just a quick oklahoma note:

Glad to hear no one directly in your circle was injured.  My wife's great uncle's house was minorly hit destroying his garage but the entire family happenned to be at the hospital at the time.

In the 20 years I lived in Oklahoma on and off I saw quite a bit of Tornado damage as well.  I happenned to be in Germany when my parents house in Stillwater, and my childhood elementary and high schools, were hit.  The community reaction has always been amazing in these situations with familys taking in those displaced or pitching in to slap tarps on roofs for those only minorly damaged.

As many who have not lived through this, the property damage can be significant but the longer term effects of irreplaceable items destroyed (photo albums, baby books, etc) and the lingering effects of being homeless for sometimes months are the biggest impact outside of those that lose someone.

Probably the biggest tragedy in this storm were the kids that lost their lives int he school.  From my father in law's reports (Highway Patrol training officer that got called in for the search) the teachers and students did everything they were supposed to and yet not all survived.  It is always a tragedy when children die but it seems doubly so when they were doing all the right things.

I was getting ready for work this moring when it hit me that you guys were in Moore, and I really only remember that because it was our backup on the Mark Viii you had when we were headed to norman to pick up the one we ended up buying. I got to work and was just about to post up to see if you boys made it out ok.

Glad to hear everyone is OK. I've got kin scattered all over Oklahoma, so yesterday afternoon was a bit of a nail biter for me. My thoughts go out to everyone that was efffected.

Psycho,  I was just popping in to make sure you and yours were ok.

I sure like to make a lot of Oklahoma jokes but none of this is funny at all.

Keep us updated and hang tough.

Just a note I heard on my way into work this morning; If you're lazy and want to donate, you can send $10 to the Red Cross by texting "redcross" (no quotes) to 90999.

+1

If I may add a racing perspective to the damage, this is the remnants of Whit Gastineau's house and race shop.

This got carried away in the storm

if you can imagine it...and i'm not sure anyone really can....there is a path a half mile wide and 15 miles long that looks much like this.

most of the neighborhoods in this area are smaller homes on smaller lots and there are places where you can stand on a foundation slab and not see anything resembling a house for three blocks to either side, and for 3 miles front or back.

I just drove thru a couple sections of it getting to HQ and back to work and it is absolutely beyond comprehension.

I dunno if this is crass or appropriate, mostly because my view might be a bit skewed.....

if people feel this is inappropriate, i'll yank it down, or the board admins can.

my big assed van is prepped and waiting for these friends of mine to be allowed to collect their belongings. their house has moved off its foundation, and will probably be torn down. luckily, it's still mostly there, so they should be able to collect many of their belongings.

in the meantime, we're trying to find them somewhere to live while the insurance gets settled and they can start over. as i noted above, they had a problematic birth just over a week ago, so their world was already sucking before yesterday, so starting over is gonna more tricky than it might otherwise be.

http://www.gofundme.com/Fisher-Family-Fund

if you can, and you are willing..please do.
if you can't, or you have more pressing or personal needs...please do that instead. there are plenty of people who can use the help.

at this point, anything..anywhere helps. some people would rather donations go to a real person rather than something vague like the red cross, or the salvation army. other people would rather donate to a large, known entity. either way, your generosity will be appreciated.

justin

I was supposed to return from my four-month overseas deployment about the same time the tornado hit. I got home a few hours late to find damage from baseball-sized hail. The windshields on my '06 Mustang and '69 Cadillac are busted and our roof is totalled (but not leaking!). Luckily we installed our shelter last year, so the wife, kids, and pets were safe.

I still wonder why Oklahoma building codes don't require storm shelters and class 4 roofing.