I'm Officially An Iowan, Huge Tornado...

[Grand58742]

I've lived in Oklahoma most my life and grew up in the southwest part of the state, so a tornado is nothing unusual to me. With that said, we definitely get some monster tornadoes, especially the OKC area. My brother recently moved to the Moore area and I told him he'd better have a shelter considering the luck that city seems to have.

My father actually used to do some storm chasing with a couple other guys from his squadron and of course I went on a few occasions. It really is incredible to see up close. Most of the bad storms that hit the OKC area seem to form on the dry line just south of the Oklahoma border. I actually remember seeing the storm system that produced the May 3rd 1999 F5 tornado and even spent a part of that day in the bathtub with a mattress over me.

A close friend of mine is a pharmacist in Yukon but was staying in Moore at the time with a family member during the 2013 Moore tornado. She had just got home from work and was lucky enough thst a neighbor let her in their shelter. The famliy members house she stayed in was basically split in half with one half completely gone when they finally opened the cellar. Oddly enough the part of the house that was intact still had its furniture and the small objects on top of the dressers, coffee tables, etc were still there.

I want to say someone actually measured the wind speed of the tornado that hit El Reno a week after the Moore '13 tornado and got a 305 mph reading from it. I think that one was the widest and fastest recorded tornado to date.

Definitely something you have to be prepared for out here.

I had a buddy that got completely unlucky during that spell. He has (or had, don't know) two houses; one in Moore that he rented out and the other in the Newalla area.

The Shawnee tornado that year brushed past his house. Not a lot of damage save an oak that fell right in front of his door (damaged the guttering and minor damage to the roof) and about 30 or so trees on his property blown down. I went out that night and helped cut the downed trees on the roadway towards his house to emergency services could get through. He was safe as was his family.

Then comes the Moore tornado that damages his other house. Talk about bad luck.

Then the El Reno tornado comes through while we're cutting trees and clearing his property. Even though we were on the other side of the county, we still got the alert and couldn't figure out where it was coming from since the cell service, electricity and internet was still down.

That was a rough couple of weeks.

[Bubba FAL]

Never even saw the F5 that took out our house and 30% of the city of Joplin back in 2011, heard it though, never forget the sound. Like being inside a blender.

Glad to hear no fatalities Steyr, we lost 161 on 22 May because of that damned tornado.

By the way, a word of advice: If your house doesn't have a basement or a shelter- get one! We were extremely fortunate to have escaped serious physical injury or death that day. Riding it out in the hallway is not recommended! Our new house has a shelter, the peace of mind is worth every penny.

[austinN4]

Our new house has a shelter, the peace of mind is worth every penny.

Is it a new to you old house with a shelter, or is it a new house that was built with a shelter? I would think that in tornado prone areas it wouldn't add much to the cost of a new house to build it with a shelter.

[ZGXtreme]

Is it a new to you old house with a shelter, or is it a new house that was built with a shelter? I would think that in tornado prone areas it would add much to the cost of a new house to build it with a shelter.

Many are doing just that on this side of town; N. OKC/Edmond/Deer Creek area.

[SteyrAUG]

Never even saw the F5 that took out our house and 30% of the city of Joplin back in 2011, heard it though, never forget the sound. Like being inside a blender.

Glad to hear no fatalities Steyr, we lost 161 on 22 May because of that damned tornado.

By the way, a word of advice: If your house doesn't have a basement or a shelter- get one! We were extremely fortunate to have escaped serious physical injury or death that day. Riding it out in the hallway is not recommended! Our new house has a shelter, the peace of mind is worth every penny.

I made sure I bought a house with a basement. Makes a huge difference. Latest reports have this one as an EF3 going 144 mph. I know people who had it crash directly through their house and they survived without any meaningful injuries because they were in a basement.

[Bubba FAL]

Is it a new to you old house with a shelter, or is it a new house that was built with a shelter? I would think that in tornado prone areas it wouldn't add much to the cost of a new house to build it with a shelter.

We bought a house about 10 miles north of where our previous house was. It didn't have a shelter, but we added one. It's a prefab concrete box buried in the backyard.

Basements are rare around here so a house with a shelter will fetch a better price than one without. Besides the shelters like ours, there are various safe room types that are popular, especially with new construction. Another popular choice is a vault that lies under the garage floor.

[kwelz]

Glad you are safe man. I know how it feels.

[The_War_Wagon]

Got hold of my buddy - he & his family are fine, but a buddy of his filmed the tornado in Bondurant that's all over the news. That was about 7 miles from him.

He says the flooding this summer has been worse around his neighborhood.

[Skyyr]

I find tornados and other acts of extreme weather fascinating and mesmerizing. I know it ruins lives and kills people but you can't help but be awe struck.

100% this. Feel the same way.

[Moose-Knuckle]

Speaking of shelters . . .


Moore family’s tornado shelter comes out of ground after first use
http://www.koco.com/article/moore-fa...st-use/3843412




Norman Woman's Storm Shelter Floated Above Ground After Severe Storm
http://www.news9.com/story/29010811/...r-severe-storm