Severe Weather Outbreak, Day 2 (OK TX KS MO MI for starters) - Moore, OK devastation

[dirtboy]

Tornado warnings up in Oklahoma. Watches in TX, OK, KS, MO, far NW Arkansas.

[CedarDave]

I saw a report that it took 3 strong men to hold the shelter door shut.

[Pining_4_TX]

Did you check out the New Day tornado shelters? It might be a solution. We are thinking of getting one. It’s not as expensive as underground shelters and they do financing, I think.

[dirtboy]

In my high school, college and young adult days, I spent eight years in Oklahoma. Had countless tornado watches and a few warnings. Never had a tornado come closer than 10 miles to me. It’s a very random kind of event. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you are hosed. But the odds of getting hosed are fairly low.

[tomkat]

All little boy came to that impromptu News9 donation center and gave them his jar of change he'd been saving up.

< sniff >

[Pining_4_TX]

True, but in this case they were right, and how can it hurt to be on the safe side? Feeling foolish is better than dying.

[SaxxonWoods]

Yep, that’s the issue. After a while, you don’t pay much attention.

If the siren goes off you look out the window...

[dirtboy]

Gut-check photos

[Pining_4_TX]

Yes, yes, yes, but in this case they were spot on. What can it hurt to be cautious, even if nothing happens? I don’t get what is so important about a half day of school!

[bgill]

I heard the one there was out by Lake Brownwood if that helps in location.

[CedarDave]

No, of course not, but the people in charge of the schools should have considered closing early. They do that for snow, so why on earth wouldn’t they consider it for something as drastic as a tornado?

The weather forecasters said there was barely 60 minutes from clear skies to an EF-5 tornado. Hardly enough time to do anything but take immediate shelter.

Channel 9 reporter has been told there are 30-40 little bodies in the Plaza Tower school. News anchor says he hopes the source is incorrect.

[meyer]

It wouldn't be closing early because of a tornado, it would be because of being in an area of millions of square miles that MIGHT have a few tornadoes in it that damage a few square miles of it.

Not only that, but getting all the kids home presents a problem. Probably better to have a shelter within the school. It's a lot easier and quicker to move several students 100 feet than to disperse them and get them to shelters scattered through the neighborhood.

Prayers up to all involved - this is just devastating!

[dirtboy]

I did spare myself a close encounter once. I was down visiting the future in-laws and was getting ready to drive back to Stillwater. Since there was a tornado watch, I looked at the Weather Channel radar before I left. I didn't like the looks of one storm on a track to cross I-35 and waited a half-hour to leave. It did end up dropping a tornado across I-35 at about the time I would have been in that area. I drove on the back side of that storm as a tornado warning was broadcast in Stillwater and it had some amazing Mammatocumulus clouds on the back of the anvil.

So sometimes you have to do your own forecasting.

[tomkat]

Now News9 has that kid's jar of change on their news desk in the studio.

Thanks for that link, db .. heartwrenching

[bgill]

The problem is these tornadoes pop up out of nowhere and you don’t know where they’re headed until the last minute. Parents can pick their kids up anytime they wish so you’re blaming them, too? Releasing kids early would take time to get their parents there and you’d have kids on buses and walking home. Which do you want, kids inside the school building or walking home?

[dirtboy]

You aren't getting it. The tornado warning issued by the NWS had a low chance of EF2+ tornadoes. Oklahoma gets many, many of those every tornado season. In 1999, there was a forecast high risk of severe weather and a long warning before it hit.

In other words, there was nothing unusual about this watch to merit any kind of foresight.

[Pining_4_TX]

Yes, I know there is no time to evacuate. What I wondered is why they didn’t let parents pick kids up at noon, because all the local weather forecasters were saying that today would be even worse than yesterday.

[DJlaysitup]

I saw a report that it took 3 strong men to hold the shelter door shut.

Not surprised - if anyone wants to read an interesting (short-documentary style) book on the deadliest tornado ever in the USA (I pray the record still stands after this) go to the Southern Il linois University bookstore online and order the "Tri-State Tornado"...it's an amazing read about what huge T's can do. It took place back in the 1920's when the area was sparsely populated - but there were no warning systems

note: I have no interst in this - monetary or otherwise - it's just a "must" book for tornado officianados.

[Pining_4_TX]

According to our local weather guy there was. He warned that today was going to be worse than yesterday with a high probability of tornadoes.

[bgill]

I guess an old style root cellar would be the best - even if it's waist deep in water all the time

Here, you'd be sharing it with rattlesnakes and water moccasins.

[Pining_4_TX]

Holy mackerel! All I said was that the schools should have considered sending the kids home at noon!

BTW, as I look out my window the sky is turning a very odd color. Maybe you won’t have to put up with me much longer. :-P