Tornado Outbreak in Oklahoma Feb 10

There was an awful outbreak of tornadoes today throughout the center of Oklahoma, running roughly north & south along I-35 out of Dallas. We can get tornadoes here every month of the year. But a deadly outbreak like today is rare, since February is normally our coldest month - when I actually put on a coat.

There's a lot of damage on the NW end of the Oklahoma City metro area, where it tore up a neighborhood, shopping centers and sent the roof of a Target store flying into a Chucky Cheese restaurant. There was even more substantial damage (and deaths) during the night down by Ada, about halfway between Oklahoma City and Dallas. The death toll for this storm system is at least 8 so far, but search & rescue efforts continue throughout the night and after daylight. The death toll may rise after daylight.

The neighborhood where my elderly folks live was also hit overnight, as the line of storms traveled up I-44 over the Oklahoma state line into Missouri. The garage of a house a couple of blocks away was destroyed, and the roof of a nearby apartment building was torn off. They're okay though, thank God.

We had some bad storms near us that destroyed several buildings in Pawnee County, but haven't heard of injuries in our area. I'll have to keep trying to get in touch with some friends in other areas hit to see if they're okay. We just had wildfires here a few days ago, but luckily nobody was killed this time.

Oklahoma can be a really tough place to live - but the people here are some of the best. It's not uncommon for an Okie to risk their life to save a stranger, like after the bombing of the Murrah Federal Bulding in Oklahoma City. I used to laugh when easterners coming to Oklahoma asked if we still had "Cowboy & Indian" problems. LOL I'd tell them "Custer caused a lot of trouble here, but he got what he had coming." And then asked them what kind of horse they wanted me to bring for them to ride when I picked them up at the airport in Tulsa. LOL

Sonny & I went to a Storm Spotter Training class last week. This was just a short evening class, but we'll go to a 2-day class later on. I went through storm spotter training over 30 years ago after I passed my "Ham" license (Amateur Radio) test. Storm spotters aren't the same as storm chasers. Those chaser folks are frickin crazy! Spotters watch the skies and make radio reports of the behavior of severe storms as they cycle up & down, fall apart & reorganize, so that warnings can be issued as fast as possible if they start to drop a funnel. A single extra minute of warning saves lives.

I worked communications with Red Cross Disaster Services in Springfield MO (an hour north of the Oklahoma state line) back when I was attending Missouri State University 30 years ago. Running a mock airplane crash scenario with emergency personnel and Ham Radio operators really helped rescue & recovery efforts when a tornado tore a 7 mile path through the city a year later. I was with my young daughter & her friend at an indoor racquet & pool club when the storm hit. The girls were only toddlers, but they still remember me stuffing them into the steel lockers to keep them safe. Luckily the funnel was disrupted by a huge highway overpass just before it hit the indoor club.

The 2-meter frequency range (+-146 Mhz) provides clear communications during a major disaster, when all other communication avenues are likely to be wiped out. CB radios are useless because tornadoes put out harmonics at the same frequency range as CB's operate. Land lines are often the first to go. Cell phone towers are knocked out by 100 mph winds, and cell phones don't have the power needed to skip signals off a repeater 50 miles away like a short-wave radio.

It's a common problem for emergency services to be unable to talk to each other during a major disaster. So having "Ham" radio operators posted everywhere (disaster sites, hospitals, police stations, fire & rescue stations) can be a real lifesaver - quite literally. I let my Amateur license expire several years ago, thinking I was living in the city, I was too old to go chasing storms anymore, etc. But since we've moved to my husband's "home rez" six years ago, I've come to realize that I really should get my license back. You only have to pass the written electronic theory & regulation test these days. Back when I got my original license in 1978-79(?), you had to be able to "copy" 13 words a minute in Morse Code.

The major storm prediction center (National Weather Service) is down by OU in Norman, in the south part of the HUGE Oklahoma City metro area. It's probably 120 miles from us, so their Doppler radar can't see what's going on at the ground level up here nearly as well as closer areas, because of the curvature of the earth. The National Weather Service has to depend on trained weather spotters this far away to tell them exactly what's going on. Although we're out here in the middle of nowhere, we're in a perfect position to watch for storms moving NE into the Osage reservation, which is much more highly populated.

I've been trying to locate grants to help pay for storm warning sirens for our tribal village & community. We're so far from a town that we're totally without services like rural water, fire protection or cable tv. We have satellite tv & satellite internet, because we can't get anything else out here. Without them, we would be virtually cut off from the outside world - that's exactly what happens when a storm hits, we lose everything. Last time our internet satellite was knocked out, it was a week before we could get someone to drive up from Oklahoma City to fix it - despite paying for 48 hour service.

On the other hand, being so remote isn't such a bad thing sometimes, when you consider the rising crime rates in the cities. Nobody really bothers us out here, since it's clearly an Indian community with the tribe's name on the water tower out by the highway. It's not unlike a gated neighborhood in the city - we know who belongs here and who doesn't. I've run off strangers sitting in unidentified cars or driving through the village. I don't know if they are looking for someone to serve papers or what. But unless they identify themselves as law enforcement, I tell them they're trespassing on Indian trust land, and tell them to "get the". Occasionally a curious tourist will drive into the tribal village off the highway. The sight of an expensive RV driving through the village is always fodder for jokes. My elderly neighbor across the street will poke her head out the front door and say "I supposed those are YOUR friends" LOL Everyone knows everyone elses business here - they know if you had beans for dinner. Aaaayyyyeee