Oklahoma tornado survivor describes friend's heroism

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Rodney Heltcel salvages items from the wreckage of his home of 21 years that was destroyed Monday when a tornado moved through Moore, Okla. (Brennan Linsley / Associated Press)

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A destroyed Corvette sits in the rubble of a home in Moore, Okla. (Tannen Maury / EPA)

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Two frightened and apparently lost dogs sit on a coffee table top in a destroyed neighborhood in Moore, Okla. (Tannen Maury / EPA)

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The destruction left behind by Monday’s tornado in Moore, Okla. (Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)

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An aerial view shows the tornado’s path through a residential area in Moore, Okla. (Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)

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An aerial view of the aftermath of Monday’s tornado in Moore, Okla., shows homes that have been destroyed across the street from other dwellings that appear untouched. (Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)

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An entire neighborhood destroyed by Monday’s tornado in Moore, Okla. (Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)

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Rescue workers carefully make their way through the remains of Plaza Towers Elementary School. (Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)

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Chad Heltcel passes an antique doll cherished by his mother to a helper assisting him and wife Cassidi as they salvage what they can from the wreckage of their home. (Brennan Linsley / Associated Press)

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People recover belongings from the rubble of a home in Moore, Okla. (Tannen Maury / EPA)

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An aerial view shows a street lined by homes destroyed by Monday’s tornado. (Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)

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Firefighters help a fellow firefighter recover belongings from the rubble of his home in Moore, Okla. (Tannen Maury / EPA)

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Zac Woodcock salvages items from the rubble of his tornado-ravaged rental home in Moore, Okla. (Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)

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Air Force Airman 1st Class Justin Acord sifts through the rubble of his father-in-law’s home in Moore, Okla., after the town was hit by a tornado the day before. (Tannen Maury / EPA)

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Kay James holds her cat as she sits in her driveway after her home was destroyed by the tornado that hit near Oklahoma City. (Chris Landsberger / Associated Press)

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Plaza Towers Elementary School was almost obliterated by the tornado that struck Moore, Okla., on Monday. (Steve Gooch / Associated Press)

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Two women sort through debris as they look for belongings in a leveled home the day after a tornado hit in Moore, Okla. (Ed Zurga / EPA)

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Lea Bessinger salvages belongings as she and her son Josh sort through the rubble of her tornado-ravaged home in Moore, Okla. (Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)

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Members of Nebraska Task Force 1 search a destroyed building the day after a tornado hit in Moore, Okla. (Ed Zurga / EPA)

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An American flag blows in the wind at sunrise atop the rubble of a destroyed home a day after a tornado moved through Moore, Okla. (Brennan Linsley / Associated Press)

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A woman is pulled out from under tornado debris at the Plaza Towers School in Moore, Okla. (Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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A fire burns in the Tower Plaza Addition in Moore, Okla., after a tornado roared through. (Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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A child is pulled from the rubble of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., and passed along to rescuers after Monday’s tornado. (Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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JoAnn Anderson sorts through the rubble of her home after a tornado in Moore, Okla. (Steve Sisney / Associated Press)

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Rescuers recover a horse from the remains of a day-care center and destroyed barns in Moore, Okla. (Steve Sisney / Associated Press)

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A monster tornado fills the sky as it ravages Moore, Okla., on Monday. (Alonzo Adams / Associated Press)

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Oklahoma City firefighters check on Gene Tripp as he sits in a rocking chair where his home stood before it was destroyed by a tornado. (Chris Landsberger / Associated Press)

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This frame grab provided by KWTV shows a tornado in Oklahoma City. Video shows flattened buildings and fires after a mile-wide tornado moved through the Oklahoma City area. (KWTV / Associated Press)

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This photo provided by KFOR-TV shows a house fire outside Moore, after tornado as much as a mile wide roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs, flattening neighborhoods, leaving buildings ablaze landing a direct blow on an elementary school. (KFOR-TV / Associated Press)

