Murphy - all is well in Idabel?

[FISH4BUGS]

Murphy - I heard a news report that Idabel was hit by a tornado.
All is well?
From fish4bugs, whose great grandma, a full blooded Cherokee, was born, raised, lived and died in Broken Bow and who visited beaver's bend many times. .

[Murphy]

FISH4BUGS,

The south east part of town (country club edition) seemed to be the hardest hit. No loss of life that I'm aware of at this time. I've seen a ton of pictures (local friends on social media). 100's of homes damaged, many gone. A good deal of tree damage from the tornado path, some broke, some uprooted from a recorded high wind of 109 MPH. Of course, there is a lot of power outages, etc.

We're rural as you know, every town in the county and many from other towns upstate have came in to help restore services, provide search and rescue. Everything lost can be rebuilt, I'm just thankful there were no deaths in town. There was one recorded death out in the county as a result of the tornado.

Thanks for thinking me my friend, another board member from up the road about 45 miles called to check on me earlier. Feels good knowing folks care.

Murphy

[slim1836]

Murphy,

Glad to hear the good news on fatalities, loss of property mostly can be replaced. We had some high winds and tornadoes nearby (east and southwest of Dallas) and I believe one fatality northeast of Dallas.

Slim

[missionary5155]

Good to read your house and loved ones there was spared.

[georgerkahn]

Murphy - I heard a news report that Idabel was hit by a tornado.
All is well?
From fish4bugs, whose great grandma, a full blooded Cherokee, was born, raised, lived and died in Broken Bow and who visited beaver's bend many times. .

I, too, am happy to read mostly property damage was the result; not overlooking the sadness re the fatality. My residing in upper north-east CONUS I have experienced a few hurricanes while residing in NYC area -- but frankly cannot imagine what folks living in "tornado alley(s)" must endure. On one cross-country trip (truck driver at the time) I saw a "funnel" at a distance to the my left -- if I recall it was in Kansas. Just the sight of that one funnel's memory stays...
Best wishes to you and your neighbors!
geo

[FISH4BUGS]

I, too, am happy to read mostly property damage was the result; not overlooking the sadness re the fatality. My residing in upper north-east CONUS I have experienced a few hurricanes while residing in NYC area -- but frankly cannot imagine what folks living in "tornado alley(s)" must endure. On one cross-country trip (truck driver at the time) I saw a "funnel" at a distance to the my left -- if I recall it was in Kansas. Just the sight of that one funnel's memory stays...
Best wishes to you and your neighbors!
geo

I lived in "tornado alley" for a number of years.
Fort Leavenworth, KS, Leavenworth, KS and Manhattan KS at KState.
You learn very quickly to pay attention to the weather.
When the warnings go out, you pay attention.
When the sirens go off, you hit the basement.
I have been through maybe 20 or more tornadoes, but never with a direct hit.
I have watched funnels approach and turn away or lift.
Looking back, I was a kid and was not really afraid.
Not sure I would have that same attitude as an adult.

[popper]

Yup, tornado alley, from Tx to Mn and includes S.E. plus Fl. Been through a few, don't care for them. KC. Topeka, Dallas, Sedalia, Colby, etc.

Glad you're OK. Kid's place had some trees down, south of Athens - but just really high wind.

[Hannibal]

Glad to hear there were no fatalities. Things can be repaired or replaced, not so with lives.

I've lived in Missouri my whole life except for 4 years in the Navy. During that time it was Southern California. It always amazed me that the idea of a tornado and the sight and sound of lightning and thunder scared the crap out of those folks but they never paid attention to earthquakes except to pick up the pieces of things that fell over.

You always get some sort of an indication when a severe thunderstorm is around. An earthquake? No warning at all.

I've been through dozens of tornado warnings and never had one hit my home. However 3 former homes were hit after I moved and one had been hit before I bought it.

[Mk42gunner]

I relate pretty well with what Hannibal said.

My thoughts are it takes a pretty big tornado to carve a path of destruction a half mile wide, but it doesn't take much of a hurricane to do destroy a 50 mile wide strip.

Robert

[waksupi]

I'm glad I moved out of tornado alley decades ago.

I remember it was standard procedure that everyone always opened all the windows and doors to allow the air pressure to equalize, supposedly saving some houses over the years. Do people still do that? We never lost any houses on our farms fortunately, but barns being wiped out seemed to be all too common.

[Murphy]

Growing up in Tornado Alley.

I spent the first 13 years of my life growing up in Oklahoma City (OKC). It's amazing what a person can get used to when it just seems normal. Our house had a hidey hole and when things got bad (bad meaning the front door just flew off, or the windows just imploded) it was time to crawl in it. As a child, I only remember one really bad one that hit OKC, too far back for me to recall as I was born in 1953, but I'm thinking it was the late 1950's. My father had some old 8mm film of it, sadly that old film is long gone.


I'm glad I moved out of tornado alley decades ago.

I remember it was standard procedure that everyone always opened all the windows and doors to allow the air pressure to equalize, supposedly saving some houses over the years. Do people still do that? We never lost any houses on our farms fortunately, but barns being wiped out seemed to be all too common.

Not many practice the opening windows or doors. At least not many that I'm aware of. Barns get flattened by straight line winds more often that an actual tornado.

