My heart goes out to everyone in AR, TN, KY and IL. My love and prayers are with them.
We have had some really bad tornadoes here in Oklahoma. AR has had some bad tornadoes also. But the people in KY are not used to them like we are here in OK. I know from experience the damage is not just material or financial. The emotional damage is devastating. It will take everyone in KY years to get over the trauma. There will be many people afraid every time there is a storm coming, every time it rains. Afraid of the death and destruction that comes with it.
Being born and growing up in Oklahoma I never thought much about tornadoes. They were just a way of life here. I remember going to my sister's house after I was married and walking in the door and her telling me "did you know there is a tornado warning out for us?" I just shrugged. There was always a tornado warning out for our county every spring. No big deal.
But after my son was born me and hubby, along with my older sister her hubby and my younger brother were traveling to AR one day. Back then in the 1970's, they didn't have Doppler radar or the technology they have now so they relied mostly on spotters (storm chasers) to call in and tell the TV and radio stations when a tornado was spotted on the ground. It came over the radio that there was a tornado on the ground in Warner OK. We looked back toward the southwest where we knew Warner was but kind of shrugged because we were headed into Keefton Oklahoma about 20 miles northeast of Warner. My BIL who was driving happened to look toward Keefton and said look how black it is ahead of us I am going to pull off the road here and wait. My sister was saying no lets go on if it's in Warner we will be through here before it gets here, if its still even on the ground by then, it will take at least 10 minutes for it to get here. My BIL told her no I don't like the looks of that cloud. Its greenish black. So we all got out of the car and watched. Most people don't know but you can smell a tornado. It smells like dirt and sewer water. We watched as that entire cloud dropped to the ground and then lifted back into the sky. The radio and spotters had gotten it wrong. The tornado wasn't on the ground in Warner, it was on the ground in Keefton. We were about 1/8th mile outside of town. We got back into the car and drove on into Keefton. That was an F5 tornado and I had never seen such devastation in my life. Houses and buildings leveled. Piles of rubble. We had been through there the week before and there was a field of wheat beside the road. Nothing was left of it but mud. The tornado had pulled the wheat and grass up out of the ground and left nothing but bare dirt. Bare foundations of houses with debris strung everywhere. Live power lines everywhere. Hubby, BIL and brother got out and began asking people if they were okay or needed help. Me and sis stayed in the car thanking God we had left our kids back home with another sister. My brother stepped in a ditch full of water and stepped on a body. He almost came unglued. They pulled the guy out and a piece of tin had cut him almost in two. By then the OHP had arrived on the scene. They told me and my sister to get out and look for injured people and to mark any where we found a body with a tall stick stuck in the ground. I was flat out vomiting and told him no I was staying in the car. He said it was marshal law and either I got out and searched or I could go to jail, my choice. So I got out. I could tell you stories all day about what I saw, 2x4's stuck through car motors, grass embedded in trees, cars crumpled up like tin foil, roofs lying on people, people walking around half naked where the tornado had literally stripped the clothes off their body, shirts, bras, jeans, shoes. Everyone was covered inches deep in mud. Some women's hair was sticking straight up on their head plastered there by mud. It was a nightmare. People wandering around in a daze asking if we had seen their wife, husband, kids, parents.
50 years later I have never forgotten it. After that, every time a cloud came up I ran to the cellar. I was deathly afraid of storms, even rain. It took me 20 years to get over that fear. That was not the last tornado I was in, we were in Wichita Falls TX in that one and in others less severe. Probably will be in one again before I die living where I do. If my heart doesn't get me first.
After that hubby became civil defense for this town and a storm chaser himself. So did my son when he was grown. Because they firmly believed storm chasers were needed to warn people accurately. But even experienced storm chasers get killed by a tornado that can turn on a dime.
I did get over the fear eventually, by educating myself on weather patterns and going out with hubby when he went out as a spotter. I learned to use all my senses, smell, feel, taste, sight, hearing to know when one was close. But now I am old and in bad health so last time we had a tornado warning I didn't even get up and bother to go to the cellar we have 5 steps out on our back porch. But I make my grand and great grand kids go.
Now we have Doppler and the TORCON system, so most people here don't pay much attention to the weather anymore. They know if the TORCON is high in their area to keep their eyes on the sky but otherwise we learned to live with it.
We haven't had many in the last five or so years. Seems like they are moving east of Oklahoma. Doesn't mean we can't have one tonight though, I have seen tornados rip up towns in December with snow on the ground. They are not just a spring time event. But it seems like the Doppler and TORCON system developed in Norman Ok needs to be put in place further east in TN, KY, IL ect now. It could save so many lives. Also pound it into peoples head what to do if there is a tornado warning for your area or the sirens go off like they do continually here. No one here is allowed to remain ignorant on what actions to take during a tornado. It's second nature here now. Don't even have to think about it, we just do it automatically. We haven't had that many deaths from a tornado in decades here.
My heart is with those in AR, KY, TN and IL.
