Oklahoma

By now, I'm sure that everyone knows what has happened Sunday and Monday in Oklahoma.

How to help:

Salvation Army

United Methodist Relief

Southern Baptist Relief

(The Red Cross is not on my list and will never be.  They have a well-earned bad reputation, the above places will help and they do what they say they will do.)

 

Oklahoma is where we live and is our adopted home, although TEXAS is and always will be Home.  But that doesn't mean that we don't care about the people here and what happens to them.  Sunday's tornados were bad, but it wasn't over as there was an even bigger outbreak on Monday.

 

The forecast on Monday was pretty specific and it turned out to be right.  We were already aware of the possibility although we weren't expected to be under the gun until later in the afternoon to early evening.  About 3:15, shortly before I was to leave work Bill called me because he had access to a tv and the stations were showing the beginning of the monster that hit Moore.  Bill was supposed to work a board meeting, so he'd taken the other Impala since he would have been getting off late and probably about the time it was supposed to get really bad here.  That meant that I was Otter's transportation which turned out to be a good thing.  She got off at 4:30.  I got to her store about 4:00, I went in to tell her that we were not going to have our shopping errand so she didn't need to change out of her uniform when she got off work and to let her know what was happening.  Their manager was not in, but she was calling them with frequent updates so they were aware of the weather situation and the fact that they might have to close suddenly.

 

In the space of about and hour and a half, the tornado had grown to over a mile wide.  It was also obvious that it was hitting the same general area as the F5 May 3, 1999.  Except that this time, it was worse.  By that time, it had already taken out at least one of the two schools and I think it had already obliterated the hospital.

 

There was another storm system, this one was northwest of Tulsa and it was heading northeast so it didn't affect us, but the city of Bartlesville was in the firing line.  There were two confirmed tornados out of that storm.  The highway patrol was stopping traffic on Highway 75, which is the main way into and out of the Bartlesville area.  They were "lucky", in that there is a lot of undeveloped land in the track that those two took.

 

While that was developing, I was talking to Froggy while I waited for Otter to get off work since Froggy was able to watch a television and could see what was actually happening, as well as updating me on what was happening with the Moore storm since the Bartlesville area was the bulk of what the radio was reporting on since that was closer and of a more immediate impact to the Tulsa area.

 

About 4:15, the weather service started asking employers in Tulsa and the surrounding areas to close early and let their employees get home, since it was beginning to look like the Moore storm was going to take a track that would put the Tulsa area right in front of it.  Just like the May 3, 1999 storm did - we were in TEXAS then, but that is what that storm did.  I talked to Bill just before Otter got off work and the board meeting had been cancelled, so he was heading home.  We got home right at 5:00, there was a lot more traffic than normal so most employers were heading the weather service request.

 

The storm was on the track to hit our area head-on, but it started weakening quickly after it got to about Stroud, which is a small town to the west of Tulsa.  Stroud was just about wiped off the map on May 3, 1999.  The storm probably weakened as fast as it did because our temperature was dropping, probably due to the rain we were already getting.  That fact probably saved a lot of people, as the storm was immense and since it already had a history of a tornado it's very possible that it would have sprouted another.  All we got was a little rain and thunder for a few hours.

 

The death toll was originally over 100, but a lot of those were probably duplicate reports.  At the moment, it's just over 20 with about 9 children.  But that will change, there are still missing people and after this long they are probably no longer alive.  There were over 100 survivors pulled out of the rubble overnight.  But it's been pretty long now, although miracles are still possible.  The original reports said that the monster was an F3 or F4, then this morning the weather service was calling it an F4.  This afternoon, they revised it:  It was an F5, the biggest on the scale.  The May 3, 1999 monster was also an F5.

 

This type of event doesn't happen very often.  Although tornados were possible and even expected yesterday, the monster sprouted fast and grew fast.  A lot faster than it was expected to do.  There is no such thing as lightning not striking in the same place twice, and that also applies to tornadic storms as well.  But it's very rare for something like this to happen twice, on this level especially.  Moore is a smaller town, but Okies are tough and they will recover.  It just won't be fast, but they will make it through this.

 

If you are not in a position to help with either a monetary donation or supplies, please pray.  Pray anyway, that will help more than anything.