Severe weather April 13 & 14 2012 in Tornado Alley

[octobermoon]

Woodward's waaaay across the state from me, a city of about 12,000 people. It's mainly known for that '47 tornado. I'm trusting techniques for search and rescue, advanced since then, will hold any death toll down. A lot of help on the way, according to reports.

Actually seeing Woodward trending on Twitter is quite a surprise, though a sad one.

hang tight. it sounds like it isn't over until the sun comes up. Prayers sent.

Do you have all you need? Can we help in any way?

All I know if the sky turns green and it gets eerily quiet, and then a freight train starts rolling get safe. I spent many a night in Omaha in the tub. I am not proud, but not ashamed of my fear of nature.

 

[Herding Cats]

Here's the only report I've found so far; if the damage is as Wuff says, this is a poorly underreported article. Of course, it is midnight on a horrible storm day, so it may just be a copywriter running with it.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/9eb40e08ecae4ccb81585a9569416cd4/OK--Severe-Weather-Oklahoma/

Best-
Herding cats

 

[wfgodot]

hang tight. it sounds like it isn't over until the sun comes up. Prayers sent.

Do you have all you need? Can we help in any way?

All I know if the sky turns green and it gets eerily quiet, and then a freight train starts rolling get safe. I spent many a night in Omaha in the tub. I am not proud, but not ashamed of my fear of nature.

Sound and calm in NE OK. Here in MyAMuhh, Weather Underground says I have a 60% chance of rain Sunday; meanwhile, the Weather Channel lists me at 40%. 23 mph winds as the day dawns. So some storms, but the western part of the state's looking to get more as that squall line moves toward Enid.

 

[raeann]

Well Cr** round two is on its way

Looks like it is taking a track further to the west and north of Wichita than the last one...at least as of now.

 

[Herding Cats]

Can't see much of the tornado here - hey, it's nighttime - but the sound is scarifying. Woodward now trending at #4 worldwide. Yikes.

http://twitpic.com/99zq54

To see a police car going towards the lightning and power flashes is awe inspiring. And yes, that's definitely a scarifying sound indeed.

Best-
Herding Cats

 

[wfgodot]

Sun will rise in Woodward at 7:03 a.m. CDT. I doubt much more will be known till then.

 

[hollyblue]

Reports indicating Woodward OK hit by tornado, possibly heavy damage. (A tornado there on 09 April 1947 killed 181, deadliest toll from a twister in U.S. history.) Apparently massive damage and injuries according to News9.

The aftermath also produced one of the most baffling kidnap cases in memory, the disappearance of Joan Gay Croft, 4 years old; there's a WS thread devoted to it. Here's an article from 2008:

After 61 years, Joan Croft still a mystery (Enid News)

---
Tornado Strikes Woodward Causing Major Damage, Injuries (news9.com)

Have to disagree. My great grandparents lived only miles from Murphyboro and West Frankford, IL in Perry Co during the 1925 Tri-State and told stories of toothpick size "wood" stuck in trees and of a young girl found alive, but badly cut and bruised "stuck" in a barbed wire fence by her hair being gnarled in it. Some say the wind was over 300 mph. It streched over 3 states, for 219 miles, killing nearly 700.

Here's actual video taken from the time and one of many links on the event:

http://youtu.be/dgCJb7ovp_M

http://www.carolyar.com/Illinois/Misc/Tornado.htm

 

[octobermoon]

To see a police car going towards the lightning and power flashes is awe inspiring. And yes, that's definitely a scarifying sound indeed.

Best-
Herding Cats

The whole state of Nebraska scared me with those storms. Don't want to try living there again. I am a chicken really I am.

 

[octobermoon]

Have to disagree. My great grandparents lived only miles from Murphyboro and West Frankford, IL in Perry Co during the 1925 Tri-State and told stories of toothpick size "wood" stuck in trees and of a young girl found alive, but badly cut and bruised "stuck" in a barbed wire fence by her hair being gnarled in it. Some say the wind was over 300 mph. It streched over 3 states, for 219 miles, killing nearly 700.

Here's actual video taken from the time and one of many links on the event:

http://youtu.be/dgCJb7ovp_M

http://www.carolyar.com/Illinois/Misc/Tornado.htm

not watching! you can't make me. Oh dear lord my in-laws are from Illinois and would laugh themselves silly when I would eat, sleep and hide in the basement during the rock and rollers. I am chicken.

