Greater OKC Chamber assists tornado-ravaged Shawnee businesses with data, research

As the Shawnee community continues to clean up from an EF2 tornado that tore through a major vein of the city, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber is providing data and research that will help community leaders better connect with businesses impacted along the storm route.

The Greater OKC Chamber research team recently met with Shawnee city leadership to share that more than 1,700 businesses and 16,000 employees may have been impacted by the storm.

Jeff Seymour, executive vice president for economic development for the Greater OKC Chamber, said the Chamber’s support for Oklahoma City’s regional communities is never ending.

“One of the real strengths of our organization is the ability to use data to help companies/community leaders make informed decisions,” Seymour said. “The work of the Chamber is important on so many levels — including but not limited to community resiliency.”

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt declared a State of Emergency April 20 for multiple Oklahoma counties, including Pottawatomie, because of the tornadoes, straight-line winds and hail. This ensures, if necessary, federal assistance will be made available.

Interactive maps and spreadsheets curated by the Chamber were sent to Shawnee’s city manager within 48 hours. Shawnee Forward, an organization that looks to empower a diverse community through collaborative economic growth, workforce development and education, also received the data.

Richard Clements, Greater Oklahoma City Partnership manager, said the city and Shawnee Forward understand a well-organized recovery effort requires good information. He said work done by Ashley Hicks, Chamber GIS research analyst, and Eric Long, Chamber research economist, was particularly impactful.

“The work done by [Hicks and Long] of the Chamber’s Research Group was done as a response to the situation because they knew they had something of value to provide,” Clements said.

Clements said FEMA and the state’s Homeland Security representatives expressed at a recent recovery meeting how unprecedented, in their experience, this kind of collaboration is.

“The community has been very successful in assembling a working group of representatives from a broad base of community and government organizations to support the recovery effort,” Clements said.

Long said, in a time of natural disasters, the Chamber’s economic development team shifts focus to help the business community in any way possible. In this case, the team immediately mobilized and asked questions on how they might best serve the impacted communities.

“It is always very traumatic to a community when they experience a natural disaster,” Long said. “But, through that trauma, it is encouraging to see how Oklahomans consistently unite to help one another.”

He said, per the data the Chamber’s team was able to gather, it was revealed the three industries potentially impacted the most by the tornado were health care and social assistance, retail, and accommodation and food service. Knowing that information, Long said, is critical to the city’s recovery efforts since the data can be used in applying for future grants and accessing workforce funds available through the Department of Labor.

Above all else, Long said the experience has been encouraging as it shows what collaboration, shared experiences learned through tragedy, and collective insight can do for a community in need.

“Shawnee leadership … have shown wisdom in their willingness to gather [multiple] agencies, business leaders and non-profit stakeholders in the same room,” he said. “It is not always easy to put aside differences or challenges from the past to work together for the common good of their neighbors and community. But that is what we have seen taking place in Shawnee. … This tragedy will only make the Greater Oklahoma City region stronger.”