Oklahomans/Moore tornado - are you okay?

Heartbreaking the news coming out of their. They're in my thoughts and prayers as well.

Yes- this is heartbreaking. We in alabama are no strangers to this devestation. My prayers are with with those who were in the path of this storm.

Strange. When I went to bed last night the death toll was 51. When I first woke up this morning it was 91. Now they've revised it to 24 - said some were double counted in the chaos.

Really wish there were more ways to help. I hear Red Cross donations are the most effecient. I would love to drive the 3 hours down there and put in some manual labor but they're telling people to stay away for now.

I live in Norman, OK. The tornado yesterday missed my house by traveling about 4 miles north of us. My family and I are ok. The Moore area, however is a disaster zone. The street that most of the damage is on is the one that I take to and from work every day. Yesterday, they had all of the roads in and out of Moore closed down, including the interstate. My normal 25 minute commute home from work took 3 hours yesterday, mostly just driving around trying to find an open road to head south, because they were all closed. They re-opened the interstate this morning and I got to see some of the damage first hand. On the west side I-35 between mile markers 116 and 117, there is a walmart, a lowes, a movie theater, and a hospital. The walmart and the lowes look perfectly fine. The movie theater took some damage, but to my untrained eye, it looked like they could fix it and re-open in a few weeks. The hospital and all of the buildings next to it were piles of rubble. The 2nd floor of the hospital was missing, and the first was still standing but took severe damage. Some building between the hospital and the interstate were gone. On the east side of the interstate, many homes were either severely damaged or completely destroyed, with nothing remaining but the foundation. The worst of the damage is further west of the hospital, but its on lockdown so nobody can get in or out. Please keep this area in your prayers. Clean up and recovery are going to take a very long time.

I went to Joplin, Mo. in the days aftrer their F5 tornado 2 years ago.......it's impossible to describe the damage those storms do. You can look at pictures and see the damage, but the scope of it is not something you can imagine or visualize from pictures. There is no way an atomic balst could be any more devastating. Maybe the scope could be larger, but nothing left standing is just that. I saw square miles where there was nothing taller than me.


Edited by Left Brain 2013-05-21 10:23 AM

I just can't imagine. Heartbreaking. Thoughts and prayers to these families.

Tragic event. Prayers and best wishes to all those effected. Stay Strong.

You have my sympathy to the loss that has occurred. This is quite devastating.

I live further east about 15 miles from Moore so I was lucky not to get hit by yesterday - it sucked itself back up and moved more north of us to avoid us. Sunday night's tornado dropped about a mile from house before it went on to hit Dale and Shawnee OK. Luckily we just had damage from tennis ball size hail with no power right now. Hoping to get power back in the next day or two *hopefully* but feeling very grateful that is all I have in damage - can be sooo much worse.

Glad it wasn't so bad for you, though I'm sure hail like that an cause some damage. Hope the power came back on for you all.