First responders get creative when saving people at postal service training center in Norman

By Jason Burger

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    NORMAN, Oklahoma (KOCO) — The tornado in Norman on Sunday night caused serious damage to buildings.

First responders had to get creative when they saved several people at a postal service training center. Power lines had people trapped inside the building so a deputy had to think quickly to get patients out.

“We came up with the idea, that we should load up my car, that way we can get medical attention to patients inside the building,” said Deputy Jacob Overling with the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office.

Norman got hit by a tornado on Sunday night, injuring people in the postal service training facility. Two people were seriously hurt.

Overling and the medics didn’t have much time. Body camera video showed him helping paramedics get the patient in the cruiser.

“It was one trip into the building. We loaded up one and brought them here. We had another deputy that could get inside as well, and loaded up the second individual, and brought them to Norman Nine, as well,” Overling said.

Using his own patrol car, he took a paramedic with him under downed power lines when ambulances and other vehicles couldn’t get any closer.

“The cop cars were much shorter. They were able to still fit under the space that we had to work with. We were able to wheel her out to my car and get her in the front seat. The paramedic went to the back seat,” Overling said.

| MORE | Norman man describes intense moments of being in direct path of tornado

They were able to get the injured people out. They were taken to Norman Regional Nine for treatment.

“It was one of those situations where we couldn’t really wait to see if we could get the wires moved. We needed to get in there and see what was really going on,” said Riley Furman, a paramedic with EMSSTAT.

Furman is one of the paramedics who got to the people inside.

“The staff there were able to keep them back from the windows — so the staff helped keep people away from the part that had kind of collapsed,” Furman said.

KOCO 5 was told the patients were treated and have been released from the hospital.

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