer and -140 in the winter."

The family left Moore in 1985 when Moss lost his job and moved to Lacey Township, where he and his wife have lived ever since.

"I was there for seven years and never saw a tornado," Moss said. "The sirens went off once in the seven years we were there."

Ironically, Moss lived in another place that was later the epicenter of another natural disaster.

He was in the U.S. Air Force from 1964 to 1968, stationed in Homestead, Florida. Hurricane Andrew roared into Homestead in 1992.

"As long as I'm here, everybody's safe," he quipped. "It always happens after I'm gone."