There's No Place Like Home- Personal Narrative
Other than the sweltering heat in the summer time in Oklahoma City, the only dilemma are tornadoes. I grew up in the middle of this “tornado alley” and eventually developed a sixth sense for detecting tornadic activity. Even in the 1980’s tornadoes were known for their violent crime wave, vandalizing neighborhoods and kidnapping children and adults. Imagine a beautiful evening in Moore, a suburb lying on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. Mom is in the kitchen and the kids are playing in the yard. In a matter of minutes, the sky turns green and large cumulonimbus clouds start to churn. A crackle of thunder sends a chill up your spine, followed by a strong odor of ozone that fills the air as Mother Nature’s fireworks illuminate the dark sky. Large golf ball sized hail sting your window and a melody of car alarms play in the streets. You panic as the lights inside your house start to flicker as the tornado touches down and it is reported as an F-5, the largest of all the tornadoes, tearing through houses with awe-inspiring velocity. The tornado engorges cars, trees, and small houses as it approaches your house. Being prepared, you descend to the storm cellar and brace yourself for the full impact of the unforgiving monster. The tornado has left its calling card on your block. A scrap of metal and glass resembling your car is found on your next door neighbor’s lawn. The houses on your block have vanished, leaving behind a scene of ultimate destruction. Families stand outside telling stories of how their child was stripped right out of their hands as the behemoth rampaged through their houses.
Tornadoes are as serious as the SAT’s. If you are not prepared f...
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...e too busy. Help people if they are trapped under fallen debris and give them first aid in the event that they are injured.
Tornado safety and preparedness are key to protecting your loved ones during a tornado. So far there has been no evidence that tornadoes pick up objects and move it to Oz, but we do know they can lift enormous objects and cause billions of dollars in damage. It is important to remember that two percent of all tornadoes are severe and most well built homes can withstand the brutal punishment. The next time nature’s fury strikes in your city, you will be well aware of the raw power of the tornado. Nothing is guaranteeing your survival but since you are ready for impact, you have just tripled your chances. In the words of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, “there is no place like home, there is no place like home.” If you are prepared!
Although the tornado of 10 June 1938 has been known about, at least anecdotally, within the scientific community since it was brought to light in 1939 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, this potentially rich source of historic information has lain fallow. It is within this rich field of mobile, American thinking that we undertake this effort. A team of scientists with courage, brains, and even heart brought the resources to bear on the challenge.
Xenia, Ohio was home to the worst damage caused by the tornado outbreak of 1974. As school children in Xenia, Ohio waited for their ride home and workers watched the clock tick slowly towards quitting time, a monstrous tornado whipped wildly towards their small town. In just minutes, the small peaceful city of Xenia became ground zero for the nation's worst tornado outbreak.
In this paper, I will discuss what tornadoes are and how they form, what different forms of tornadoes there are, what tornado watches and warning are and give examples of tornadoes in Oklahoma and what destruction they caused, also while providing information about the Doppler radar.
On May 20th, 2013 a EF 5 tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma and surrounding towns, with a path as wide as 1.3 miles wide (2.1 km) and had a wind speed, estimated at its peak, of 210 miles per hour (340 km/h). Killing 24 people, and injuring 377, this was one of the United States worst tornadoes in the past few years, along side the Joplin, Missouri tornado, in 2011. One of Mother Nature’s most dangerous and still very mysterious phenomenons averages about 1,200 reported each year, resulting in 80 deaths and injuring 1500. With very little known about them, especially whether or not they will form is one of the questions that plague meteorologist to this very day. What causes tornadoes, how does the tilt and gravity of the earth affect the winds to produce a tornado, and what will the future hold about our understanding of tornadoes?
On May 4, 2007, the town of Greensburg, Kansas was devastated by an exceptionally strong tornado. With maximum winds estimated to be in excess of 205 miles per hour, and leaving a damage path as wide as 1.7 miles, the storm would go on to be rated a rare EF5, the first recorded in the United States since 1999. When the storm finally subsided, 95 percent of Greensburg had been destroyed, killing eleven people.
Thunder rolled intensely outside, my aunt, mother, sister and I were sat calmly in the basement. We had been through this many times before; I mean afterall, Kansas was part of Tornado Alley. 2. My sister and I were young when this happened, her probably four or five, me about eight. 3. Before we had even started driving to my aunt’s house; since she’s the only one with a basement; my sister and I were complaining about being hungry. 4. Mom said she would get us something to eat soon, but then the sirens started blaring. 5. She called my aunt and told her we would be over in about ten minutes. 6. Me and my sister continued to complain about being hungry because, we always had to get what we wanted. 7. So my mom stopped at McDonald’s and got us some food. 8. After we were almost five minutes later than we said we would be my aunt panicked. 9. Jenny, my aunt, was calling like crazy. 10. When we finally got to her house she lectured my mom about how it wasn’t safe to have us out there like that with a tornado in the area. 11.Afterwards, we all sat on the porch and watched the storm. 12. That’s my favorite memory with my family, and it’s one I’ll never forget.
