Large tornado plowing through Moore OK, southern OKC right now

As promised here is a picture of the tornado right before it touched down as a EF-3. This is about 8 miles north of Newcastle, OK taken around 230pm CST

reply to post by KewlDaddyFatty


I'm still hearing ef4 given the size and total destruction I would be shocked if it was not upgraded to ef5

Originally posted by LeatherNLace

Originally posted by Curio
Fox now saying the initial death count from the Coroner was 21 and not 51?

It seems to me that every time a disaster occurs, the death toll is always overestimated early on and is almost always revised downward. I don't know if this is a result of the chaos or some other, less than honorable, motive. Either way, a tragedy is a tragedy. One life lost is just as sad as 100.

Originally posted by LeatherNLace
One life lost is just as sad as 100.

Compassion LeatherNLace... the hope is its a result of chaos as opposed to the other, it seems these storms carry electric static charges, it would be a safe move to design technologies that could deactivate these storms main charges.. From air and ground based grounding static emitting devices.

Be Safe ALL*

reply to post by goou111


It began as an EF-3 and fizzled out as an EF-5. No doubt. I was trying to pull the pic from KFOR.com but their site doesn't load pictures from my work computer. If someone could scour their site and post the pic it would be great.

I was here for the May 3rd '99 tornado and this is the worst tornado I've ever seen in my life.

I'm just glad me and my children are safe.

Just saw that a member posted the pic on page 18. Emily Suttun, the Meteoroligist on KFOR, is also saying it most definently an EF-5.

Originally posted by LeatherNLace

Originally posted by Curio
Fox now saying the initial death count from the Coroner was 21 and not 51?

It seems to me that every time a disaster occurs, the death toll is always overestimated early on and is almost always revised downward. I don't know if this is a result of the chaos or some other, less than honorable, motive. Either way, a tragedy is a tragedy. One life lost is just as sad as 100.

I can't think of any reason why a death toll would be needlessly increased inaccurately. Not only does it not help anyone, it will be discovered through public records later. Someone cannot claim that 100 people died due to an event and then simply make people up after the fact.

The confusion is understandable. If the media is gathering reports from the ground, and they believe that four bodies were recovered, but the person who reports them suggests it's three men and a woman, then an hour later a local hospital worker reports a group of five arriving deceased, and two of them were children, then you can imagine they would all be seen as being different individuals. The truth is the person who made the first report could have been wrong about gender, and they could have left the scene before another body was discovered... you see how easy it would be to make a confusing picture?

I don't see anything strange in inconsistent media reports, I think it's a good thing that the number of dead is coming down, and the numbers found alive and rescued overnight are so good too.

I keep watching it hoping there's more good news of people found and rescued alive. I think we could use more of that!

Ok i am listening live to a couple of tornado chasers and they made a really valid point and they are angry. They said they will shut down schools when there is a possibility of snow, but when there is a moderate risk of tornadoes they don't. They also said parents need to take responsibility for the kids and keep them home. The schools are death traps. Large open spans with no where to go. They are heading to Dallas talking about squall lines opening up and being a dangerous day for Texas from Houston to Corpus Christi. My heart goes out to those families. Be safe out there. If you are in the area who gives a darn about work or school keep them safe.

Live Chaser Feed

These guys are talking non-stop with loads of info.

I have also been watching intellicast with storm view and it is showing tornadoes down in Texas all morning, I believe these show 'possible tornado' activity.

Intellicast

We got some Major damage to the factory I work at. Im glad my boss made us go home, because someone would have got seriously hurt. Took down 8 huge trees, from the roots all the way up were snapped like match sticks, and 4 overhead doors were blown out of the building. Looks like a small twister, touched down, and picked right back up, no other damage around the area. That was one Hell of a night, Hail, Wind, Lightning like crazy, and another system coming through later in the day. Unfortunetly its the perfect ingredients for very strong weather systems right now.

reply to post by whatnext21


I partly agree, these schools are obviously not prepared for this, and their construction is obviously not as good as the medical centre there... that kind of makes me wonder what the hell is going on there. Why is that medical building intact and just messy, while the schools are almost flattened? That tells me there isn't enough thought put into the construction of these schools.

