Topic: just a quick oklahoma note:
If you've seen anything newslike in the last 12 hours, you've probably heard that Oklahoma caught a massive tornado yesterday afternoon.
words cannot do justice, and i'm not sure the pics can do much more.
Our teammates and families are scattered thruout the OKC metro, and really across the entire state. Our team's HQ is in Moore, luckily about two miles north of the damage path. I wasn't there when all hell broke loose, tho i had planned to be. I got out of work just as this was firing up, so I went home to watch the tv reports and keep my school teacher fiancee up to speed on what was going on (school information is probably the worst rumor mill you can imagine) and if it was going to impact her so she could keep her kids informed and in line.
I wasn't able to get back down to the shop to check for damage due to roadblocks and much more important missions, but i'm sure it will be limited to hail damage...which is kinda par for the course around here.
For those that might be unaware, Moore oklahoma has caught three massive tornadoes in the last 15 years. I've lived in oklahoma my entire 37 years, and i've seen more tornado damage than I care to think about, but yesterday's is unbelievable. driving to work this morning, I passed thru where it crossed I-35, and even in the predawn darkness the damage was evident and incredible. For all the comparisons to Moore's may 3rd 1999 tornado, this is at least as bad, possibly worse. This storm took much the same path that storm took, but in the intervening years Moore has seen massive growth, especially in the area directly in the path of this storm.
Happily, I can report that none of our team, nor any of our families were directly involved in this tragedy. We have several friends in Moore, one family has suffered massive losses to their home (not total destruction, but probably at the cusp on condemnation, it seems). they weren't home at the time, but only because they had a complicated birth nine days ago...so it's been a rough week and a half for them.
some of our teammates live in the tulsa area and still others are in the northwest arkansas area...and if something comes thru OKC, it invariably ends up up there as well. the Moore storm eventually took out a couple trees in our arkansas guy's yard. Mail from Moore has been found in Branson, Missouri.
If you are the praying type, nobody here is gonna fault you for doing so.
if you are the donating type, there are a half dozen ways to do so, red cross and salvation army are the obvious ones, but there are others as well.
if you are the preparing type...please do so. every part of the country faces its own challenges, but many of the solutions are the same. if a situation happens and you don't need your preparations, your neighbors might.
if all you can do is hug your kids and pets and parents...do that.
thanks to technology, i was able to clear my family within an hour of the storm. i don't know how crazy i might be if i had to go to bed last night hoping for a good phone call and being scared of a bad one. there are people who are not nearly as lucky as I, and my heart breaks for them.
We will survive, we will rebuild, and we will carry on. we've done it before, we will do it again.
Regularly losing in Class A
Soon to start losing in Class C