Tornadoes are devastating atmospheric events that affect the ecology and the lives of people in their paths. Tornadoes are defined as “a violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud” (Glossary of Meteorology, 2011). The Tri-state tornado was the deadliest tornado in the United States. It stayed on the ground for a total of 219 miles through areas of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killed a total of 695 people, and an estimated $16.5 million in damages (National Weather Service, 2011). Luckily, the tornado’s path was largely rural farmland with scattered small towns between them.
It seems like every year Oklahoma is hit by massive storms and tornados that kill people and wound many others. Although some may say Oklahomans are used to getting hit by storms and tornados, but the outcome is never something we get used to and this year, just like any other, we got hit. On May 20, 2013 an EF5 tornado started to develop and little did we know that this tornado would be talked about everywhere. This tornado did major damage to houses, towns, and buildings, but what got this tornado so much attention was that it tore through an elementary school, that was unprotected from tornados, and killed seven children. According to the National Weather Service’s Top Ten Deadliest Oklahoma Tornados (1882-Present) this specific tornado is ranked number nine, killing 23 individuals and injuring 237 others. Even though there is a slim chance we could have saved everyone, we still could have saved those children in the Plaza Towers Elementary school. All they needed was a storm shelter at their school to take cover in and they probably would have all survived.
On May 22nd, 2011 a massive tornado hit Joplin, Missouri killing 162 people and injuring 1150. With wind speeds of 322km/h, the tornado made a total cost of over $2 billion for the city. 8000 structures were destroyed, 2000 of which were homes. Many people were left homeless. The tornado held an incredible EF5 rating on the Fujita scale, measured from the amount of destruction. The tragic event lasted 38 minutes, from 5:34 pm to 6:12pm. Cool wind from the Rockies in Canada and warm wind from the gulf of Mexico formed into a supercell thunderstorm creating a tornado in Kansas. The tornado rapidly moved into Joplin and continued on its 35 km path.
A tornado struck Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011 at around 5:40 pm. With a population around 50,559, it killed 161 people and injured approximately 1,100 people. The cost was an estimated $2.8 billion in damage. The American taxpayers had to give about $500 million in recovery money. This made it the deadliest tornado since 1950, which was when modern recordkeeping began. Since it was an EF5 tornado, it destroyed everything in its path. The city was ruined with only piles of debris left. It was a half-mile wide when it hit Joplin and grew to three-quarters of a mile wide. It destroyed nearly 7,000 homes in Joplin and damaged hundreds more. It covered over 1,800 acres of land. The warnings that the Joplin residents received were through three different ways. The tornado warning that was sent out for Joplin’s county was from Jasper County Emergency Operations Center (JCEOC) and they claim that the first siren went off at 5:11 pm. Two other warnings for the Joplin residents was they saw the tornado heading their direction, and the media coverage which was all local electronic media switched to wall-to-wall coverage seeing live footage of the tornado.
About a week later a tornado razed a better part of North Houston. It brought rain. It brought hail. It upended cars; it flooded houses. And in its trail it left fallen branches and trees, and removed, in whole, one tiny tomato-onion-potato-and-green-bean garden located behind my garage.
Tornadoes are one of the deadliest and most unpredictable villains mankind will ever face. There is no rhyme or reason, no rhythm to it’s madness. Tornados are one of the most terrifying natural events that occur, destroying homes and ending lives every year. April 29th, 1995, a calm, muggy, spring night I may never forget. Jason, a buddy I grew up with, just agreed to travel across state with me so we could visit a friend in Lubbock. Jason and I were admiring the beautiful blue bonnets, which traveled for miles like little blue birds flying close to the ground. The warm breeze brushed across the tips of the blue bonnets and allowed them to dance under the perfectly clear blue sky. In the distance, however, we could see darkness. A rumbling sky was quickly approaching.
Most tornados produced from these storms are relatively weak, don’t enter inhabited areas, and cause little to no damage. The problem is that Oklahoma gets 55.1 tornados annually. With all of these tornados, a couple of them are bound to go through populated areas and cause damage. The damage the tornado causes incre...
I was speaking to my mother as I tracked the path of the storm, when she suddenly confessed in a tearful voice, “I’m afraid.” I heard the howling wind through the phone as the 200 mile per hour winds gradually approached the USVI. From her view from the kitchen window, she informed me that everything not bolted to the ground with steel or cement was airborne. She had never witnessed anything like it despite experiencing direct hits from four previous major storms in her lifetime. The last thing she said before the phone lines completely went down, cutting them off from the outside world, was “This is serious.
Once the storm arrives, stay inside and away from walls and windows that could collapse or be blown away. If it is during the night, have a flashlight near-by so that you can find your way around in case of a power failure. Don’t use the telephone either unless it’s absolutely necessary. Many people may be trying to make emergency calls and the phone lines may be knocked down in some areas.