<p>It’s that time of year…watching footage of the Oklahoma City tornado. It was allegedly 2 miles wide, which is hard to comprehend. It made a direct hit on several schools. I’m watching footage of an elementary school which has been pulverized-people are digging through the rubble looking for survivors. That just makes me feel sick inside. </p>
<p>Thinking of the people of Oklahoma right now. Storms are still developing.</p>
<p>I heard that these were these were the highest winds ever measured on the Earth’s surface.</p>
<p>I am watching the local OKC news. A while ago, a local news guy lost it when talking about possible casualties at the elem school.</p>
<p>AWFUL and unimaginable.</p>
<p>We are under a tornado watch in Dallas right now. It’s something that kind of stays in the back of your mind at this time of year. We have a room earmarked in our house where we would go, but we have no basement (very few basements here). If a F5 hits your house, there is no such thing as a “safe” room. :(</p>
<p>Shouldn’t they make the helicoptors go totally away, and the media go far way, from the elem school, so the rescuers can hear any little voices that may be calling out?</p>
<p>The NYC ABC weatherman sounded sick when he was noting that the entire area that was wiped out did not appear to have basements.</p>
<p>On Facebook, the OK news channel is Kfor4 . People are complaining that the news station is not alerting people in harms way. Maybe there isn’t rotation right now, but sheesh they ought to say that. How horrible. Prayers to all.</p>
<p>I was in Norman, the city 10 minutes south of Moore. It’s awful. My lab partner’s brother’s elementary school was destroyed, as was the house of another guy in my chem class.</p>
<p>Btw, if any of you have loved ones in the OKC metro area, approximately 30,000 lost power and many more of the cell phones towers aren’t working. I wasn’t able to contact my family for half an hour.</p>
<p>Tornadoes seldom happen here, but whenever there is a severe storm I am acutely aware of the fact that it could happen and I bought a house without a basement-- something I did against my better judgment. Most houses around here have basements, but in my little part of town the water table is simply too high. I wonder how people in places where tornadoes are more common don’t lose their minds worrying about this… I know when it’s normal you adapt and make do, but I can’t imagine. I just can’t think of anything more terrifying. I’m overwhelmed with dread just looking at the photos in Oklahoma.</p>
<p>The vast majority in my area don’t have basements.</p>
<p>We get warnings from tornado sirens. In my apartment complex we had the people with cars driving to the National Weather Center (one of the hubs for meteorological research, and a place with an enormous basement). Frankly it’s far more scary to live in California where you don’t know when the big one will strike. At least with a tornado you have more than a 3 second warning.</p>
<p>They are saying that if you are trying to contact someone in the area, please do not make a cell call, instead, send a text. It uses less power (bandwidth?) and the text will get through more easily. </p>
<p>This is horrifying. It’s impossible to imagine what people are going through right now. Prayers and best wishes to all.</p>
<p>OMG, I just heard on TV that the 24 children who passed away in the elementary school actually drowned in the basement.</p>
<p>The water table is too high in most areas in Oklahoma. Basements are not a viable option. But storm shelters are the best options if you can afford the $3000-$7000 installation.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
<p>Both OK Senators Inhofe and Coburn voted to minimize funds to FEMA, I hope this changes their minds.</p>
<p>It is always weird when we get in the national news, it is usually for bad things. The main problem was that this was round 3 of really bad weather. Three straight days of bad weather. This was worse than the May 3rd tornado. Sigh…</p>
<p>I heard 37 lost in the elementary school. I feel sick.</p>
<p>Yalemom, both OK senators voted against disaster relief for others as well as opposing increased FEMA funding. I guess that’s how they’ll vote when this funding comes up, right?
Sens. Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn.</p>
<p>The elementary school… I just can’t wrap my brain around this. After everything that’s already happened this year, I can’t even watch the news. My heart goes out to everyone.</p>