Tornadoes are a fairly regular event in some places, but this one is said to be much worse than most, with 91 confirmed as dead, and fears for others.
News report
Very sad.

Shows the value of a simple shelter.
Yes odds of getting hit by one are slim, but still, I never understood why so many people in tornado prone areas just shrug their shoulders at the thought of installing one.

As you said, the odds are slim. Even in this part of the nation where tornadoes are more common, the odds of being killed in a traffic accident are greater.

Jeanette Isabelle

Later reports suggest a lower death toll than earlier suggested, though still significant and just as tragic for those affected.

This is a major tragedy and the casualties it would appear are being downplayed especially when you consider whole neighborhoods are left with just with the outline of the concrete foundations of hundreds of individual homes. And this is just one neighborhood as the area of destruction of 30-40 square miles. Casualties will most likely be in the many hundreds to thousands.

I am listening to a news report stating that the death toll has been lowered, although indeed it is expected to climb as rescue efforts continue. Oklahomans are pretty tough dudes...

Heartbreaking images and videos of the carnage.

This time of year severe thunderstorms are common and there is often little time to react from the time a tornado develops to when it hits. The Weather Channel just reported that with today's technology there is an average of 13 minutes to react. And I may start a thread on that subject - what can you do with 13 minutes?

The most remarkable photos and videos I've yet seen are at this link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...hool-Moore.html


My thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their loved ones and everyone who has been worrying about friends and family in the affected area.

Looks like this will be another frightening day for millions in the paths of severe storms. God bless all.


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It seems to me that the real problem is from reporters and "talking heads" speculating about the death toll and then presenting their speculations as fact.
The authorities appear to be basing their numbers on actual recovered remains. Many are missing, unaccounted for and some are probably trapped. Some percentage of those will add to the death toll, but how many must be determined one by one as the search continues. There is a lot of territory and rubble to be searched.

From what I heard, early annoucements by officials were too high because of double-counts of the same bodies by different responding agencies. Once the duplicates were sorted out, the official count was lowered this morning.

A simple above-ground shelter won't do much good when a tornado uses telephone poles as javelins. I don't know if basement shelters are practical there. Basements are possible for my family in Kansas (maybe two hours north of OKC by car).

There's video from last year of a tornado tossing 18-wheeler trailers (big cargo trailers from highway tractor/trailer rigs) high in the air near Dallas/Fort Worth. It's not the wind that a shelter needs to deal with, it's what the wind carries along.


From memory, the highest odds in the world are about one on the ground within 25 miles a given point, once per century.

It's a classic insurance problem: is it cheaper to accept infrequent losses or spend a lot on prevention?

The question is more complicated in Florida or the Gulf Coast, where an underground shelter is out of the question for hurricanes.