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Surviving Tornadoes
SharkJumper writes "We here in central Oklahoma, USA are just climbing out of the wreckage of another series of tornadoes. Unlike the tornadoes of May 3rd, 1999, which killed 47 and injured more than 800, we now have much better tornado information and prediction technology. Largely because of this, there have been far fewer injuries, and (as of this morning) no reported deaths. Here in the greater Oklahoma City area, we can even register our storm shelters with the city. After a severe storm, GIS technology is used to create a map for rescuers detailing location and type of the shelter as well as emergency contact information. Rescuers can then use these maps to search for survivors that may be trapped by debris in their shelters."
The best way to survive is not to be stupid.
1) Know your surroundings
2) If the sky is green, there's a problem.
3) Have a plan
4) Practice the plan
5) Hang on for dear life
"How am I supposed to remember you, when you won't let me forget?" --Bare Naked Ladies
Just ejoy where you live. If you feer about these things move. I live in OKC. I've helped dig people out. But I still wouldn't move.
There are 10 type of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
It's wierd... I grew up in Tulsa, and I moved to NYC when I was 19. I'm now back in the Tulsa area. Why? I missed the storms. Granted, I've made sure that the areas I live in have been geographically pre-disposed to not having tornadoes, and I don't like the idea of people being hurt... but being in a shelter as an enormous supercell passes overhead is a bit of a rush.
go fig.
You mean move to another planet???
Seriously, tornadoes can occur *anywhere* where a _thunderstorm_ can develop. That's pretty much most of Earth's surface between the Arctic and Antarctic circle latitudes. Of course there are unique areas within these zones where thunderstorms are rare like extremely high mountain tops, etc, that interfere with thunderstorms.
Of course you can also build a city under the sea to escape them.
I suppose. But being a wide-load also makes you a bigger target for flying debris.
I live in Stillwater, OK and was watching the news very closely yesterday afternoon/evening just to make sure those twister weren't headed my way.
Sure, the early warning systems are better, but the main improvements are:
(1) Modern variants of doppler radar (and software for it) that can better identify wind velocities in terms of rotation and likelihood of funnel formation. However, the radar can rarely (if ever?) tell for certain if a rotation in a storm is actually a tornado or if it is on the ground.
(2) Communication. The National Weather service and the Severe Storm labs in Norman work closely with radio and TV to get the info out about severe weather. But too often, they know to report actual tornados only after an eyewitness has called to report one on the ground.
The one thing they do know fairly well is the conditions that could lead to tornado formation. But the presence of those conditions (as we can sense/interpret them now) does not tell us that there *will* be a twister or *where*.
The 1999 tornado in Moore Oklahoma killed so many not because there wasn't enough warning, but because it was the most powerful tornado every recorded. It was listed as an F5, the nastiest class of tornado, but many meterologists say that the F5 classification doesn't fit, because the 1999 tornado was off the scale.
That tornado was so powerful it removed the foundation of the homes and left barren earth. Unless you had a dedicated storm shelter underground, you were at risk.
I'm from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I saw the devestation too. There was plenty of warning about this tornado, but when they are this nasty, this powerful, this devestating, sometimes there isn't anything anyone can do.
That same storm cell went up I-44 and hit Tulsa a few hours later. The tornados by then were not nearly as powerful, but that was the first time in my life I was actually scared of a tornado. I was 21 at the time, have lived in Oklahoma all my life, but when they show a street level map of you neighborhood and show the path of the tornado coming right at you, it is unnerving to say the least. (Especially after seeing what this storm cell did to the poor folks in Moore.)
Our home did not get hit, as the tornado hit the Arkansas River and went back up into the wall cloud. It touched down again across town.
Here, tornados are a fact of life. Most people who live in "Tornado Alley" accept this, and just pray it never hits them. My heart goes out to those who have suffered losses from this tornado.
What is it that draws you people to live there, why do you not move from such an obviously inhospitible place to live, and why do you insist on FEMA paying your (collective Kansas and Oklahoma) asses money to rebuild your houses in the same Goddamned spot so the next Chet-chasing twister can blow you to hell all over again?
I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I don't think you realize the very very small likelyhood of being hit by a tornado. While tornados themselves are not rare, it is not everyday that they hit populated areas. It only seems that way because of the last few weeks.
You say it is inhospitable? What about California? Earthquakes hit on a massive scale and destroy HUGE areas. A tornado, while devestatingly powerful, does not destroy hundreds of square miles like an earthquake will.
Also, being hit by a tornado TWICE is really against the odds. You really are far more likely to be struck by lightening than to be hit by a tornado.
You can see some pictures and read about the new radar here.
The current radar technology used for all weather forcasting (NEXRAD) is really pretty old. By using a phased array, the scan times are much quicker than the old spinning dish style.
We hope to get this thing operational really soon. Off the above site, there's a webcam where you can see the progress of its construction.
That's right, pick on us Okies when we spin a little figure of speech.
What I take exception to is this phrase:
Unlike the tornadoes of May 3rd, 1999, which killed 47 and injured more than 800, we now have much better tornado information and prediction technology.
Perhaps the fact that '99s tornado was an F5 and this one was a F2 to low F3 has a little to do with the difference in damage/causualties?
I actually grew up in Oklahoma, just north of Tulsa in Bartlesville, and graduated from OU. I live in Seattle now, and I actually miss the weather some times as crazy as that sounds. A few days ago I saw lightening and heard thunder here and it brought a smile to my face.
