Posted on 05/20/2013 12:46:11 PM PDT by dirtboy
Tornado warnings up in Oklahoma. Watches in TX, OK, KS, MO, far NW Arkansas.
wow...
Bodies? Dear God no.
My heart is breaking those poor poor babies :(
“Sorry to go political at such a dire moment...”
I just checked a U.S. map showing red counties and blue counties. Not one blue county in Oklahoma. Don’t expect to see any FEMA faces there any time soon.
Just saw on TV the destruction this maybe worse than 1999.
A ditch or culvert is potentially better than taking refuge under an overpass - the reason being - anything greater than an EF-2, the winds getting funneled into a smaller space actually increase the intensity and getting sucked out and up into a multi-vortex tornado is lethal.
Most folks have a tendancy to stay in their cars under an overpass during a tornado. Much of this is the result of a video of a family and a television crew hiding under an overpass while a weak tornado passed right through them in 1991, and they survived without so much as a scratch.
In anything of EF4 or 5 strength - even reinforced concrete homes can get ripped from their foundations, so hiding under an overpass during such a tornado is not going to provide any more safety. In those cases, prayers are all we got to keep us safe if something on the magnitude seen today again in Moore hits you.
That said - if I’m in a car with a giant wedge heading for me, and there is no ditch or culvert I can get under - I would try to get up under the girders of an overpass if I had no ability to evade an oncoming tornado by angling to the left of it’s approach. Remaining in my car is not an option. it will end up as a 200 MPH missile that most likely will get wrapped around and imbedded into a tree or building.
Local OK City TV station KFOR just reported that search and rescue at Plaza Towers Elementary is now search and recovery. They said as many as 2 dozen children may be gone. I’m hoping they are wrong.
this tornado was moving much more slowly giving it more time to tear things up
Shep just went numbish....
Heartbreaking! My prayers for those families and all those affected by this storm.
We’re in Oklahoma and end up in a closet with 2 big dogs. Very cozy.
I read somewhere that Paul’s Valley (small town south of Norman) is the prime location for tornadoes from a geographical perspective. Moore is not that far away.
We have family in Norman and are relieved they are safe, but we are so sorry for the poor people of Moore. Our son is in federal law enforcement and he loaded up several jugs of water and headed to Moore to see if he could help.
Praying for everyone who was affected.
Wouldn’t a better approach be to try and escape it? Hopefully traveling at a 90 degree angle.
Now that everybody has a smartphone it shouldn’t be difficult to discern which direction to go.
You’re definitely correct about a ditch or culvert being the best, but the problem is in some cases there’s been 2-3 inches of rain in the previous few hours.
I was driving an empty 12-passenger van between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham one April and was faced with thinking about that one. Tornado watch, visibility almost zero, I’d pulled over and van was rocking, and I thought I saw the wind just shift - but the ditch beside the interstate was full of water. I just stayed in the van (turned out no tornado).
Thanks for not flaming me for being possibly inappropriate...
But his supposed “attention” means squat...especially after Benghazi.
We’ll see how he “attends” a red state...didn’t do so well for Joplin, MO two years ago, did he?
For whatever reason (they say it’s the soil), we don’t have basements in OK or TX, for the most part. Many people install storm shelters or safe rooms, but they are expensive.
Sirens in West Siloam Springs, OK
Yep, me too...
Nope, you have to go to Kansas to get basements. They say it’s due to OK’s soil.
Its the soil, or rather the moisture in the soil.
I can’t even imagine it.
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