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Developing:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/20/us/severe-weather/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Missed me by about 10-15 miles, looks horrible down there.

I still don't understand why you guys build houses out of wood in areas well known for these kinds of storms...

However, I hope everyone gets sorted out quickly and gets everything they need in the meantime.

When one of these things hits, I don't even think brick and mortar homes stand a chance. This thing was two-miles wide at times. Horrible.

 d-usa wrote:
When one of these things hits, I don't even think brick and mortar homes stand a chance. This thing was two-miles wide at times. Horrible.

Not another one. My prayers for yall up there.

masonry helps, but schools are typically masonry now. A direct hit from a tornado will generally take out masonry walls without difficulty.
A high cat tornado will even suck the concrete foundation away.

EDIT: holy crap I've never ever heard of atwo mile wide tornado. Thats Doomsday type gak.

Last confirmation was that kids were still sheltering in the schools that were hit, no other news from that so far.

Gak: reporters are crying on air. Reporting third graders being pulled from the school...

Jesus this is horrible...

4th, 5th, 6th grade all accounted for at that school.

Kindergarten through 3rd grade unknown, kids crying in the rubble.

Oh my god, just seen the footage.

You see homes gone, and you know people will have lost their lives....

I've seen some terrible things in this life, but watching a field full of dead and dying horses writhing on the ground, that had been impaled with debris....

Why isn't Shelter basements a requirement for insurance or new builds?

 mwnciboo wrote:
Oh my god, just seen the footage.

You see homes gone, and you know people will have lost their lives....

I've seen some terrible things in this life, but watching a field full of dead and dying horses writhing on the ground, that had been impaled with debris....

Why isn't Shelter basements a requirement for insurance or new builds?

It's a tornado...
The worst ones are actually strong enough to gouge the foundation of a building if they make a direct hit. An F5 will have wind speeds in excess of over 400km/hr.

You can see where grass and dirt were sucked of the ground and foundations were moved.

Yeah. If the tornado is bad enough and a building takes a direct hit, it doesn't really matter what the building is made out of or whether or not there was a basement.

Right now the Severe Storm center is calling it an estimated EF4... I highly expect once their teams actually arrive in the area to help assess everything, it'll be instantly upgraded to an EF5.

St.Louis is now under a Tornado Watch/Warning, along with what sounds like of northern Texas.
Up here, Ontario is going to get pounded starting late tonight/early morning hours, and by mid afternoon the lakeshore corridor will be getting hit.

Time to bunker down and stay safe everyone. Storm season means serious business these next few days.

 SilverMK2 wrote:
I still don't understand why you guys build houses out of wood in areas well known for these kinds of storms..

Honestly, unless you're constructing some sort of military grade bunker, I doubt your home would survive a hit from a tornado. Even if the 200mph wind doesn't destroy your house, the debris it's whipping around certainly will.

Yes, this town was wiped from the map in 1999 by similar tornado. They rebuilt it the town be much stronger, and more resistant.

Preliminary reports indicate that this storm was stronger then the 99 storm...

2-3x the damage of the 99 storm, 30 square miles of damage.

Experiment 626 wrote:
Right now the Severe Storm center is calling it an estimated EF4... I highly expect once their teams actually arrive in the area to help assess everything, it'll be instantly upgraded to an EF5.

St.Louis is now under a Tornado Watch/Warning, along with what sounds like of northern Texas.
Up here, Ontario is going to get pounded starting late tonight/early morning hours, and by mid afternoon the lakeshore corridor will be getting hit.

Time to bunker down and stay safe everyone. Storm season means serious business these next few days.

Yeah, we're preparing our shelter for tonight. Gonna be sleeping lightly.

 djones520 wrote:
Yes, this town was wiped from the map in 1999 by similar tornado. They rebuilt it the town be much stronger, and more resistant.

Preliminary reports indicate that this storm was stronger then the 99 storm...

Sadly unlike lightning, tornadoes tend to strike the same spot repeatedly...