Those schools should be built to the same standard as that medical centre, and they should have several storm shelters on the grounds with access for all the students and staff within a thirty second running distance.

It's not hard to at least get those shelters in place, and I cannot for the life of me understand why no one thought to built some damned shelters for those kids!

reply to post by whatnext21


In the area im in about 100 miles from ground zero, we have mandatory shelters in place at every school. They built the shelters about 5 years ago, as soon as the tornado sirens go off, the doors unlock and people can start using the shelters. Im in Arkansas just over the border from Oklahoma. Honestly im shocked that this school didnt have a shelter, its right dead smack in Tornado alley. Very unfortunate

Originally posted by Rocker2013
reply to post by whatnext21

 

I partly agree, these schools are obviously not prepared for this, and their construction is obviously not as good as the medical centre there...

Those schools should be built to the same standard as that medical centre, and they should have several storm shelters on the grounds with access for all the students and staff within a thirty second running distance.

The hospital actually lost its 2nd floor from what I read and heard. But I do agree that the schools should be built to the best standards!

The hospital may be privately owned, and the school public. So which one do you think has a better structure? Especially when dealing with a pharmacy inside?? Hmmmm

reply to post by Glassbender777


I thought i heard that some of the children who died were in a 'shelter' and drowned. Is there not a water tight seal on these things, where did the water come from that took their lives? Was it a water line burst, or rain from the storm? I have no idea how these are built or what the problems are with them. It scares the hell out of me to think that precautions are taken but extenuating circumstances make it all for naught. I am in an area that is also under the possibility of strong storms today. I will be watching the sky and where I am we almost everyone has a basement to go to.

I believe the procedure is to go to a wall in the basement that is closest to the direction the storm is coming from?

Originally posted by Starwise

Originally posted by Rocker2013
reply to post by whatnext21

 

I partly agree, these schools are obviously not prepared for this, and their construction is obviously not as good as the medical centre there...

Those schools should be built to the same standard as that medical centre, and they should have several storm shelters on the grounds with access for all the students and staff within a thirty second running distance.

The hospital actually lost its 2nd floor from what I read and heard. But I do agree that the schools should be built to the best standards!

The hospital may be privately owned, and the school public. So which one do you think has a better structure? Especially when dealing with a pharmacy inside?? Hmmmm

Well, looking at the buildings, the theatre was left almost completely standing, despite it being almost right in the path, while the bowling alley and houses behind it were destroyed.

While I agree the upper floor of the medical centre looks like it was severely damaged, it seems to me from the footage on the ground and the aerial images that the people who moved down into the core of the building would have been fine.

I think we would need to look at the ages of these buildings and whether these are newer structures than the schools. It could simply be that modern building materials are more durable and a lot of the destroyed structures are mostly wooden etc...

It certainly looks like the schools were metal and wood, and the theatre and medical centre were steel and concrete - that tells me this is about age of the buildings and materials used.

Originally posted by whatnext21
I thought i heard that some of the children who died were in a 'shelter' and drowned. Is there not a water tight seal on these things, where did the water come from that took their lives? Was it a water line burst, or rain from the storm?

One live report I heard this morning stated it was from a water main break. Not sure on the accuracy of that, just what the reporter stated.

Originally posted by whatnext21
reply to post by Glassbender777

 

I thought i heard that some of the children who died were in a 'shelter' and drowned. Is there not a water tight seal on these things, where did the water come from that took their lives? Was it a water line burst, or rain from the storm? I have no idea how these are built or what the problems are with them. It scares the hell out of me to think that precautions are taken but extenuating circumstances make it all for naught. I am in an area that is also under the possibility of strong storms today. I will be watching the sky and where I am we almost everyone has a basement to go to.

I believe the procedure is to go to a wall in the basement that is closest to the direction the storm is coming from?

It is my understanding that a water line (or multiple water lines) burst and flooded the basement of the school. The debris from the collapsed building trapped them in the basement where they drowned. The school was likely equipped with a sump pump to keep the basement from flooding; but without power, the pump was useless.

