# Oklahoma Tornado



## Lewdog (May 20, 2013)

Let's just hope that not many lives were lost today in the horrible Oklahoma tornado.  It was said to have been as large as a mile wide.  Schools were totally destroyed and from the pictures I have seen, it's bad, real bad.


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## Lewdog (May 20, 2013)

First report is 37 dead and that, that number will rise.


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## Bilston Blue (May 21, 2013)

Just woke up to this. Sky are reporting at least 91 people have been killed, including 20 children. Very, very sad indeed. Looks like the whole place has been flattened.


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## JosephB (May 21, 2013)

Pretty sad and disturbing. I went down a couple of times to the Gulf Coast with a few adults and our church youth group to work on clean-up etc. after Katrina. Pictures don't get it across. I was overwhelmed by the devastation, standing there looking at the bits and pieces of the lives people had managed to build for themselves. The kids were great, worked really hard -- but one day a couple of them were complaining about our accommodations -- and I was like, seriously, kids? Take a look around and imagine if this was what was left of your home.


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## Cran (May 21, 2013)

Strength to all who are affected by this repeated disaster upon the city of Moore, and to those still under threat of more tornadoes in that part of America.

And hope to our own Gumby, who was grounded in Oklahoma City at the time, that she can complete her journey safely and as soon as.


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## Gumby (May 21, 2013)

Thank you Cran, for the well wishes. I made it out of Oklahoma City this morning, finally. I'm currently waiting in Denver Co. to make my connection for California.

We travelled to OKC on Monday, and had to stop about 45 miles east of Shawnee, to wait out a tornado which was crossing I-40 ahead of us and headed for Shawnee. It hit that town pretty hard. We were detoured around a lot of cars and Semi's which had been blown around and over. One Semi was blown from the overpass, into the underpass below. We witnessed this tornado, it was huge and very chilling. 

My flight was delayed and we had to spend the night in OKC waiting and watching the tornado's track all around us. Of course, it hit Moore which was just southeast of where we were by maybe 8 miles. A very frightening experience which I don't want to repeat. My heart goes out to all who were devastated by this monster.


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## Terry D (May 21, 2013)

Glad to hear that all is relatively well with you and your's Gumby. 

As for the folks affected by this storm; all our good wishes for them are great, but a bit of cash to the Red Cross would be better. I'm just sayin'...


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## IanMGSmith (May 21, 2013)

...real glad for all who made it safely through and deepest condolences to those whose lives have been torn apart.


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## J Anfinson (May 21, 2013)

I'm just outside of Tulsa, and while those were the most devastating ones, there were 2 other big ones the last couple days as well. One was a half mile wide at Carney, OK. Another was a mile wide north of Tulsa in Rogers County. Also numerous smaller ones.

There is some good news about Moore. The medical examiner's office said that the first casualty numbers were way off. They said that it was likely a lot of bodies got counted more than once in the confusion. The number now stands at 24 dead per local news stations. Tragically, 9 were children.


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## Rustgold (May 23, 2013)

It's disappointing when so many Americans choose to turn events like these into political causes.  Examples that I've read/heard.

"The tornado was sent to target conservatives."
"This is global warming."

I wouldn't be surprised if everything else has been blamed for political causes, they're just the ones I've heard.


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## JosephB (May 23, 2013)

Well, I live here, and I've seen and read a lot of coverage of the tornadoes and have heard very little politicizing. And none in conversations I've had -- and a lot of people are talking about it, naturally. 

One of _The Daily Show_ creators made a joke in rather poor taste about the tornado targeting conservatives. That’s one person. She took a lot of heat from both conservative and liberals -- and she's apologized.

And some people attribute practically every shift in climate and extreme weather event to global warming -- this is no exception.

That’s hardly “so many Americans.” What I am seeing is a huge outpouring of sympathy, concern and support -- looks to me like that's what most Americans are focusing on.


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## J Anfinson (May 23, 2013)

JosephB said:


> And some people attribute practically every shift in climate and extreme weather event to global warming -- this is no exception.



