EF-5: One year on...

It was a year ago today when a good portion of Moore, Oklahoma was impacted by an EF-5 tornado that killed 24 people and completely obliterated over 1000 homes.  When I say obliterated, I am talking atomic bomb-type destruction, where homes were leveled to their concrete slabs and there is literally nothing recognizable left to identify that you lived in that neighborhood., even if you lived there 10 years. 

 

If you look at the Google map of Moore today, you can still make out the path of the tornado when you zoom in and look at the streets that have driveways but no houses on them.

The magnitude of what happened a year ago is still staggering one year later.

I stated in the piece a year ago that I was approaching my 40th year living in Oklahoma.  I have been through hundreds of severe thunderstorms in that period of time and have experienced several storms that forced tornado warnings for Tulsa, my home town.  They were scary storms, to be sure, but nothing on the order of magnitude of the Moore tornado a year ago or indeed a storm that happened 11 days later that was the widest tornado (2.5 miles wide) with the strongest winds (330mph+) ever recorded on planet earth. 

Severe weather is a part of life here but by and large, we don't see storms like this all the time.  It's hard to explain to people who don't live here who will express to you either in social media or in person how we take severe weather with a somewhat cavalier attitude and moreover, how say how stupid we are for wanting to stay here after something like what happened a year ago takes place.  I guess it all depends on your perception of the situation but to me it's not fear of what could happen but rather respect for the storm and it's capabilities.  

To that end, I guess it's fear alongside respect which is the best description I can come up with.

I said it a year ago and I will say it now.  There will be other storms like this one.  There will be utter destruction and loss of life.  In Oklahoma we live with not the "if" but the "when".  Maybe the next one will form southwest of Tulsa and take a path through town like this one did, we just don't know.  Hopefully not but we can't predict it so we have to respect that it can happen, and take heed when we are warned.

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It is with the deepest respect for those affected that I write this blog, and in remembrance of those lost I am happy to say, a year removed from this horrible event that we remain OKLAHOMA STRONG.

RESPECT THE WIND.