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A child is carried from the rubble of the Plaza Towers Elementary School following a tornado in Moore, Okla. (Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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Moore police dig through the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary School after a tornado in Moore, Okla. (Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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A boy is pulled from beneath a collapsed wall at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla. (Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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Rescue workers dig through a collapsed wall at Plaza Tower Elementary School to free trapped students in Moore, Okla. (Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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Onlookers watch as children are pulled from the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary School following a tornado in Moore, Okla. (Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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Rescue workers dig through the rubble of a collapsed wall at the Plaza Tower Elementary School to free trapped students in Moore, Okla. (Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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A child calls to his father after being pulled from the rubble of the Tower Plaza Elementary School after Monday’s tornado in Moore, Okla. (Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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A woman carries an injured child to a triage center near the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla. (Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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Wrecked vehicles outside Moore, Okla. in the wake of the tornado that struck on Monday. (KFOR-TV / AP)

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Kasey Clark sorts through the debris of her grandmother-in-law Thelma Cox’s mobile home after it was destroyed by a tornado near Shawnee, Okla. A series of tornados moved across central Oklahoma on Sunday, killing two people and injuring at least 21. (Brett Deering / Getty Images)

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Volunteers help clean out Jean McAdams’ mobile home after it was overturned by a tornado near Shawnee, Oklahoma. (Brett Deering / Getty Images)

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A tornado leaves extensive damage along Interstate 40 at the junction with U.S. 177 on the west side of Shawnee, Okla., Sunday evening. (Jim Beckel / Associated Press)

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A resident searches through the rubble of his mobile home in the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park, destroyed by Sunday’s tornado, near Shawnee, Okla. (Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)

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A home sits damaged after a tornado moved through an area ear Shawnee, Okla. (Brett Deering / Getty Images)

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This photo provided by KFOR-TV shows homes flattened outside Moore, Okla., after a monstrous tornado roared through the ares. (KFOR-TV / Associated Press)

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Shawnee, Okla., firefighters assist driver Marco Corr as he is taken from the cab of his overturned truck Sunday after a tornado swept through. (Jim Beckel / Associated Press)

By Hailey Branson-Potts

May 20, 2013 11:52 PM PT

A few hours after a massive tornado tore through the Oklahoma City area, ravaging neighborhoods and two elementary schools and killing at least 51 people, Edie Cordray sent an urgent message to members of her church in nearby Norman.

“Please pray for my best friend,” she wrote.

The friend, Becky Jo Evans, teaches first grade at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which took a direct hit. Evans and her students were missing, Cordray wrote.

PHOTOS: Tornadoes hit Oklahoma

Cordray was at her church, where she works as a day-care teacher, when the tornado hit with 200-mph winds.

Cordray and Evans have been best friends for more than six years, Cordray said. “She’s my life. She’s my family.”

“The minute I heard she was missing, I didn’t want to talk to anyone,” she said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “I was going to drive from Moore” to try to find Evans.

MAP: Path of destruction

Her pastor, Chad Bartlett, consoled her and kept her from driving.

“They’re going to get her,” Bartlett could be heard on the phone telling Cordray. “She’s going to be all right. Don’t drive. Don’t go up there.”

Just after 6 p.m., Cordray received a text message: Evans had been found. But her students had not.

By Monday evening, Cordray sounded happy. She had talked with Evans on the phone and was driving to Oklahoma City to see her.

Evans got some of her students into a bathroom, Cordray said she told her. The walls started falling in on them, so she jumped on top of them, shielding them with her body. After the storm had passed, Evans pulled children from the destroyed building. But she still doesn’t know how many of them survived.

“There’s still a lot of confusion on where the kids are,” Cordray said. When Cordray talked to Evans on the phone, Cordray said she told her she was a hero and could not wait to hug her.

“After I knew she was OK, I knew I was not going to go to bed until I saw her and hugged her,” Cordray told The Times.

Cordray was watching children herself at the day-care center in Norman, and herded them into a bathroom too. They were unscathed.

But Cordray saw that the storm was heading toward Evans’ school and kept sending her text messages. She became frantic when the text messages didn’t go through.

Cordray herself had been through the May 3, 1999, tornado, which packed 300-mph winds and killed 44 people. She couldn’t help thinking back on the terror of that day. She was 12 then and at a Girl Scouts meeting in Moore. She remembers seeing destruction and flattened houses and cars as she was being driven home after the storm.

“You can hear it, and you’re scared, but when you come out and you see all the destruction around you, there aren’t words to explain.”

hailey.branson@latimes.com

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