MOORE, Okla. – The tornado had these seniors running for their lives.
Peggy Satterwhite was really flipping out.
“These are where my house got hit in the ‘99 tornado,” she said.
Peggy and the others raced to their above ground shelter at Langley Village, only they couldn’t get inside. It was locked!
“I’m standing at the door. It’s raining,” Peggy said. “The wind is blowing.”
Marietta Reynolds and her grandchildren were locked out too.
“We tried to push and pull and the babies were screaming and crying and they were scared,” she said.
We went straight to property manager, Linda Minnick, for answers.
She told us, “The only thing we can figure out is someone actually went into the shelter and locked the door.”
The tenants complaining aren’t buying it.
We know the two safe rooms on the property were installed late last year, but still aren’t handicap accessible.
Prior to Wednesday’s storm they couldn’t unlock the shelters either.
None of them had a key.
Minnick admits there was an issue with the locks, which prevented her from passing out keys to tenants.
“I understand they’re upset and everything like that, but in that other part of the property have another storm shelter down here,” the property manager said.
The tenants say that wasn’t even an option with their failing health.
“I can`t get there that fast,” tenant Carolyn Gernoff said. “It would have already happened before I could even get there and I didn’t know if it was open or not.”
Some tenants complained to management.
Now they claim they’re being threatened with eviction.
Peggy is 66 years-old and said, “I’m having to go through this. I`m going to be terminated.”
Minnick assures us she’s not evicting them, yet.
“What that is, is a letter of non-compliance for a violation of their lease for coming in my office and cussing me,” she said.
They must work out their differences with their property manager or they could be forced to find a new place to live.
We’ve urged both sides to find common ground.
Management says they’re working to making the safe rooms handicap accessible, although they couldn’t tell me a completion date.
We’ll check back.
