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McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — A work crew of incarcerated people
cleared the way for a woman and her three children to finally
leave their rural Oklahoma property more than a week after a
tornado caused widespread damage, state officials said.
The crew was still at work Friday after clearing numerous downed
trees on Tuesday to give the family a road out from their home
in the community of Blanco, the Oklahoma Department of
Corrections said. About a dozen tornadoes touched down in the
state on May 19 as severe storms moved through.
J.B. Sharp, a Pittsburg County road foreman, said the crew was
“a great help to us.”
Margaret Green, warden at the Mack Alford Correctional Center,
said she put the crew together after seeing a post on social
media saying the county workers needed help. Nearly a dozen
incarcerated people who live in minimum-security conditions
volunteered to join the cleanup, keeping at it for nearly a week
so far. Such crews are supervised and only people who meet
specific security and behavior standards can participate, the
department said.
“I just feel like it was giving back to the community,” Green
said. “The inmates felt the same way. It’s an army of orange."
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