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Lone Grove Oklahoma tornadoes kill eight, injure dozens in storm outbreak: video & safety tips
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Update at 9:45 am.---Estimates of the death toll after dawn are varying, according to NewsOK. The pre-daylight report of 15 killed is now being re-evaluated as searchers attempt to locate missing persons.
There is chaos in the hardest-hit areas. My area, which got hit by the storms after dark, escaped the worst of it as the storms moved northeast. The original story and two other videos follow after this video, which I've just added, of the storm system near Yukon, OK.
The Daily Oklahoman/NewsOK is reporting that at least 15 people were killed in Lone Grove, Oklahoma during yesterday's supercell outbreak. The tiny town of about 5,000 was ripped apart as an early-season outbreak of tornadoes rampaged aross the state.
Lone Grove, south of Oklahoma City, was one of several communities to get raked by a series of storms packing tornadoes, baseball-sized hail, and in some areas, straight-line winds of 70 to 90 miles per hour. The intense downpours associated with the storms caused flash floods from the storms, which stalked communities from central-south Oklahoma to northeastern Oklahoma.
The storms caused damage in Oklahoma City and the closing of several roads, along with the downing of power lines throughout the storm's path. Several homes were severely damaged in Edmond.
Here's what one tornado looked like, via KFOR and the Weather Channel.
TornadoVideos.net provided this video of yesterday's storms.
In my area of northeast Oklahoma, I headed for my storm closet after my friend, expert meteorologist Larry Cosgrove, tracked one supercell headed straight for me and called with a warning. A funnel that dropped to the ground near my neighborhood disappeared back up into the rain-wrapped, dark clouds without clawing through any residential areas.
One of the many benefits of space now taken for granted: the satellites that watch over Earth, providing real-time data to meteorologists, safety and rescue personnel, and everyday citizens like us. With a free program like WeatherBug, you can get instant storm alerts, forecasts, and radar images on your computer desktop.
I've used first the free, and then later, the "plus" version of WeatherBug for years. Many local television stations offer free cellphone callouts when bad weather looms, so check with their websites.
Indispensable in storms: a weather radio with a hand crank, light, emergency light and siren, and multiple radio, TV and weather bands. I keep one at the ready. It's a good idea to keep a flashlight at hand in several rooms of your home if you live in an area where violent storms routinely knock out power.
I wear a waist pack of storm-related items, including a small radio, batteries, a flashlight, and my cellphone when my area has a tornado or severe thunderstorm watch. It's comfortable and convenient, and I have some basics for light, information, and communication right at hand. If you have a serious chronic medical condition, add a couple of doses of your medicine to your waist pack, and if you're trapped by debris, you'll have it with you.
Above all else, take the warnings of forecasters seriously. A tornado watch means that conditions are ripe for the development of a tornado. A tornado warning means that either a tornado has been physically spotted or that radar indicates cloud circulation and the likelihood that a tornado looms unseen within clouds.
Remember that many tornadoes come at night. Invest in a weather radio that will awaken you for storm warnings, or sign on for those phone call alerts, if they're available in your area. In some regions, especially the southeastern United States, the worst tornadoes have a track record of coming in the middle of the night as storm cells move from west to east.
Tornadoes can be tricky to spot. Although the movie Twister portrays storms easily spotted out in flat, open countryside, tornadoes are often hidden from view, wrapped inside rain and the clouds.
You may not ever see the tornado that drops down in your neighborhood, so take the warnings seriously even if you don't "see anything." And, as Larry reminded me last night, the backside of a storm can pack tornadoes as easily as the leading edge. Most of us who live with these storms tend to focus on the front side of the storm, but every inch of a tornadic storm is dangerous.
There's also the possibiility of damage from high winds, hail, heavy rains, flooding, microbursts and dangerous lightning as these supercells move through. In my area, winds routinely get up to 60 to 70 miles per hour even when the storm doesn't include a tornado.
When making your severe weather plans, don't forget your pets and livestock. By having a plan and working that plan, as the old saying goes, you can be ready when the sudden, high-intensity supercell storms move into your area.
With tornadic storms, lives can be changed--or lost--in a matter of a couple of minutes. Take these storms seriously, and remember: a photo isn't worth your life.
Veteran stormchasers are usually meterologists performing research, and local storm spotters must undergo specialized training to perform their work--which in many communities is done by volunteers. I've attended some training classes, and they are intense science applied to real-life situations.
For more than a decade, my weather discussion list, Stormy Weather, tracked storms online, shared photos, and discussed the formation of storms and year-round weather phenomena. Our online community, a pioneer in web-based storm tracking, enjoyed our fascination with weather, each other, and and also made sure that we communicated the progress of storms.
And that's another tip: in your neighborhood, online, and with your friends and family, make sure that you share the information. Alert friends if a severe storm is headed their way.
Last year at about this time, a good friend called his sister near Memphis, TN, just about two minutes before a tornado ripped through their neighborhood. Based on meterologist warnings, he told her to get out of her house--NOW.
The family ran, heading into a storm culvert just as the tornado totally destroyed their home. His niece was injured, but otherwise, the family was all right. Today they have a new house, near the site of the old one. That one phone call saved their lives.
Keep in touch, folks, when severe weather moves in.
Update: Denver Weather Examiner Tony Hake has a slideshow of tornado photos up. It's a good one, too.
Denver Weather Examiner Tony Hake, a former Okie, tracked the storms earlier in the day as they boiled up out of southern Oklahoma.
Image credit: AP photo of damage in Lone Grove, OK
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