Originally posted by Rocker2013

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
It may sound cliche, but really the only solution for preventing any deaths due to tornados is not to live in or build in tornado alley. When you get right down to it, though, no place is perfect. Every corner of the globe has to deal with either earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, blizzards, dust storms, droughts, floods, heat index, volcanos, or some other almost Biblical apocalyptic event now and then.

This is something that annoys me. There are actually a lot of places where the people have adapted to live WITH their environment.

I wonder the same thing when I see the flooding in the UK, it's always the same places, with brick houses built on ancient flood-planes. Wouldn't it make sense to knock out the ground floor and build up? I would gladly live in such a place and have the beauty of living there with the occasional annual risk of flooding. If you're up above it you can easily remain there and watch it for a day or two.

In places like this, the majority of all injuries from a tornado are from building materials, and that comes from the houses. Even if they only made 50% of the property there in a dome design, that would reduce the potential for injuries from that debris dramatically.

Places like this need to plan ahead when something like this happens. Why not ENCOURAGE these people to build again in a suitable design more likely to survive another tornado? If you have the risk of thousands of people leaving, surely it makes sense to offer these people something to encourage them to stay? The city could now bring in an experienced team of architects to help these people for nothing, to build something SUITABLE for the landscape they live in.

If you live beside a river that floods, you build a floating home or something on stilts. If you live on a hill with a risk of land slips and floods, stilts again (they do this a lot in Australia). If you live in a place with a risk of high winds, you build solid and low... this is just common sense.

Anyway, I hope this doesn't get worse for these people and they get all the help they need in the rescue process. It's so terrible to hear about those poor kids. It's not just people in the US watching this and thinking about these poor people.

Building structures are Poor (such as kids drowning in basements) Because the people Spend TOO much money and Effort in Jailing Pot smokers, who of course are in Mega strong Corp buildings...like a Mother of Three jailed TEN years for a JOINT! Yep, but see she is Indian, and so they all OK with the RACIST GENOCIDAL policies that are Murdering little Brown children and Black children and POOR children every damn day so...

It's all about Priorities. Murder the have not so the Haves and their slaves can buy, buy, and buy...Structures that hold up are dungeon prisons, Gulags and well Death Camps, let's call them what they are...while the National Socialist Republic such as OK are busy protecting Privelege, just like how USA does things. But people don't get, when you support Prejudice and classism, you get the fall in the cracks...money Should be spent on Levies and Basements that don't drown and better Warning systems, etc., but

Na, we'd rather spend it on Wars and Rape Dogs...so we can have Cheap minerals and goods. Don't hate the messenger

We all know it's true.

And Remember, it's All for Jesus, Praise God...we just Blame Nature anspd go Right back to the same ole stratifications and never looking at Some things that COULD be prevented, can't stop tornadoes but we darn sure could spend more Tax Dollars in Prevention rather than Killing Colored KIDS and Jailing Brown/Black and the Broken for hemp use. Tax dollars wasted so a lot of privelege trash can rape and murder with impunity as we all Fine with That, Praise Jebus.

reply to post by LeatherNLace


It would now seem to me that they should learn something from this and have a main shut off for the water at the entrance to the shelter, those kids might have been able to survive had there been one? So the first thing to do is to shut the water off on the way down.

Cry worthy video.

Oklahoma tornado survivor finds dog buried alive under rubble

WOW, i didnt hear that shelter got flooded. That makes for the worst case scenario, I think the water pipes shouldnt have been so close to the shelters. Its easy to say that after the fact though, very unfortunate.

Originally posted by OneisOne
Cry worthy video.

Oklahoma tornado survivor finds dog buried alive under rubble

Cry worthy is right! Happy tears!
It is moments like that on video when you realize what is important. Our animals are our family.

Originally posted by Starwise
Cry worthy is right! Happy tears!
It is moments like that on video when you realize what is important. Our animals are our family.

That video is pretty amazing. I was a little worried about watching it when first posted because it wasn't clear if it was a good or bad ending

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