'Atomic Bomb-Like' Tornado Damage in Oklahoma

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TylerD said:
Channel 4 has Reed Timmer chasing from the reality series Storm Chasers chasing for them this year. This one can deploy hooks into the ground and go through the center of tornadoes.

reed-timmer-dominator1-550x309.jpg


We have weather chaser personalities in Oklahoma.
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Well he's gotta make some money from that thing somehow now that their show is canceled.
 
Yamauchi said:
People who are ignorant about tornadoes always say, 'Why don't they build their houses out of brick/concrete/stone?'

Most homes in suburban OKC (Edmond, Norman, Moore, etc.) are very solid brick structures, but they cannot come close to withstanding EF4-5 tornadoes.

What's more frustrating to me is why they don't require all schools to have underground shelters in these tornado-prone regions. I have lived in tornado alley all my life and attended three schools. None of these ever had an underground shelter.
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I think part of that comes down to when these schools were built. A lot of schools are 50 plus years old and even older in some cases.
 
FyreWulff said:
Bricks aren't good at dealing with massive horizontal winds, either. They don't take loads from the side very well.
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i live in a cyclone area and our building regs are pretty strict.

core filled besser blocks with reo aren't going anywhere. and the roof is tied into the foundations through the core fill.

it is expensive to build tho, but the damage profile of those buildings in big winds is remarkable.

about 20 pages into the following presentation there are photos comparing damage from a Cat 5 cyclone on houses built to the code and those not. it's pretty stark.

http://www.abcb.gov.au/en/education...rketing Docs/BAF/4 David Henderson FINAL.ashx
 
seanoff said:
i live in a cyclone area and our building regs are pretty strict.

core filled besser blocks with reo aren't going anywhere. and the roof is tied into the foundations through the core fill.

it is expensive to build tho, but the damage profile of those buildings in big winds is remarkable.

about 20 pages into the following presentation there are photos comparing damage from a Cat 5 cyclone on houses built to the code and those not. it's pretty stark.

http://www.abcb.gov.au/en/education...rketing Docs/BAF/4 David Henderson FINAL.ashx
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The sustained winds in a Category 5 Hurricane/Cyclone do not reach the power of an EF4/5 tornado. Very different beasts.
 
seanoff said:
i live in a cyclone area and our building regs are pretty strict.

core filled besser blocks with reo aren't going anywhere. and the roof is tied into the foundations through the core fill.

it is expensive to build tho, but the damage profile of those buildings in big winds is remarkable.

about 20 pages into the following presentation there are photos comparing damage from a Cat 5 cyclone on houses built to the code and those not. it's pretty stark.

http://www.abcb.gov.au/en/education...rketing Docs/BAF/4 David Henderson FINAL.ashx
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Winds from a cat5 cyclone/hurricane are child's play compared to an EF4/5 tornado.

Tornado proofing a room = reasonable, recommended.
Tornado proofing an entire house = unlikely.
 
seanoff said:
i live in a cyclone area and our building regs are pretty strict.

core filled besser blocks with reo aren't going anywhere. and the roof is tied into the foundations through the core fill.

it is expensive to build tho, but the damage profile of those buildings in big winds is remarkable.

about 20 pages into the following presentation there are photos comparing damage from a Cat 5 cyclone on houses built to the code and those not. it's pretty stark.

http://www.abcb.gov.au/en/education...rketing Docs/BAF/4 David Henderson FINAL.ashx
Click to expand...

Cat 5 is what? 160MPH or so? An EF4 tornado is 166–200MPH.
 
seanoff said:
i live in a cyclone area and our building regs are pretty strict.

core filled besser blocks with reo aren't going anywhere. and the roof is tied into the foundations through the core fill.

it is expensive to build tho, but the damage profile of those buildings in big winds is remarkable.

about 20 pages into the following presentation there are photos comparing damage from a Cat 5 cyclone on houses built to the code and those not. it's pretty stark.

http://www.abcb.gov.au/en/education...rketing Docs/BAF/4 David Henderson FINAL.ashx
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An EF5 tornado has wind speed of over 200mph, a cat5 cyclone is over 150.
That's like the difference between a cat2 and a cat5 cyclone.
 
I don't understand. Did 24 children die in that one school? I don't hear anyone reporting it. I hear 7 died.
 
e_i said:
I don't understand. Did 24 children die in that one school? I don't hear anyone reporting it. I hear 7 died.
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24 trapped. Was converted to recovery. 7 of the bodies had been found drowned. The rest they still hadn't pulled out yet. They're still working on pulling out the rest of the bodies.
 
7he Talon said:
I'm not familiar with the weather in the U.S.
But are tornadoes unusual for places like Oklahoma?
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Tornadoes are relatively common, but this is a super rare tornado in terms of its power and where it hit. The more common tornadoes certainly cause damage but not nearly on this scale.
 
Hitokage said:
Ah, ok, Australians use a slightly different Category scale. The design figures given in those slides are still probably insufficient for this kind of case, but the concepts are certainly interesting.
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Building to those specs might not save you from a direct hit, but it will stop flying debris from flying in through reinforced windows. All the cat 5 buildings I've been in have been built with that in mind.
 
I was just talking over the weekend about how we haven't had any tornadoes or severe weather at all in our area this spring.
 
7he Talon said:
I'm not familiar with the weather in the U.S.
But are tornadoes unusual for places like Oklahoma?
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Oklahoma is located in a stretch of the central United States known as Tornado Alley. Every year, during this time of year, tornados happen in this area on a frequent basis. These states have a combined average of around 500 tornados every year. Thankfully, most of those are much smaller than this monster.

