Storms in Oklahoma

Wow......the destruction is widespread, hope everyone is OK!!! The footage on CNN is unbelievable. We will be praying for all those affected by this storm....

indeed. how about a roll call from everybody in the affected area?

This looks absolutely awful.

If you look at the radar images the debris ball explodes just as it goes over Moore , meaning it destroyed quite a bit. Pics look awful.

just sent an email to some friends in OK.. they live in Ponca city, so should be ok

Yeah, I just got in and saw the news.

Those in the area doing okay?

My brother is 70 miles north in Stillwater. He was okay as of this morning.

Prayers for those affected.

Live feed from KFOR just said emergency personnel at the elem. school hit just switch from search and rescue to recovery. There are 24 children unaccounted for.

This appears to be a solid F-4/weak F-5 on the real fujita scale(the EF scale is a joke)......my prayers to those affected.

moparman76_69 wrote: Live feed from KFOR just said emergency personnel at the elem. school hit just switch from search and rescue to recovery. There are 24 children unaccounted for.

Is KFOR a CNN affiliate?

TWC reported everyone accounted for from the briarwood elementry school. No word on plaza towers though

Plaza towers is the one they are reporting about. KFOR is the NBC affiliate. The chopper shots being shown on TWC and CNN were from KFOR.

In reply to moparman76_69:

Ahh, gotcha I started surfing to find damage photos. Its not as bad as moore in '99, but it looks as bad as Joplin.

Hopefully the death toll remains much lower than Joplin was.

KFOR's reporter at the school said 7 children confirmed dead and 20-30 missing about 20 minutes ago. This was on their stream on their website.

Toyman01 wrote: KFOR's reporter at the school said 7 children confirmed dead and 20-30 missing about 20 minutes ago. This was on their stream on their website.

I've been glued to it since the first tank of chopper fuel HOURS ago- those poor kids.

not to bag on anybody: But my friends who live in Ok. He is from Nj and she is from Ok. They moved back out there to her hometown because she was petrified of Hurricanes.

I do not know.. which is worse: A slow moving storm you know is coming and you can get out of the way off. It might cause billions in damage, but you can see it coming

Or tornados that strike with little warning and are equally capable of doing massive destruction?

mad_machine wrote: not to bag on anybody: But my friends who live in Ok. He is from Nj and she is from Ok. They moved back out there to her hometown because she was petrified of Hurricanes. I do not know.. which is worse: A slow moving storm you know is coming and you can get out of the way off. It might cause billions in damage, but you can see it coming Or tornados that strike with little warning and are equally capable of doing massive destruction?

for loss of life, yes, but you are in the same situation with a business or house.....those can't be moved and will just have to be rebuilt.

mad_machine wrote: not to bag on anybody: But my friends who live in Ok. He is from Nj and she is from Ok. They moved back out there to her hometown because she was petrified of Hurricanes. I do not know.. which is worse: A slow moving storm you know is coming and you can get out of the way off. It might cause billions in damage, but you can see it coming Or tornados that strike with little warning and are equally capable of doing massive destruction?

I've lived in Dixie Alley and on the Gulf Coast. Been hit with both. I'd prefer hurricanes just for the advance warning. That being said I had plenty of warning during tornadoes, including the one that went directly over the house.

mndsm wrote:

Toyman01 wrote: KFOR's reporter at the school said 7 children confirmed dead and 20-30 missing about 20 minutes ago. This was on their stream on their website.

I've been glued to it since the first tank of chopper fuel HOURS ago- those poor kids.

Yeah, that sucks in a big way.

I actually brought my tablet out so I could watch coverage while I was working on the Ranger. I hope all our GRM family in the area is OK.

Everybody in the Midwest stay safe tonight. Got a storm headed in now. I'm sure all will be well.

I've got friends besides Nick in the STL area - one of them posted that NWS was tracking a tornado 2 miles wide in Oklahoma this afternoon...

THankfully up in the Tulsa area we have missed out the last two days with the storms weakening as they come up the Turner Turnpike (they usually follow I-44 from the OKC area up to Tulsa) which puts them typically a few miles south of my front door.

Moore has been devastated over the last 15 years. Look up the May 3rd 1999 tornado, then again in 03 of 04, then again in 2010, and now today. And Shawnee was hit pretty hard yesterday.

Just came home from my mothers house, radio said 51 confirmed fatalities and at least 7 children in one of the two schools that were hit. Unfortunately it sounds like they will find more little ones who didn't make it.

If you're interested in local coverage

http://www.newson6.com/Global/category.asp?C=207223&BannerId=994

www.kfor.com is ok city live stream avail.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/natural-disasters/4329314

I feel really bad for these folks. Especially for the families with the children that died and are missing. That was a really bad tornado.

That being said, within the last year my cousin has become an amateur storm chaser. I really need someone to knock her off her high horse. She got in with a group of storm chasers who are seasoned amateurs, so she now thinks she's a professional. She posted this long drawn out status on Facebook about how chasers are there to help call in the tornadoes to the NWS not just take pictures. I don't believe that one bit. I feel that the professional chasers are the ones out there that are being funded by colleges and the NWS to stick their neck out there to get data to help figure out all the data they need to help increase warning times.