In 1967 my father had a job change and we moved 250 miles south east of OKC to the small town of Valliant, Oklahoma where he'd grown up as a child. My first tornado experience after moving to our new town, well...I'll just say people down here had a whole different perspective about tornado's. Of course they didn't have the technology we do today, so tornado's were tracked once sighted by people. Usually, by the sheriff's office and local police departments and word of mouth in regards to which way the tornado was heading. I recall my mother shaking me awake and her telling me get up, there's a tornado coming! I hopped out of bed and we made for the car to head to some relatives storm shelter several 100 yards away. I thought it was a bit odd that there wasn't any wind, no sign of rain, lightening or thunder, nothing I knew about tornados seemed to be going on. So now, here we are packed into a storm shelter filled with women and children. I grew bored after about 30 minutes, what 13 year old doesn't in a situation like that? So I leaned over and asked my mother, where is/was the tornado? She said Hugo. Hugo? That's 45 miles up the road! Mom, I'm going back to the house, if it get's bad I'll hot foot it on over then, let me out of here! I went on back home and crawled in bed, all went well.

It wasn't until the late 80's I finally developed a healthy fear of tornados. It was primitive firearms season in late October. A friend and I were camped out and the signs of a storm coming became apparent. It passed extremely close and was so loud we couldn't hear each other yelling from one tent to the other (about 15 feet). Nothing between me but a thin piece of tent and that roar gave me a new outlook on tornados. I don't live in fear of them, but I do respect them, very much so.

Years later, I was at that same friends house outside of OKC in the town of El Reno, Oklahoma. And this happened.

5/31/2013 Widest Ever (2.6 Miles Wide) Tornado recorded.

Google it, Youtube it, whatever you choose. But friends, until you've been face to face with something like that? Words just won't do. We managed to hop in my pickup and outrun it. God is good! Also, my friends home came through unscathed.

Murphy

[megasupermagnum]

I've always lived pretty far north in tornado alley. It seems we don't get hammered up here nearly as much as you do in OK and surrounding states. It is a yearly thing though. Every year there is one or two storms that have a good chance of tornados for any given town. Normally nothing happens. I've only been through one tornado, and seen 2 more that I can recall. The one I went through was in Buffalo, MN when I was a kid, it must have been 20 years ago. We were driving home, I don't even remember from where. We could see the thing coming, and thankfully one of my dads best friends lived right by where we were. We dove into his basement. My dad and his friend drank beer by the big window until the giant oak tree blew over, then we all hid under the stairs. Other than some roof damage, no major problems that day. The tornado just barely missed that day.

Nobody opens their windows anymore, that myth was busted a long time ago. The amazing thing to me is that there are almost no building codes specific to tornado alley. The houses here are near cookie cutter to the ones you find anywhere else. They have building codes for earthquake areas, and those are almost never deadly. They have building codes for the SE where they get hit by hurricanes. There are special codes for up north for snow load and cold weather. Nothing for tornado alley. I find it astounding, especially when you consider how many die each year from them. According to the NWS, an average of 80 die, and 1500 are injured every year by tornado. By comparison Hurricanes almost never top 80, and are more like 10-30 a year. Katrina was an extreme example, nothing else is like that. Almost nobody dies from earthquake. 1 in 2019. 1 in 2014. 2 in 2003. There were some worse ones in the past, nothing like tornado or hurricanes though.

Trailer parks usually have a storm shelter. it's inconvenient, but they are solid structures. You just have to know when to go to them well in advance. Apartments often do not have any shelter at all. I can't imagine a worse place to live regardless, but for storms apartments are the worst. It's appalling to me they can still build apartments in the central US with zero shelters at all. Housing developments are just purgatory apartments. I've never lived in one (if you can even call that being alive), but I've never seen a shelter anywhere near a housing development. At the bare minimum it should be required to build these with a storm room of properly rated concrete walls and storm door. Regular houses either in town or in the country still rarely have anything besides a partial basement as cover, if that. Often the best they have is hiding under the stairs, or in the tub as if that's better than laying face down in a ditch with a hope and prayer. How ridiculously stupid. Old houses were all built with the ultimate storm shelters in the form of a cellar. They were completely effective, and when not used as a shelter, they were also a cellar. I find it absurd people still build houses to this day in tornado alley and don't want to waste money digging a single hole in the ground for a cellar/storm shelter.

[popper]

Valliant - wife had a relative that lived there.
Anyway, open widows only on one side to reduce pressure differential and 'prevent' glass breakage. Seen straw imbedded in phone poles, grain imbedded in peoples faces, house destroyed but chips in a bowl still on the kitchen table. Cellars cost more money and ground water problems.

[BLAHUT]

I'm glad I moved out of tornado alley decades ago.

I remember it was standard procedure that everyone always opened all the windows and doors to allow the air pressure to equalize, supposedly saving some houses over the years. Do people still do that? We never lost any houses on our farms fortunately, but barns being wiped out seemed to be all too common.

YES; I still open windows during a bad storm, has saved my house at least once. I will still take my chances with tornados over hurricanes.... A one-mile strip of damage for maybe a few miles, verses a 50 mile wide swath, for many miles.
Compare pictures of FL. hurricane verses pictures of damage from a tornado ?