If you haven't ever been to the middle of the US, and you get a chance, watch the weather reports some time. If you're from the west coast they will simply amaze you. All the weather people are real meterologists (most with phd's) and they really know what they're talking about. When there is a severe storm or tornado they track the thing and tell you at what time it's going to hit certain intersections in the city. The weather people here are just a joke.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
This place is Brazil. We don't have tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizards are *very* rare, floodings happens sometimes in some places but are quite rare too and not too severe and mostly due to abnormal wheater fenomena as the "El Niño". I'm not 100% sure but I believe our surrounding countries have the same lack of wheather disasters. This makes me ask myself sometimes why people lives in such places, have to been aware of tornados, for instance. Don't get me wrong, I understand what is been attached to where you were born but it's a life threat of huge proportions we're talking about.
Faith can move mountains. I prefer dynamite.
No bathtubs and doorways are for earthquakes. Here in tornado country (Indiana) we know to get down low and under heavy stuff! Basement storm rooms are common ... Mines been rigged real good (9" ac/dc TV, scanner, ham radio, CB, and a gun to keep my debis mine!) Also Purdue says to make it tornado proof the walls are 2 3/4" plywood sheets with a 10 gauge sheet metal sandwiched between, done on both sides of 2 X 4 studs. Besides a tornado is localized in its damage I have seen the effects of 2 good storms. The most recent created 13 seperate tornados in a 4 county area but only ruined 12 houses beyond repair, and it picked and choosed ... level the garage leave the house, or scrape the farm ground bare and leave the trailer court alone (yeah it was a REAL WIERD tornado...) (pic's are at the imoskywarn web site (search for it yourself my linking in here sucks.)
Last year, we had a major ice storm in the Midwest. A huge number of people lost their electricity. Some of them died from the cold, others died from their space-heaters catching their house on fire. Blizzards are far from safe.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Actually since the rating of a tornado is directly based on the amount of damage it does... yes it does have a 'little' to do with the difference in damage but nothing to do with the number of casualties.
This does not change the fact that the "size" of the tornado has little to do with the rating on the Fujita Scale. A tornado that is capable of being a F4 or F5 may only be rated as an F2 if it simply passes through open fields causing minimal damage. So the argument of '99s tornado was and F5 an these were F2 to F3 accounts for the difference in causualties does not hold water unless you take into account the path of the tornados. An F2 sweeping through an open air concert jammed with people could cause many more deaths then an F5 sweeping through an urban setting where few people are killed due to adequate shelter and warning.
Better technology will always help in reducing the number of deaths and injuries due to tornados. In the long run it may even assist in redefining the Fujita scale as engineered structures become more tornado tolerant thereby reducing the amount of damage produced by tornados.
Overall I am glad I have only seen one tornado in my life for real. I will be quite happy if the most intense tornado I see close up is the one in the movie Twister watching from the 3 row :-)
[offtopic]For those of you 'in the know' how realistic was the movie Twister anyway? It impressed the hell out of me and I throughouly enjoyed it; wouldn't even mind a sequal (hmm, title suggestion "Twisted" :-) ).[/offtopic]
Merlin. /. messages anyway?
P.S. So how do you include 'fake' tags with less-then, greater-then signs in
Thanks. My fat ass is safe. lol... BMI 29.5 (almost obese).
Actually when this thing hit I was working at home and the power went off. I was trying to figure out why (I live in Norman which is about 5-10 miles south of where the tornado touched down in Moore) so I turned on the TV (it was sunny and clear in Norman). The cable recycled and of course I turn on local channels and they are showing a tornado just north of where I live. Crazy ass weather. The alarms didn't even sound in my town (which they shouldn't have) so I was oblivious.
I drove by it today on the way to work and it isn't 1/5th as bad as the one in 1999. That one looked like a fucking bomb went off (it was 1 to 1.5 miles wide). Nothing stranger than driving by where an entire housing area used to be and all you see is a few pieces of lumber and red dirt. The 99 tornado stripped all the grass too! The things that were scary/cool were the pieces of hay embedded in telephone poles (or what was left of them) and the cars that were folded like a piece of paper around powerlines and no longer had any paint because the flying debris stripped it all off.
Tornado Alley still feels safer to me because unless you've seen the weather here and been able to compare it to other places, it's difficult to understand how well the weathermen/women do in these storms.
My best friend lives in San Fran and I'm pretty sure I could live through a tornado, I hope he lives through the big one if it ever does hit san fran.
Boomer Sooner
I second the green-sky tip. I'm a student at Union University in Jackson, TN, and have lived through two major tornados in as many semesters... When the sky turns green and the rain goes vertical, get the heck inside and hope you can close your exterior door.
Weather radio with instant on functionality. Once or twice a year you get woken out of a deep sleep for no reason, but it just might save your life.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Texas Tech University (the folks that invented the 2x4 launcher for testing the strength of building siding and other fun games) and FEMI have put together a lot of Tornado survival info over the years.
Check out FEMA's website as well as Texas Tech's Wind Engineering site.
I've lived in Oklahoma all my life and take most of this for granted. It wasn't until I started traveling and found that most places across the nation had pathetic weather technology.
The thing that is most strange is that in some places I would bet the average Oklahoma/Texas/Kansas person would have more knowledge of weather and how to read radar. We know what a "hook echo" is, can point out a "wall cloud", and know that the green tint means hail.
Oklahoma isn't much for technology but if you want cutting edge radar tech, no place is better. They recently did a study near here to see if airborne particles (like would be released from a terrorist crop duster) could be detected on our radar. Never will know the results but.. We also have Tinker AFB, home of the AWACS (the ultimate flying radar).
Maybe a 802.11 cam or something.
Tornadoes generate a tremendous amount of EM radiation. Nearby twisters are known to jam low-VHF frequencies (i.e. the infamous "white channel two" warning). Of course, they may not affect WiFi frequencies at all, but I also wonder if the rotating iron in a tornado forms something of a faraday cage.