 

[wfgodot]

Have to disagree. My great grandparents lived only miles from Murphyboro and West Frankford, IL in Perry Co during the 1925 Tri-State and told stories of toothpick size "wood" stuck in trees and of a young girl found alive, but badly cut and bruised "stuck" in a barbed wire fence by her hair being gnarled in it. Some say the wind was over 300 mph. It streched over 3 states, for 219 miles, killing nearly 700.

Here's actual video taken from the time and one of many links on the event:

http://youtu.be/dgCJb7ovp_M

http://www.carolyar.com/Illinois/Misc/Tornado.htm

I should have clarified my statement to say that it was the largest death toll in a single city in U.S. history. For awhile last May, it looked like the Joplin death toll would pass it. I think the official count there wound up at 161.

 

[raeann]

EMS crews from the hardest hit area (Oaklawn) reporting 8 injuries, 5 transported most are not critical. They are trying to evacuate elderly residents who can't get out on their own and some are oxygen dependent and without power...

 

[mysteriew]

Raeann you still hanging in there?

 

[wfgodot]

The whole state of Nebraska scared me with those storms. Don't want to try living there again. I am a chicken really I am.

When we were teens in southeast Kansas, we used to go out looking for tornadoes; not as spotters, but as young hellions drinking cold quarts of beer. We saw one in the distance, at the top of a hill, once - beautiful sight at a distance, a small one, twirling merrily above the ground, classic funnel shape. Then we kept driving, decided to take the lake road home, and it caught up to us - not probably the same twister but wind gusts which must have been close to 80 mph. It didn't pick up the car but it propelled us to the shoulder of the road like a large hand pushing a gravy bowl across a tabletop. After that, I was leery of storms for several years, but I got over it.

When I moved back to OK from south TX, the first time the sirens went off here, I about jumped out of my jeans. No tornadoes in San Antonio. But, after briefly considering getting all the pillows and putting them atop the dog and me in the bathtub, I braved up and carried Bobbles out into the rain in the front yard so we could see it if it was coming.

Still foolish after all these years.

 

[raeann]

Raeann you still hanging in there?

Yes, thanks, tired but can't think about sleep until this next batch gets on through here. Listening to local stations coverage as they have reporters out on the streets trying to get info on the areas that have extensive damage. Also listening to the areas in north central Kansas as that is where my family lives and storms are going through there now.

 

[hollyblue]

not watching! you can't make me. Oh dear lord my in-laws are from Illinois and would laugh themselves silly when I would eat, sleep and hide in the basement during the rock and rollers. I am chicken.

LOL, it's the aftermath, NOT during, but still quite scary...and numbing.

 

[wfgodot]

Well Cr** round two is on its way

Looks like it is taking a track further to the west and north of Wichita than the last one...at least as of now.

There are a couple of storm fronts a ways southeast of Enid right now that might eventually head your way. As of now, a big chance of hail coming with them but they may weaken as they move north; that's been the trend the last couple of hours anyway.

Then again, I'm the person who posted that I expected no major threats in the squall line heading up from the Texas Panhandle right before Woodward got hit.

 

[mysteriew]

I grew up in a small town with nothing to do (before cell phones lol.) For entertainment we drove the back roads, drinking and raising cain. One night we had been out had a good time, noticed a bad storm. I got home and my mother was hysterical. Evidently there had been a tornado touchdown that night in the town where I ran around.

Going to see where it touched down, as best I could figure it looked like when it hit we would probably have been about a half mile away. I could guess when it hit because it was raining so hard that we couldn't see and had to pull over near there. Since we were pulled over, one of the 'smart' guys jumped out to take a whizz and to show off had jumped up on the hood and whizzed on the windshield. I guess you could say he was whizzing into the tornado.

 

[wfgodot]

I grew up in a small town with nothing to do (before cell phones lol.) and to show off had jumped up on the hood and whizzed on the windshield. I guess you could say he was whizzing into the tornado.

Reminds me of lyrics from Neil Young's "On the Beach":

Which can be found online due to my not wishing to disturb the status quo with a startling anglo-saxonism, lol.

 

[mysteriew]

Oh I wish I was young sassy and ignorant again!

 

[wfgodot]

Another severe thunderstorm warning for Sedgwick County in effect. 60 mph wind gusts possible. It does expire in eight minutes though. We'll see what's issued then, if anything.