Some early facts coming in;
- tornado currently classed as an initial EF4 with winds likely exceeding well over 200 miles per hour
- Moore Medical center was hit, and has been evacuated
- 2 elementary schools were hit. A bunch of 3rd graders are suspected trapped in the rubble of the worst hit school
- around 3500+ homes were in the main damage path
- 4 confirmed dead, including a 7mo old infant
- at least 2 other tornadoes are still on the ground in other areas.
- St.Louis now under a tornado warning.

Plus:
- Nothern states near the great lakes & all of Southern Ontario are in for severe, likely damaging weather starting late tonight.

And because Mother Nature is a vindictive b*****:
- Gander Newfoundland just got over 50cm of snow this weekend! (seems winter is still coming afterall...)

And just for the creepy WTF moments that nature leaves behind:

This is the theater that was hit by this tornado in the city with the worst damage...



Weird.

 d-usa wrote:
And just for the creepy WTF moments that nature leaves behind:

This is the theater that was hit by this tornado in the city with the worst damage...



Weird.

And in case that's not creepy enough...
Wed. marks the 2 year anniversary of the Joplin tornado that killed almost 170 people...

Because apparently, Mother Nature has the worst sense of ironic humor in the world.

Saw one formed at Campbell in 96. Green clouds...thick...ugly...scarey....formed quick...took out a Apache....two Blackhawks and the POL point that was nearby. They were parked btw.

News just talked more about the grade school.

Thinking 30 kids in the wreckage there.

Just switched to Search and Recovery...

Feth this storm...

 Jihadin wrote:
Saw one formed at Campbell in 96. Green clouds...thick...ugly...scarey....formed quick...took out a Apache....two Blackhawks and the POL point that was nearby. They were parked btw.

Burlington luckily is kinda just sitting in between the two main stretches of Ontario's tornado ally, so thankfully I've never had to duck 'n cover and just pray...

But last summer we had a storm come through, late night like around 10pm so it's was complete pitch darkness... the trees were literally bending 90 degrees, you could feel the entire house shaking... crap like small branches & unsecured small patio furniture flying about... I've never been so freaking scared shitless in my life!
There was a downburst from that storm about 20 blocks over from my house that did some decent damage and made a huge mess of things.

Hamilton which is about 6-10 minute drive west on the QEW however got hit by an F2 about 8 years ago, so we've had some really freaking close calls!

Pulled 7 kids out of the school, they were flooded under the debris of the school. 30 more bodies suspected under the water there...

The Oklahoma County ME has apparently just released confirmation of 37 dead now in Moore.
Truly a tragic day.

Hopefully with night setting in and things cooling off we've seen the worst of it.
All you guys down there stay safe!

Experiment 626 wrote:
The Oklahoma County ME has apparently just released confirmation of 37 dead now in Moore.
Truly a tragic day.

Hopefully with night setting in and things cooling off we've seen the worst of it.
All you guys down there stay safe!

Things are just getting going. Nightfall isn't going to do anything to calm things down.

Tonight and tomorrow are going to be nasty for the mid-west.

Current count is at 51. My hospital has opened up to civilians to accept overflow from the other facilities in the area. Talked to a good friend of mine whose sister was working in the grade school that was leveled. Said she was covering her 6 year old students when a car flew through the wall and landed next to her. She made it out alive though.

 d-usa wrote:
Current count is at 51. My hospital has opened up to civilians to accept overflow from the other facilities in the area. Talked to a good friend of mine whose sister was working in the grade school that was leveled. Said she was covering her 6 year old students when a car flew through the wall and landed next to her. She made it out alive though.

An Airman in our unit grew up there. He was able to get ahold of his sister, but last I heard they hadn't found his parents yet, and their home had been destroyed...

Yes 51 dead at a minimum at this point. Expect it to go much higher. reports are there are people trapped in shelters under houses, trying to get them out.

God bless them, give strength to the rescue crews and the survivors. It hit a fething elementary school. Jesus Christ.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
At least 24 kids in rubble of school. Don't know if alive.
Fox showing 120 patients now including 70 kids.

I live in Norman and was in OKC for a Dr. appointment and driving home when the tornado hit I saw the damn thing; very surreal. It took me more than 3 hours to get home and had to turn back several times because of wreckage blocking roads. My heart goes out to all the folks in Moore.

Just saw the report of 50+ fatalities so far.

Very glad to learn that this missed ya, D-USA.