Moment of Silence

[TechAngel85]

Thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the storms throughout the mid-U.S. Especially those of Moore, Oklahoma.

[z929669]

Are you near OK City?

[TechAngel85]

I'm 2hrs Southeast in McAlester.

[Vond]

Every time I hear about things like this I have to wonder why people choose to (I know not everyone has a choice, but most people in an industrialized country like the US should have) to live in an area of the world that is so often struck with things like this. That doesn't take away from the tragedy however, hopefully the death-numbers will stay (relatively) low.

[EssArrBee]

It's not like living in Florida where you get more than a day to prepare for a hurricane, the warning for tornadoes is measured in minutes. The one thing I do not miss from living in DFW is the storms, huddling in the bathtub with the lighting flickering and thunder booming, I would not wish that on anyone.

[stoppingby4now]

I watched some videos on the tornado as it tore through some houses. Very sad, and my thoughts go out to all who were affected.

 

I remember being at an ex'es one weekend with a storm brewing. Then the tornado warnings came on the radio, and when I went outside to check on how things were progressing, I saw a tornado forming in the clouds just a few miles north of us. We started packing up all of the animals and perishables, and within a couple minutes it was directly above us. It touched down about 10 miles away, and thank goodness no one was injured/killed.

 

I had a new found respect for mother nature that day. It's one thing to watch videos of tornadoes or other natural disasters, but to see things taking shape before your very eyes when you know what it can do (and could have touched down at any moment) is scary.

[z929669]

Every time I hear about things like this I have to wonder why people choose to (I know not everyone has a choice' date=' but most people in an industrialized country like the US should have) to live in an area of the world that is so often struck with things like this. That doesn't take away from the tragedy however, hopefully the death-numbers will stay (relatively) low.[/quote']

I have been in the Midwest US my whole life, so tornadoes and big Spring storms are the norm. There are usually one or two horrendous storms each year in my neighborhood, but the F5 that hit OK yesterday was unprecedented. That kind of thing touches down once a decade and usually in a rural area. Tornadoes are precision calamities and can take out one property and leave the adjacent ones all but untouched only a hundred feet away. It is extremely unlucky to ever be directly in the path of one during a lifetime.

 

Definitely sad and shocking, but not anything to keep people from living in "tornado alley". When property damage is minimal and nobody gets hurt (which might be 99% of the time), these big storms really make life worth living IMO ... there is just nothing like the Apocolyptic feeling of a big Spring storm in the Great Plains regions of the US.

 

The 2011 Joplin, MO F5 was nearly as destructive and much more deadly, unfortunately. Gladly, this is very rare.

 

@tech,

I hope you did not have family or friends in the way of the worst of this one ... ?

[TechAngel85]

I agree with Z. I've lived in Tornado Alley my whole life and have seen several tornadoes in person, but never have I been the victim of one. Though, I will admit there have been a few close calls. As Z said, tornadoes are precision beasts; unless you're hit directly, all you're going to get is some wind damage. However, unfortunately, once or twice a decade a monster does develops that is wide-spread and does a lot of damage. In 1999, an F-5 touched down in nearly the same area as the recent EF-5 that hit Moore. The 1999 beast was nearly a mile wide and the recent one was around a half-mile wide. These larger tornadoes can produce wind speeds of between 200-300mph.

 

Despite all that, I still love the mid-US and it will always be home in my heart. Z, I fortunately didn't have any family affected by any recent storms this Spring. Thank you for your concern. :)

[stoppingby4now]

Was watching a video from one of the storm chasers, and they came up on the tornado as it was plowing through a farm. It looked to be within a 100 feet of the main house, and it came out unscathed thank goodness (i.e. it was still standing, though likely took wind/debri damage).

 

I have some family that lives in Kansas, and I even remember as a kid visiting my Grandma's sister on her farm. Had a few times we had to go into the shelter. I was pre-teens then, and thought that was the coolest (I love storms), but not realizing at the time what was actually going on out there.

[MontyMM]

The terrifying power of nature. Perhaps we'll all wake up before she sweeps us all aside. Regards to anyone affected by this one.