Area malls convert to storm shelters

For many people, a trip to the mall may mean window shopping or dinner and a movie. For Keith Maher, it was sanctuary from the storm.

"There really wasn't much discussion," recalls the 44-year-old manager of the Park Harvey Center Chick-fil-A. At five till 7 p.m., with television weathermen saying a milewide twister would reach his Midwest City home in 40 minutes, Maher decided to seek shelter for his wife and son at Heritage Park Mall.

"In that situation, when you only have a minute to decide, in my mind we thought we had to go somewhere where we could get there quickly and where you're familiar with," he explains. "Nobody argued about it. Nobody said, `I don't want to go there.'" Over the decades of suburban sprawl, huge shopping malls have redefined our concept of community. So being considered an emergency shelter doesn't bother area mall managers. Indeed, they encourage it. "We pride ourselves on being a community center," says Heritage Park Mall Manager Tim Stinneford, whose sturdy brick and mortar facility offers reinforced common areas certified as tornado shelters. Heritage Park has a crisis plan for just such contingencies, as does Crossroads Mall. "The big stores all have their own plans, and then the mall has their own plan," explains Crossroads Marketing Director Christi Parks. "Of course, getting people out of the main mall area, where all the skylights are, is a top priority." The tremendous tornado that ravaged Moore and Del City apparently skirted around Crossroads and bounced over Heritage Park. It downed nearby power lines and damaged surrounding businesses, but the malls escaped unharmed. Stinneford's security team shepherded "a couple of hundred" visitors through the experience at Heritage Park. "We pretty much run drills on it and train on it," he notes. "We've had tornado scares before." Crossroads security personnel managed from 800 to a thousand within its 1.1 million square feet. "Would it have hit the mall, we would have been prepared to deal with the crisis at hand," says Parks. The mall had recently updated its comprehensive plan. "We have all just studied it. That's what was going through my mind all that night." Driving through pouring rain that slowed traffic to a crawl, Maher and his family reached the doors of the Heritage Park Sears store at about 7:20 p.m., just as the mall was closing. There he joined a group of about 50 shoppers and others gathered by security personnel to the anchor store's freight elevators and surrounding storage areas. "It was very well organized," states Maher. "Nobody panicked." Sears personnel carefully told their guests where to stand and how to act. They distributed hand-held fans to help with the stuffy air, and readily shared that information they gathered with their radios. Talking constantly, they stilled the growing fear as the tempest hit and power went out. "You could feel the building taking a pounding," says Maher. "At first I thought someone was messing with the elevator, but then I realized it was the power of the storm passing over." Roughly around 9 p.m., with the immediate danger past, Sears personnel gave visitors the option of going home or spending the night inside the store. Choosing the former, Maher and his family were led out by flashlight. "They even warned us of the gas smell," Maher says, much impressed by the Sears staff. "They'd already heard about it." The electricity went off throughout the mall, although Heritage Park immediately restored power to its common areas via an emergency generator. As soon as he heard of Monday night's storm damage, Stinneford told police and security guards that his facility was available for those needing shelter. Up to 35 people stayed overnight at the 620,000-square-foot mall, with Picadilly Cafeteria and El Chico providing food the next morning. With its power restored at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday, Stinneford says the mall will remain available for the displaced "as long as we're needed. Any overflow they need to have, we're here for." Crossroads also is seeking ways to help its displaced neighbors. The mall has offered its 40,000 square feet of available space to the Moore school district, to help it complete the current year despite its damaged facilities. Through the crisis, Stinneford never worried about liability issues. "To be honest, I never thought much of the liability of it. I just wanted to save as many people as we can. "Midwest City is a very close-knit community," he adds. "We try to be a good community neighbor as much as we can." That, of course, is one element of building a bond with its clientele. "These people affected are our shoppers," notes Parks, "and we're trying to think of what we can do to help them." That side of trickle-down economics works, if Maher is any example, for the downtownish community spirit bestowed upon malls played a role in his choosing sanctuary at Heritage Park. He could have taken his family to two more traditional community shelters much closer to his home, which lies about three blocks north of Tinker Air Force Base. Instead, he chose the mall. In truth, his decision was partly based on his knowledge of the mall's shelters as a former employee of its Chick-fil-A. But he also chose the mall because of its nature. "It may not be the biggest mall," he says, "but Midwest City does a good job of supporting it. They're very dedicated."

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