As tornadoes struck Oklahoma once again May 31, Edgecomb Selectman Jack Sarmanian was there experiencing it first hand.

In fact, one tornado passed by the hotel where he was hunkered down in the city of Norman.

“You could hear noise, great noises,” Sarmanian said in a telephone interview from Oklahoma June 4. “Right after that, there was thunder and lightning, and it was raining like you wouldn't believe,” he said. “All that night, it poured.”

“We're having thunderstorms right now,” he added. Sarmanian has been in Oklahoma since May 27. He's doing relief work as a Red Cross volunteer, drawing on his mental health expertise to counsel survivors of the May 20 tornado that struck Moore, Okla.

Sarmanian is a former high school social worker and has worked in forensic psychology for courts and law enforcement agencies.

He is counseling the Moore tornado's survivors at a multi-agency shelter set up at Westmoore High School in Moore. The school is two blocks from Plaza Towers Elementary School, where seven children died.

About nine out of 10 people he had met with so far had lost their homes. “They went underground and when they came out, there was nothing but rubble,” he said.

Sarmanian has seen downed trees by the thousands; hundreds of homes are gone, he said.

“The devastation is beyond the scope of anything,” he said.

Sarmanian was at the hotel in Norman on May 31 after the shelter where he was working was evacuated due to the hazardous weather.

He is continuing his relief work this week before returning home to Edgecomb.

Longtime fellow selectman Stuart Smith said he's been worried about Sarmanian being in Oklahoma during the stretch of tornadoes. “Jack is a very thoughtful and giving guy, and I know he wants to be out there helping, but I hope he comes back safe,” Smith said June 4.

On a prior deployment for the Red Cross in 2011, Sarmanian helped with tornado relief efforts in Minneapolis, Minn.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com.