OT: Moore OK devastated by tornado - again

[UConnChapette]

Prayers to all those suffering losses.

 

[VAMike23]

Been watching for a little while - just devastating. The loss of life is going to be significant.

Prayers for all its path.

 

[bruinbball]

I lived in Moore during 1st and 2nd grade. I went to Kelly Elementary (only fitting. .. right???). It was demolished in the 1999 tornado. My prayers go out to them.

 

[UConnChapette]

Reported, but not confirmed, 24 children are trapped and deceased in the rubble of an elementary school. My heart is breaking.

 

[meyers7]

Just terrible. My brother and his family live SW of OK City about 80 miles. Checked with him and they are ok. Everything was northeast of them.

 

[triaddukefan]

 

[Blakeon18]

BTW: in the 1999 tornado Midwest City was hit hard. Paige Sauer...then a UConn junior?...lived there.

 

[bruinbball]

We moved from Moore Oklahoma to Midwest City. My step father was in the Air Force stationed at Tinker Air Force Base. I went to Elementary School in both Moore and Midwest City. I was a junior in college in 99...we could have went to Elementary School together. Does anyone know where she went?

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Icebear]

In 1999 I led a group from our congregation to recovery efforts in the same area. We were in the immediate area of Bridge Creek where the 300 mph winds were.

The TV does not do justice to the emotional impact of this level of destruction. Brick construction ranch houses scrubbed right down to the concrete pad. Tarmac roads peeled back and gone. Incredible forces involved.


Thoughts and prayers go out to all those who are impacted.

 

[Blakeon18]

Bruin: I doubt she went to elementary school there. She lived in Nevada for her early years and moved to Oklahoma at some point in her high school years...I think.
Stacy Hansmeyer...same year as Paige....went to Norman High School...don't know if that is close enough to have the honor to go to the same elementary school as you.

 

[bruinbball]

Ha Ha! I do see that Paige went to Carl Albert which is the high school I would have attended had I remained there fore High School. I only remember going to Norman twice, once for a field trip to OU's campus and once to watch a game between OU and OSU with some running back named Barry Sanders.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I heard a news report that said the path of this current horror is very much the same as the 1999 event. It is terrible to see those bewildered, terrified children and yet know they are the lucky ones. I know in large part it is a question of what you know and grew up with, but I have always been puzzled by peoples' ability to live with the risks involved in living in tornado prone areas.

 

[Icebear]

Good news is that there was an error in the accounting of the dead, an accidental doubling and the morning death toll was reduced to 24. We still remember those whose lives have been altered by these events in innumerable ways.

 

[UConnChapette]

I heard a news report that said the path of this current horror is very much the same as the 1999 event. It is terrible to see those bewildered, terrified children and yet know they are the lucky ones. I know in large part it is a question of what you know and grew up with, but I have always been puzzled by peoples' ability to live with the risks involved in living in tornado prone areas.

There are no real risk free areas in which to live. You live where your family or job takes you. And you do what you can to learn what to do for the natural risks likely to occur. My high school years and a few years after marriage I lived in Omaha. I was in my high school when it was hit by a major tornado in 1975. Just a corner of the school was hit, but the horse boarding barn across the street was leveled, and I will never foeget the sight of dead horses in the trees. I have lived in CA and experienced a major earthquake ('71] and brush fires that came within 500 yards of our house. Nebraska and South Dakota with tornadoes and the coldest winters I have ever experienced, and CT with the occasional tropical storm. Only earthquakes give you no time to prepare and get to the safest place you can ahead of time. The tornado risk is usually known well ahead of time, if not when or where one will happen. They issue tornado watches when the weather conditions are favorable for development of tornadoes. You have time to plan and look for the designated shelter areas in shopping centers, etc. If I lived in OK, with its ground not suitable for full basements, I would invest in a storm shelter. It would be worth the cost to know my family and I could survive a monster tornado.

 

[meyers7]

I heard a news report that said the path of this current horror is very much the same as the 1999 event. It is terrible to see those bewildered, terrified children and yet know they are the lucky ones. I know in large part it is a question of what you know and grew up with, but I have always been puzzled by peoples' ability to live with the risks involved in living in tornado prone areas.

People live in hurricane areas, flood areas, blizzard areas, earthquake area, heat areas, cold areas, fire areas. Most places have something.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

People live in hurricane areas, flood areas, blizzard areas, earthquake area, heat areas, cold areas, fire areas. Most places have something.

Sure, there are hazards of one sort or another in all areas, but most are things you can get a decent lead time on, adjust for, protect yourself (not earthquakes of course). Tornados are capricious and many times, like this one, sudden. I am shocked that not more of the populous has tornado shelters. In OK City its estimated at 10%.

The biggest "normal" hazard we face in our neck of the woods is earthquakes. Our "abnormal" hazard is one of the biggest: an eruption of Yellowstone, aka "The Big One".

 

[meyers7]

I am shocked that not more of the populous has tornado shelters. In OK City its estimated at 10%.

That part is surprising.

 

[UConnChapette]

That part is surprising.

Oklahoma is very rocky, so it is difficult and expensive to blast through the rock to have a basement under your house. A tiny storm shelter is about the best you can do, and even that is expensive.

 

[UConnChapette]

Sure, there are hazards of one sort or another in all areas, but most are things you can get a decent lead time on, adjust for, protect yourself (not earthquakes of course). Tornados are capricious and many times, like this one, sudden. I am shocked that not more of the populous has tornado shelters. In OK City its estimated at 10%.

The biggest "normal" hazard we face in our neck of the woods is earthquakes. Our "abnormal" hazard is one of the biggest: an eruption of Yellowstone, aka "The Big One".

Usually tornado watches are issued. They rarely pop up without any warning at all. But once a tornado forms, you have precious little time to get to a place of safety or at least more safe than outside.