Many prayers and best wishes to all those people during this. To the seven Elementary school children and the fourty-four others who lost their lives; may they rest in peace. v.v Thanks for update.
Tornadoes are scary things to go through. I thank God at moments like this I don't live in tornado country. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families. I am not trying to sound mean or anything, but wouldn't they have tornado shelters to go into? I know Oklahoma is huge tornado country. Or did they get caught by surprise? I hope one day we'll be able to more accurately predict tornadoes and the path they take.
Well, there are indeed tornado shelters (although far fewer than you might expect -- Oklahoma City and the suburb of Moore have no public shelters to my knowledge) and warnings... We weren't taken by surprise per se. But it's not that simple, unfortunately. Tornadoes develop and touch down so quickly that there's not much time to drive to a shelter. Generally, you've got to take shelter at the first place available. As soon as those sirens go up (and they do as soon as a tornado is known to be on the ground), it's best to drop what you're doing and take cover. Unfortunately, not all of us have storm cellars or basements, or live in close proximity to a shelter. The weather teams on the news do an admirable job of tracking the storms and telling us when to get to shelter; they've got very good technology and can track tornadoes with impressive accuracy. But because they show up so quickly, the most people usually have time for is to hide in their own houses... Which isn't always enough. It certainly wouldn't have been enough for me. I was alone with my dog at the time, and when the sirens went up we hid in the bathroom with couch pillows. If that tornado (iirc a mile wide EF4) had hit my house I'd probably be dead, and the thought still has me... Well to be honest, kind of freaked out. So I'm sorry if I sound kind of harsh or weird about this. The safest place to hide during a tornado is underground, in your own storm cellar. People who live in mobile homes, happen to be out, or (like me) just don't have one are usually out of luck when it hits.
I apologize, and I understand why you sound like you do. I can't imagine how you felt during the tornado and I'm glad you're okay. I guess I've been watching Twister too much to realize that there's not a lot of shelters as it seemed. I also know housing can be expensive and I feel bad for the families who end up worse in these situations because of it. I hope I didn't sound judgmental because of it. Sorry if I did, I didn't mean to. I hope they'll be okay.
Oh, no, no need to apologize haha. Personally I think there should be more public shelters than there are (not having any in OKC is insane!), and definitely more underground floors/cellars built into public places at least. Tornadoes happen so often here that it almost feels like they should be a requirement, but unfortunately it can be costly so as far as I know, most are built without them & leave the owner to invest in one later.
Stay strong Oklahoma! I pray for the victims of this horrible tragedy, and I also pray for the families of the victims.
This was a tragic event. 20 children have died from this event alone. My prayers go out to Oklahoma. I hope they stay strong and manage to get through this.
That's really sad, Stardust... Maybe there'll be a charity that comes out of this. At times like this I thank God that I only have to worry about blizzards and once in a very short while hurricanes. I live in Maine so the biggest news weatherwise we've had was a 3.6 earthquake we had this year. I pray that the families are okay and things change from this to make it better for families before it happens again.
I was having lunch with my mum and granny when that story hit the news, and that was my first reaction too when they mentioned the school. I get that not everyone can afford a shelter (or better yet, to go live elsewhere) and that Americans aren' t big on having requirements thrown at them, but tax money is supposed to be used for the common good. I mean they thought of using that money to installl alarms but ... they haven' t built a single shelter ? Not even in the freaking school ? It can' t be that pricey, pardon my French but qu' est-ce qu' ils foutent ces trous du cul ? On a side-note, a tornado hit Monaco recently. Nothing big, it just scattered sand everywhere, but still, this is the first time I ever hear of a tornado hitting anywhere near France. Tornadoes have become increasingly more frequent in the US, correct ? I' m starting to worry it might become a thing here too.
Regarding that, I found an article this morning on the lack of shelters. The percentage of structures that have them is actually far lower than I thought: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/...ildings-in-tornado-alley-lack-storm-shelters/ As for whether they've become more frequent -- not to my knowledge, but they've always been very common here so I can't say. Google searching it nets me answers all over the map.
The thing is that they asked for more shelters in 1999. When this happened last time. They asked via FEMA for grants. They kept on being pushed aside because every time it came up the "standards" and requirements for shelters had changed.They were never given the money. I hope this time it's enough of a wake-up call for more shelters to be made in Oklahoma City. It's scary that for over ten years this was ignored, I hope that it will change this time. Especially now that more people seem willing to donate money towards this type of thing due to the press.
So ... that theater toilets are safer than any school ? Spoiler I just looked it up myself, not in the last 50 years, nope. One more urban legend flushed from my mind.
Holy crap, what is this, Tornado Valley Day? This is absolutely ridiculous, someone tell Mother Nature to tone it down. All joking aside, this is pretty rough. It's harsh hearing about tragedies with just one tornado, but hearing about all of these, even in the same state, makes this pretty depressing.
How sad, three tornado chasers in Oklahoma died doing what they devoted their life to: http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/02/us/midwest-weather/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
