Tornados

[okatty35]

I have lived in tornado alley my whole life and spring stroms are just a way of life. It becomes common place to be watching the sky in the mid to late afternoon especially when the heat builds quickly and there is moisture to feed the storms.

But then there are those days when there is a little more urgency to the storm watchers -- the alerts issued are more serious and everything is turned up a notch. That happened yesterday in Okla. where several large tornados were on the ground for many miles causing massive destruction and loss of life. Nothing like the Joplin storms last week but nevertheless terrible and tragic destruction.

This impacted me directly when the storms went just NW of my home, sparing us from any major damage, yet hitting a lake community about 3 miles away. I found myself last night walking the shoreline looking for a 3 year old child who went missing from a home that took a direct hit. The mother and a small baby are in critical condition. One end of the lake was totally covered by lumber from destroyed homes on the other side of the lake. It was a truly incredible scene. I saw a kitchen fork stuck in a tree. Saw mattresses in the tops of sheared off trees. Cars on top of slabs that were once houses. A twisted and mangled trampoline on top of a house that wasnt otherwise damaged -- who knows where the trampoline came from.

I left about 9 last night when it was simply too dark to do any effective searching. As of earler this morning the child had not been found. There is no real point to this post except to say my heart goes out to those people who have been so dramatically impacted by weather related disaster across the country (from floods, fires, tornados or whatever the case might be).

 

[chillywilly2]

I think KRC used to have a trampoline...it might be hers...she did a hell of a photo shoot on it

 

[okatty35]

I think KRC used to have a trampoline...it might be hers...she did a hell of a photo shoot on it

She'd need a ladder to get to this one -- on top of a house but might be an interesting setting!

 

[phrodeau]

I think KRC used to have a trampoline...it might be hers...she did a hell of a photo shoot on it

In her case, the word should be hyphenated.

 

[chillywilly2]

In her case, the word should be hyphenated.

between the m and the p or the p and the o

 

[okatty35]

Update

The 3 year old was found yesterday morning floating in the lake near the home. The 15-month old also died.

 

[jeninflorida]

after watching the news about it, some of the stories were heart breaking. so I made a quick stop over to costco and filled up my suv with supplies for a group that is headed that way.

the weather is nuts, and hopefully will calm down soon.

on a side note, how will that one woman go on, after her husband died on top of her saving her life. that must have been love, to give your life to save another. wow

I have lived in tornado alley my whole life and spring stroms are just a way of life. It becomes common place to be watching the sky in the mid to late afternoon especially when the heat builds quickly and there is moisture to feed the storms.

But then there are those days when there is a little more urgency to the storm watchers -- the alerts issued are more serious and everything is turned up a notch. That happened yesterday in Okla. where several large tornados were on the ground for many miles causing massive destruction and loss of life. Nothing like the Joplin storms last week but nevertheless terrible and tragic destruction.

This impacted me directly when the storms went just NW of my home, sparing us from any major damage, yet hitting a lake community about 3 miles away. I found myself last night walking the shoreline looking for a 3 year old child who went missing from a home that took a direct hit. The mother and a small baby are in critical condition. One end of the lake was totally covered by lumber from destroyed homes on the other side of the lake. It was a truly incredible scene. I saw a kitchen fork stuck in a tree. Saw mattresses in the tops of sheared off trees. Cars on top of slabs that were once houses. A twisted and mangled trampoline on top of a house that wasnt otherwise damaged -- who knows where the trampoline came from.

I left about 9 last night when it was simply too dark to do any effective searching. As of earler this morning the child had not been found. There is no real point to this post except to say my heart goes out to those people who have been so dramatically impacted by weather related disaster across the country (from floods, fires, tornados or whatever the case might be).

 

[okatty35]

after watching the news about it, some of the stories were heart breaking. so I made a quick stop over to costco and filled up my suv with supplies for a group that is headed that way.

the weather is nuts, and hopefully will calm down soon.

on a side note, how will that one woman go on, after her husband died on top of her saving her life. that must have been love, to give your life to save another. wow

The one i am referring to is a different family -- the husband wasn't home. Wife pregnant with 3 kids. The two sons died. Wife is in hospital and the older child is OK (it sounds like). But yes, hard to know how to go forward under such circumstances.

 

[Chernosoth]

I wondered how did prairie Native Americans survive tornados. According to the few links I checked, they did rituals, prayed to the spirits that make tornados, ran to the lowest ground, and ran away from the tornados' apparent directions. That was enough. Modern structures are more likely to be hit:

https://www.quora.com/How-did-Native-Americans-survive-tornadoes
"The behavior of a funnel cloud is driven by factors that affect flow of air across the ground. They move towards things that break up air flow because that reduces the pressure from that direction. It’s like dangling a vacuum hose a few inches off the ground and moving it past something, if there’s something that’s just high enough to interrupt the flow of air to the hose, the hose will move to it.

Buildings, especially rectilinear ones, are tornado magnets. You build a house out in a flat area and tornadoes will go miles out of their path to hit it."

 

[uncle easy]

We live in an area that has tornados . We had one last week and the weather says things are right for another one this week. I sure hope they are wrong.