For the next two or three hours I ran around not knowing what to do. They said on the news we should get in our shelters or closets, but I was scared to go down in the shelter alone with the girls. About ten minutes after that storm passed over me, it touched down about 5 miles north of me. It stayed on the ground for about 10 minutes and damaged over 50 homes but no one was seriously injured. While that one was still on the ground the siren went off again. They had another storm cell just south of me and moving my way. That one passed over without actually turning into a tornado. Then the first storm touched down again in the county north of us. Right after that, our siren went off for a third time. There were two more storm cells just south of me coming right at us. The first of the two touched down for only a few minutes, damaged some businesses and apartments and then weaked and disappeared. By the time it got anywhere close to me it was already just a thunderstorm again. After that the storms all weakened and pushed north.
The very first tornado that touched down about 5 miles from me was an EF-2. Around 7pm that night another huge tornado touched down in the southern part of the state. That one wasn't close to us at all, but very destructive. It was on the gound for over an hour. It was 1/2 mile wide, and it killed 8 people so far and injured many. They classifed it as an EF-4 (which is really huge), it had winds over 100 mph. They said it was the 7th deadliest tornado to ever hit Oklahoma. And all of this comes a month before the actual tornado season is supposed to start. Yikes!! It was scary for me, but we are fine. We didn't even get hit with the big hail.
Hail that fell during these storms. Up to the size of baseballs in some areas
The EF-4 right before it touches down.
some of the damage from the EF-4
More destruction from the EF-4
Fun Facts: The movie "Twister" was filmed in Oklahoma in Wakita, Ok. And Oklahoma City has one of the highest rates of tornadoes.
Hail that fell during these storms. Up to the size of baseballs in some areas
The EF-4 right before it touches down.
some of the damage from the EF-4
More destruction from the EF-4
Fun Facts: The movie "Twister" was filmed in Oklahoma in Wakita, Ok. And Oklahoma City has one of the highest rates of tornadoes.
6 comments:
Keri, I am so glad that you and your family are safe. I can't believe how close to your house the storm was. How scary. We only received rain and thunderstorms in Norman, maybe a little hail but nothing like the huge hail received other places. Scary!
Don't you just LOVE living here?! At least our first experience with tornados here didn't hurt any of us!
I was worried about you guys when I saw it on the news. I'm so glad that you are okay and that it missed you. Sometimes they do siren drills here and that alone is freaky. I hope we all get through this tornado season okay. I miss the Utah tranquil spring.
I'm so happy you are okay. That is why I don't ever want to leave Utah.
That is SO scary. I can't even imagine- especially when you were by yourself. I'm glad you are all okay!
and I was feeling so secure because i knew you had a shelter.........! next time???
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