I believe he was referring to Rhode Island Senator Whitehouse's comments. As I understand it, the minute he heard about the tornado he made a little global warming rant instead of focusing on it being a tradjedy.

If you read through some of the comments on CNN you'll be disgusted too. However, I don't think that's how most Americans feel.


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## Lewdog (May 23, 2013)

If Hugo Chavez was still alive he would say that Obama used the United States weather making machine and did it to his own people to take the heat off of himself and all the trouble he's been in.  Seriously, Chavez said that the U.S. has it's own weather making weapon...

Hugo Chavez Mouthpiece Says U.S. Hit Haiti With 'Earthquake Weapon' | Fox News

People will, and can say anything.


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## JosephB (May 23, 2013)

J Anfinson said:


> However, I don't think that's how most Americans feel.



I don't think that they do either. And Nancy Pelosi said something about it too. There are always politicians who will try to make hay out of a tragedy. And it's certainly not something unique to the U.S.


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## Rustgold (May 24, 2013)

JosephB said:


> That’s hardly “so many Americans.”



For yet another pathetic snipe, you're starting to come up with your own collection of people who are doing it.


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## Lewdog (May 24, 2013)

Come now, let's not make this about Americans and how they are so much different than the rest of the world.  Every country has horrible people that will say horrible things at horrible times.  It just happens that people all around the world see EVERY THING that happens in the U.S., but there is so much going on in the U.S., that we hardly see what happens in other countries, unless someone gets eaten by a shark, someone gets their head cut off, or someone throws some female singers in jail.


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## JosephB (May 24, 2013)

Rustgold said:


> For yet another pathetic snipe, you're starting to come up with your own collection of people who are doing it.



Tragedies often bring out the best and worst in people. And some people just can’t resist focusing on the worst -- even if they have to exaggerate to do it.

One thing is for sure -- no one here was doing any politicizing, criticizing or finger pointing until you chimed in. The focus was on the victims -- as it should be.


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## Sam (May 24, 2013)

Whether people in America are using this as a vehicle for political debate, I don't know. What I do know is that _we're _not using it for political debate. This is a thread to discuss the tragedy of what happened in Oklahoma. For once maybe try to empathise with the survivors instead of beating your chest and screaming to the rooftops about politics -- because, for once, I'd like to not have to put a warning in a thread of this nature.


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## JosephB (May 24, 2013)

On that note -- I thought this lady's attitude was pretty amazing, although I wouldn't be surprised if things hadn't really sunk in at that point. The ending of this clip is pretty great and heartwarming.

[video=youtube;APjnJopfQi8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APjnJopfQi8[/video]


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## Lewdog (May 31, 2013)

Unfortunately Oklahoma City and surrounding areas are in extreme danger once again.  Yahoo! is reporting 'several' tornadoes including one over a mile wide have touched down west of Oklahoma City and are moving east.

Does anyone see the irony in this picture?


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## John_O (Jun 2, 2013)

It is with a heavy heart that I am passing along the news that 3 storm chasers, Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and Carl Young passed away on Friday while chasing the El Reno, OK storm. I was shocked by this! When I first got into photography I started with photographing weather / lightning. I became a skywarn spotter with the NWS and Tim taught me a lot. He was NOT just a "storm chaser" He was a researcher!
It looks like they were mostly northeast of the generally east-moving tornado when it turned northeast fast. Unusually fast for a large tornado (EF-3)
It also caught Mike Bettis of the weather channel flipping his van (image in Lewdogs post) and also almost got Juston Drake and Simon Brewer two very experienced storm chasers. Tim was a very careful chaser, he didn't take undo risks just to get some footage. Tim's last Tweet on Friday said, "Dangerous day ahead for OK--stay weather savvy!"
RIP.Your work will never be forgotten.


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## Rustgold (Jun 2, 2013)

John_O said:


> It is with a heavy heart that I am passing along the news that 3 storm chasers, Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and Carl Young passed away on Friday while chasing the El Reno, OK storm.