The damage here wasn't caused because people were unprepared. No one on earth is better prepared for a tornado than these people. This tragedy is a simple case that even the best preparations in the world are not enough.
 
SniperHunter said:
I have a question, I don't live in America and I don't know much about tornadoes.

Why continue to build fragile wooden houses in the, "tornado valley?" Why not build stronger brick houses in this area? I am looking at the pics right now, the town is completely flat
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right now you are reading about concrete reinforced schools and hospitals collapsing and trapping people. Do you think a house would fare any better?

seanoff said:
i live in a cyclone area and our building regs are pretty strict.

core filled besser blocks with reo aren't going anywhere. and the roof is tied into the foundations through the core fill.

it is expensive to build tho, but the damage profile of those buildings in big winds is remarkable.

about 20 pages into the following presentation there are photos comparing damage from a Cat 5 cyclone on houses built to the code and those not. it's pretty stark.

http://www.abcb.gov.au/en/education...rketing Docs/BAF/4 David Henderson FINAL.ashx
Click to expand...

Cat 5 hurricanes have sustained winds and high gusts, but a 200+ mph tornado concentrates those winds into a tiny area and are far more destructive.
It forces all that wind into the space of a mile or less instead of over 150 miles.
Anything short of a military grade bunker is fucked.

NateDrake said:
I was mistaken. The original F4 would have been 200MPH+. The new Enhanced Fujita places EF4 as 166–200MPH. EF5 is now 200MPH+.
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Pretty much the mid range toradoes wind speed begins near the top of the hurricane wind scale and goes to frighteningly high levels. 300 mph has been recorded before.
 
I saw the whole thing as it took place on a okc news feed before cnn or any national feed picked it up.

We were getting some raw footage of the aftermath. Some lady got impaled with something and was walking out of some rubbish. I saw people digging through a gas station which I assume was the 7-11 that the first victims were found in the cooler.

Weather is an amazing event because maybe 20 minutes after it died, the sun was out like nothing happened.
 
Yagharek said:
Building to those specs might not save you from a direct hit, but it will stop flying debris from flying in through reinforced windows. All the cat 5 buildings I've been in have been built with that in mind.
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Half of a tornado is the cloud of debris at the base, though.

Now, in fairness, there have been really extreme cyclones that did comparable damage, but the nature of what goes on is slightly different and tornadoes can reach higher windspeeds.
 
jobber said:
I saw the whole thing as it took place on a okc news feed before cnn or any national feed picked it up.

We were getting some raw footage of the aftermath. Some lady got impaled with something and was walking out of some rubbish. I saw people digging through a gas station which I assume was the 7-11 that the first victims were found in the cooler.

Weather is an amazing event because maybe 20 minutes after it died, the sun was out like nothing happened.
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Goddamn.
 
7he Talon said:
I'm not familiar with the weather in the U.S.
But are tornadoes unusual for places like Oklahoma?
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The midwest and plains area are pretty much tornado country or tornado alley as they say. Kansas is on the northern border of Oklahoma if that gives you any idea. I'm not sure of the science behind it other than the midwest is really flat. Chicago is called the windy city for a reason, but they don't get many tornadoes as far as I know. Basically, the west coast is earthquake country, the midwest is tornado country and the south/south east coast is hurricane country. I feel lucky living in the mid-Atlantic coast/north east since we pretty much only have to put up with blizzards and the rare hurricane or tropical storm. I know my parents lived through a tornado when they were living in Kansas.
 
timetokill said:
I'm getting the feeling that a lot of non-Americans think tornadoes are basically like the Big Bad Wolf coming to blow down houses. "Build 'em all out of brick!" they say.
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Tornadoes are extremely rare on other continents for some reason.

There was a PBS special about settling America and they mentioned how people back in Europe just couldn't comprehend without seeing.
 
Hitokage said:
Half of a tornado is the cloud of debris at the base, though.

Now, in fairness, there have been really extreme cyclones that did comparable damage, but the nature of what goes on is slightly different.
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I understand that, but I've seen photos of 4x4 posts impaled through gum trees thanks to cat 5. cyclones too.
 
This is what an f2 tornado does to brick. Today's tornado was likely an f4.

2337462734_5121685546.jpg


This is from the tornado that struck downtown Atlanta in 2008. My best friend lived in the neighborhood that was hardest hit, and we went out and took pictures the morning after.
 
7he Talon said:
I'm not familiar with the weather in the U.S.
But are tornadoes unusual for places like Oklahoma?
Click to expand...

It's commonplace every Spring and sometimes in Autumn, but freak ones like this are very rare. It fluctuates, but the Oklahoma City metro, of which Moore is a part of, has been ranked as the most tornado-prone city in the world a number of years. This is measured more by frequency I believe, not severity. Many places have gotten it much worse since 1999's blowout. But this information was given to me by a professor in an Oklahoma geography class a few years ago and was mostly generalised.

I live in NW OKC. It's surreal how well this tracked with the May 3rd tornado.
 
I'm scared to think how insurance companies might handle this. Anyone have experience specifically regarding tornadoes? Are they generally good when it comes to disasters?
 
jobber said:
I saw the whole thing as it took place on a okc news feed before cnn or any national feed picked it up.

We were getting some raw footage of the aftermath. Some lady got impaled with something and was walking out of some rubbish. I saw people digging through a gas station which I assume was the 7-11 that the first victims were found in the cooler.

Weather is an amazing event because maybe 20 minutes after it died, the sun was out like nothing happened.
Click to expand...

I've always been curious of tornadoes and have even hoped that one day I could see one.. Reading accounts like this can really change your perspective.
 
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