Deadly Tornado Strikes Oklahoma

 DEADLY TORNADO STRIKES OKLAHOMA

Videos Courtesy of CNN.com

• President Barack Obama has declared the area a major disaster area as of 5/20/2013.
• As of  3 PM on 5/21/2013 there are confirmed 24 deaths. 20 in Moore (9 of which were children) and 4 from Oklahoma City.
• Over a hundred people have been resued from the wreckage thus far.
• Over two hundred people have been treated for injuries in local hospitals.
• Over 200,000 families have been displaced by the storm, as per Governor Mary Fallin.
• The storm was registered as an EF-4 tornado, and was estimated to have been at least a half a mile wide.
• The storm loosely followed the same path that the killer tornado of 1999, which slammed the area with winds of 300 MPH.
• This is the fourth tornado to hit the town of Moore since 1998.
• Search and Rescue efforts continue at this time.
• Severe storms are still moving through the Mid West region throughout Tuesday.

Courtesy of The Baltimore Sun

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Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this disaster.

xoxo disaster girl

The F6 Tornado that never was.

For the first time ever Scientists measure the fastest wind speed ever recorded, 318 MPH, in a tornado that hit the suburbs of Oklahoma City on May 3rd, 1999.

Courtesy of GR Level X

Courtesy of USA Today

On May 3rd, 1999 a super cell thunderstorm spawned a massive tornado that struck near Chickasha, a suburb of Oklahoma City. The storm system tore through Bridge Creek, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Moore, Del City, Tinker Air Force Base and Midwest City, Oklahoma, causing $1.1 billion in damage. Over 8,000 homes were destroyed, and it may have been the most costly tornado cleanup in history. Along with the extensive property damage, thirty-six people also lost their lives to the storm.

While the storm was winding down its destructive path, the tornado passed close to a Doppler on Wheels truck, which measured its wind speeds. It was estimated that the tornadoes wind speed may have exceeded the 318 MPH easily surpassing the older record set by the 1993 F5 twister with wind speeds between 257 and 268 MPH, making the strongest tornado on record.

There was much speculation as to whether or not this tornado should have been classified as a F6 tornado instead of an F5. Many argued that because the estimated winds speed had a variable of 10 MPH +/- that it should have been classified as the first ever F6 tornado. Weather experts argued back that the classification in the Fujita Scale was not entirely based upon wind speeds but based on damage and destruction. The tornado was never classified as an F6 but the Fujita scale has since been retired in the U.S.A. and replaced with the Enhanced Fujita scale which sets less wind speed parameters.

P.F.S.There isn't a Category 6 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, but if there was, an F5/EF5/F6/EF6 tornado would essentially equal a Category 6, with winds well over 250 mph.

Enhanced Fujita Scale Wiki

xoxo disaster girl

Alternative Modes of Transportation: Part Four & Five Surviving a Tornado/Hurricane

TORNADOES, HURRICANES & THE TIV

A Tornado Intercept Vehicle is a reinforced automobile used for storm chasing.
Courtesy of Wiki

In 2006 I survived a tornado that touched down near Sullivan, Missouri. Every since I have been obsessed with becoming a storm chaser. After all, while everyone else was running to the basement to seek shelter- I was outside admiring the view and saving as many animals as I could. (Don't Go Trying this Please, even I can admit this was very stupid of me.) This, I believe is what spawned my love for disasters and weather. I've always loved unpredictability, and weather is certainly one of the few ways you can make a career out of it. In the years after this incident, I began funneling (ahaha) my time towards The Weather Channel, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and the History Channel.

One of my favorite shows on TV today is Storm Chasers on the Discovery Channel. This is where I found the Tornado Interception Vehicle or TIV. Created by Sean Casey Of IMAX in 2003, the TIV & TIV II are vehicles designed to drive extremely close or even into the path of a tornado. I believe that they should reconsider naming it a SIV or Storm Interception Vehicle as this vehicle could not only be used for tornadoes but for monitoring hurricanes that make landfall as well.

So, there is no better way to be above ground moving and still manage to stay alive during these two storms other than a TIV. I wish I could take credit for this but I can't. Certainly if you wanted to build your own TIV you could, just don't rip off Mr. Casey's design. Maybe you could even use that Organic Material I was talking about in my Tsunami bit for the outer shell. This would certainly make the vehicle one of a (my) kind, :).

In test conducted by Mythbusters, the TIV II was able to survived in wind speeds of 250 MPH- Quite an accomplishment. Through research I've come across the highest wind speeds ever recorded for a Tornado and a Hurricane. Currently a Tornado in Australia is the highest ever recorded coming in at 253 MPH. As for a Hurricane, they ring in at about 200 MPH.

P.F.S. The TIV took 8 months to build and 40 welding students. Don't Go it Alone.

Happy Storm Chasing & Don't Get Yourself Killed ;)

On another note, if you don't wanna see the storms, you could buy one of these. They're a great investment, and have tons of purposes like surviving a terrorist attack, hurricane, tornado, or for a life as a hermit.
Buy A Beehive Bomb Shelter

P.P.F.S. A bomb shelter will not protect you in a tsunami, as the air ventilation system would likely fill with water. It also won't protect you from a volcanic eruption, even if the shelter did survived the magma you'd likely just be Pompeii V.2.

xoxo disaster girl