OKC Employee Helps Save Dozens Trapped in Rubble

By Steve Pipe
Sr. Manager, Internal Communications

Jeff Wilhelm with kids Lauryn, 9, and Trent, 14.

Jeff Wilhelm, an employee in Seagate’s Customer Service Operations in Oklahoma City, helped rescue dozens of children trapped in the rubble of a school that was ripped apart by a massive tornado on May 20.

Wilhelm, 40, was one of the first on the scene at Briarwood Elementary School in Moore, where his daughter, Lauryn, 9, attends third grade.

Wilhelm left work on Monday afternoon to get his daughter out of school, but the tornado—with winds estimated at up to 210 miles per hour—was too strong by the time he reached Moore. Wilhelm sheltered in a closet at his home until he felt it was safe enough to venture outside again.

“I jumped in my truck and debris was falling everywhere,” he said. “I saw a telephone pole crash right in front of me. When I got to the school, everything was just leveled. It was like a bomb had gone off.”

A police officer arrived at the school shortly after Wilhelm, and they both went in search of children and school staff trapped beneath the debris.

“I had no idea where my daughter was,” Wilhelm recalled. “I took a few steps into what was left of the school and saw this little hand sticking out of the rubble. A gym teacher showed up and we managed to pull that child out, and then we just started pulling out more children.”

Wilhelm said they lifted a large section of wall and found one child on his hands and knees, shielding two other students. They also found a teacher, protecting four more children. Wilhelm found another teacher with just her head sticking up from the debris. “All she kept saying to us was, ‘Get my kids,’ ” he said.

They pulled more and more students and teachers out of harm’s way, but Wilhelm still hadn’t found Lauryn.

“The more kids I found alive and okay, the more hope I had that Lauryn was safe,” he said. “It gave me a little comfort to see those kids walking away, one by one.”

Wilhelm kept clawing at broken bits of concrete until “I couldn’t feel my arms.” He looked at his arms, locked at 90-degree angles, with his hands clenched in tight fists, and told the other rescuers that he couldn’t dig any more.

He wandered over to the school’s playground, where hundreds of children had gathered, and began searching for his daughter there.

Briarwood Elementary School. Lauryn Wilhelm and her classmates rode out the storm in a closet at far left corner of photo.

“I’m a big guy,” said Wilhelm, “and my daughter’s got my height. I saw her head in the crowd and ran over to give her a big hug.”

Lauryn had been struck in the head by a piece of cinderblock but is doing well, her father said.

Wilhelm returned home with both of his children safe—his son, Trent, 14, attends a middle school that was out of the tornado’s path. Although Wilhelm’s arms were aching, he thought he could sleep it off and would feel better the next day.

Wilhelm’s wife, Patricia, convinced him to see a doctor the next morning. X-rays revealed that both arms were fractured.

“I guess I can be pretty stubborn at times,” Wilhelm admitted. “I’d do anything for my kids.”

Note: All Seagate employees in Oklahoma are safe and accounted for. Seagate has committed $150,000 in support of relief efforts and is currently working to identify the appropriate organizations for those funds. For those who choose to help in the immediate relief efforts, the Red Cross is taking direct donations at www.redcross.org/okc or you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

2013-05-27T15:56:22+00:00

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