Sad, but.  You want to chase tornados, you should have a proper specially made vehicle, like other tornado researchers have.  You simply can't modify a SUV and claim it's suitable for the job.  It's harsh, but they died because they didn't use the proper equipment, which is their doing.


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## John_O (Jun 2, 2013)

Rustgold said:


> Sad, but. You want to chase tornados, you should have a proper specially made vehicle, like other tornado researchers have. You simply can't modify a SUV and claim it's suitable for the job. It's harsh, but they died because they didn't use the proper equipment, which is their doing.



If you knew anything about Tim you would know what an  *asinine*  statement you posted.


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## John_O (Jun 2, 2013)

As far as your "proper specially made vehicle" I know of just 2! One is Reed Timmer and the other is Sean Casey an IMAX film-maker!  Both funded by the discovery channel I'm sure


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## iflewoverthecuckoosnest (Jun 2, 2013)

John_O said:


> As far as your "proper specially made vehicle" I know of just 2! One is Reed Timmer and the other is Sean Casey an IMAX film-maker!  Both funded by the discovery channel I'm sure



From my limited experience on this planet, people tend to victim blame because it's easier than facing the reality of their own vulnerability.  If you can find a reason why the victim caused their own demise, you don't have to admit that bad things can happen to anyone at any time.  Of course, storm chasing is a risky business by nature.  No matter how many precautions you take, this sort of thing can happen.  
May they rest in peace.


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## JosephB (Jun 2, 2013)

And sometimes people just have the wrong impression about something. There’s isn’t necessarily some underlying psychological basis for it.


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## iflewoverthecuckoosnest (Jun 2, 2013)

True, true.


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## John_O (Jun 2, 2013)

Tim recorded for the greatest pressure drop ever measured inside a tornado. He designed, built, and deployed instrument probes to measure atmospheric variables such as pressure and wind in the path of tornadoes. He deployed one of these in the path of an F4 tornado that destroyed the small town of Manchester, S.D., on June 24, 2003. This probe registered a world-record 100-millibar drop in pressure inside the twister. This information is especially crucial, because it provides data about the lowest 10 meters of a tornado, where houses, vehicles, and people are.
Samaras, a tornado scientist for over 25 years, founded and ran a scientific field research program dubbed TWISTEX (Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in Tornadoes EXperiment). The Weather Channel's severe weather expert, Dr. Greg Forbes, knew Tim personally. "He was a groundbreaker in terms of the kind of research he was doing on severe thunderstorms and tornadoes," Dr. Forbes said on The Weather Channel Sunday morning.


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## Rustgold (Jun 2, 2013)

iflewoverthecuckoosnest said:


> From my limited experience on this planet, people tend to victim blame because it's easier than facing the reality of their own vulnerability.


You build a house inside a river's natural floodbank, the river's going to flood your house; you go around feeding and being friendly to wild bears, the bears going to maul you; and if you put a standard SUV into the path of a tornado, the tornado's going to flip it.  These are facts.  It may not happen today, it may not happen tomorrow, but it will happen.  You say I'm victim blaming.  Well I say people play victim too much, when common sense should have told them the risks.



> No matter how many precautions you take, this sort of thing can happen.


Putting a standard SUV near a tornado path isn't taking 'all the precautions'.  They simply miscalculated and got caught.  Yes, it's sad they died, and sad we'll no longer have the benefits for their talents, but the risks were there, and known.


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## JosephB (Jun 3, 2013)

So? There are risks associated with a lot worthwhile endeavors. Saying there were risks involved when someone is killed doing them is utterly pointless.


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## Rustgold (Jun 3, 2013)

Whatever JosephB.


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## John_O (Jun 3, 2013)

Tim's last interview with National Geographic.

Our Last Tim Samaras Interview


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## shadowwalker (Jun 3, 2013)

Considering the damage tornadoes do, the strength of those winds, the way they can pull huge, deeply rooted trees completely out of the ground, I would like to see _any _vehicle that would be "suitable".


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## escorial (Jun 3, 2013)

awful


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