The National Weather Service counts 194 tornadoes in the immediate Oklahoma City area since 1890. Here is how to keep a home ready through spring, and what to do once a storm has passed.
Storm season in central Oklahoma is an ordinary part of the calendar, and most of what it asks of a home is ordinary too: a shelter or safe place that people can actually use, a garage that is not full of clutter, and floors that survive a spring of mud.
This guide covers what cleaning can do, and is honest about what it cannot. When TotalCare Cleaning comes to the Oklahoma City area, it will clean homes. Storm repair and restoration belong to other trades, and they should come first when there is damage.
About two thirds of the 194 tornadoes the National Weather Service counts in the immediate Oklahoma City area since 1890 happened in April, May and June, with May the peak. May is also the wettest month, with a normal 5.31 inches at Will Rogers Airport out of 36.39 inches for the year. So the months with the highest risk are also the muddiest.
The area has seen the worst of it. The May 3, 1999 tornado was the first and only F5 on record in the immediate area, and on May 20, 2013 an EF5 tracked about 14 miles from near Newcastle across Moore and south Oklahoma City. Weather like that is why many people here have a plan for where to go.
Whether your safe place is a storm shelter, an interior closet, or a small room on the lowest floor, spend an hour on it in late winter. Clear out anything that has been stored there, wipe down the benches and the door track, and check that the door opens freely. A cramped, dusty space is harder on anyone with allergies, and it is no place to discover a stack of boxes in the dark.
Oklahoma's allergy clinic advises keeping indoor humidity below 45 percent and says indoor mold often turns up in damp spots such as basements and laundry areas. A below-ground shelter is damp by nature, so air it out when the weather allows, and if you see visible mold, call a specialist. A house cleaner does not do remediation.
Most spring wear is simpler than any of this. A wet May means boots, paws and umbrellas coming through the same door day after day. Heavy mats on both sides of the door catch most of it, and a towel on a hook near the back door saves the floors from the dog.
A bi-weekly Recurring House Clean tends to suit a busy household in these months, even for those who go monthly the rest of the year. Sweep before you mop, since wet soil smears, and clean the entry last so you are not tracking across a clean floor.
Oklahoma City collects residential tree and limb debris at the curb on the bulky schedule, cut to 10 feet or shorter and kept separate from furniture and appliances. Bulky pickup does not take bagged trash, contractor waste or hazardous items like paint, oil, batteries and pesticides, some of which can go to the Household Hazardous Waste Collection Center.
Check the city's schedule before stacking anything, and keep limbs and household items in separate piles. A cleaning visit does not cover debris or furniture, so the yard and the rooms need to be cleared before a visit.
Spring gets the attention, but the October 26 to 28, 2020 ice storm left at least 1.5 inches of freezing rain in parts of central Oklahoma, with extensive tree and power line damage and hundreds of thousands without power. In Moore, the National Weather Service recorded major trees downed in Eastlake Estates.
After a long outage, empty and wipe out the refrigerator yourself as soon as you can, and throw away what has spoiled. Then check under sinks. Oklahoma City Utilities advises dripping faucets on exterior walls and opening under-sink cabinet doors when temperatures stay below 32 degrees for a sustained period.
Once a roof, windows or walls have been repaired, fine dust tends to settle everywhere, including places a contractor's sweep will never reach. A One-Time Deep Clean adds hand washed baseboards, wet-wiped blinds, window tracks, and ceiling fans and vents wiped in place, which is where that dust ends up. The home should be free of debris and construction waste first.
If you are moving back into or out of a repaired house, a One-Time Moving Clean also covers the inside of the oven, refrigerator and cabinets. That is often the better fit when the home is empty.
The questions Oklahoma City homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Oklahoma City and surrounding areas with background-checked cleaners and is insured up to $1 million. Re-clean guarantee: if we missed something, tell us by the end of the next day and we come back to fix it. Beyond Clean. TotalCare.
