Positive thoughts/vibes/prayers/meditations for Oklahoma amid their suffering

[steve2470]

I cannot imagine living with the anxiety and horror of possible daily tornadoes.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/01/us-usa-tornadoes-idUSBRE94T10N20130601

(Reuters) - Nine people were killed in tornadoes that swept through central Oklahoma on Friday, part of a storm system that caused widespread flooding in Oklahoma City and its suburbs, the state's chief medical examiner said on Saturday.

The dead included two children and seven adults, said Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office. The death earlier had been reported as five.

The tornadoes struck just 11 days after a twister ranked as EF5, the most powerful ranking possible, tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore and killed 24 people.

The storms dumped up to 8 inches of rain on the Oklahoma City area, causing flash flooding that submerged parts of the sprawling metropolitan area that is home to more than 1.3 million people. Nearly two dozen people were rescued from areas cut off by rising water, the National Weather Service said.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Kick and rec - I lived in Tulsa for a while and...

...I feel for my Okie friends.

[hrmjustin]

2. They are in my prayers!

[Sekhmets Daughter]

3. I can't imagine the anxiety levels...

these damned tornadoes are almost as sudden as earthquakes. At least here in FL we have plenty of warning when a hurricane is heading our way. I desperately wish there were something I could do besides donating to the Red Cross.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. I had a funny from one of my locals

Stupid %*##* for living there

You realize you live in one town with the highest wild fire risk in the state? (He does)

Well, it's different...

No, not really.

All areas of the country have risks. All of them.

[freshwest]

5. K & R. Vibes for OKC.

[steve2470]

6. kick nt

[jtuck004]

7. Respectfully, for the vast majority of people in Oklahoma I expect, there is no "anxiety and horror

of possible daily tornadoes", at least no more than frequent fliers experience during severe turbulence on an airplane flight. Having lived there for over 50 years, through dozens upon dozens of them, let me assure you that such "horror" is mostly replaced by the anxiety of whether their job is going to exist tomorrow, bills, kids, school, etc. Once in a while a weather report comes on that gets your attention, and every 10 years or so there is a storm that causes greater destruction and tragedy than is the norm. Then you do the best you can depending on the situation. But it is hardly in the front of one's mind all the time. There are scores of lesser storms, most of which do very little, or at most wrap up your electrical wires and remove power for a week or two. Just btw those, for tens of thousands of people, are as dangerous, but more insidious. Without electricity they have no way to refrigerate or cook food, no way to condition the air against the daily 100 degree temps and high humidity they are no longer conditioned to, no way to run home medical equipment. That kills people too, especially the aged and those who don't have the resources to live with a friend or get a motel room, or survive at home. Flash flooding is a yearly occurrence, periodically causing a drowning. It's just not that unusual.

The prayers and good thoughts are appreciated, as are the donations and rebuilding by those affected. But don't let the coverage on CNN fool you. Realize that the fool storm chaser, with a couple hundred thousand in technology and a support team, was less successful in avoiding the tornado than thousands of kids in their 50's and 60's pickups and cars were when I was growing up. (He is what we, in Oklahoma, call a "dumbass&quot . And most of those people on the highway who got hit weren't "fleeing" from the storm, they were going about their daily business and got caught up in it. It's amazing how many ignore warnings, but that is a byproduct of seeing scores of storms every year that never personally affect you. (Those that really were fleeing mostly already fled, if my experience is any example, although many drive in front of it, and are surprised when it catches up to them. In Oklahoma we call that "driving in the wrong direction&quot .

The dilution in the coverage disturbs me. We never heard the term "tornado emergency" until Gary England, I think it was, used it to describe the storm that hit Moore in 1999. We knew it was bad just based on the cloud cover and color, but he added an urgency that saved a lot of lives. Last night, (we live in Eastern WA now, watching national coverage) I was watching CNN, and every stinking report, it seemed, was a tornado emergency. Gary is going to have to come up with a new term. Maybe his trademark "throw-down, get-back" can be adapted to the worst storms. Because people are not going to live their lives as if every emergency is the end of the world, and making every storm sound like it will lull them into letting the urgency be replaced by the other things that are more at the front of their minds every day.

And lest one think that people should be more concerned, here's a little factual paragraph from NOAA...

From: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/
With a preliminary count of 87 EF1 and stronger U.S. tornadoes through April 2013, the year is off to a slow start with about half the average number of tornadoes for this period of the year (153 JFMA tornadoes over the past 60 years). If the preliminary count stands, 2013 will rank 49 out of 60 in tornado activity level (through April) since 1954. The most recent year with fewer tornadoes through April occurred in 2005 when 83 EF1 and stronger tornadoes were counted. Through April, 2013 stands in stark contrast to 2011 when a record number of 586 tornadoes (EF1+) were counted through the first four months of the year. Over the last decade, the January through April tornado count has shown dramatic variability. The 2nd least active period on record (52 tornadoes in 2004) and the most active on record (586 in 2011) have occurred during this time. Not including 2013, four of the 10 least active years and four of the 10 most active years, through April, have all occurred since 2002. It is not entirely clear why this variability has appeared in the tornado counts in recent years. However, given this observed variability, simple averages of tornado counts over recent years do not provide much information about expected tornado activity level from any one year to the next.

Don't misunderstand. I don't mean to say that one doesn't need to be careful and take appropriate precautions. But like people in California still go in and out of buildings and drive over bridges, even though the ground under them cracks open and swallows them once in a while, Okies live their lives much like everyone else, and mostly concern themselves with the conditions and economics that threaten to swallow their lives far more readily than any tornado.