Given a choice between New York winters, which are the only impacting natural disasters that we have (unless you count governor Patterson) and massive amounts of wind, I'd choose the snow because it won't relocate my house. Might not be able to leave it for a few days but it wont go away.
Everyone in OK. has special tornado insurance, I gather?


THE
STAYING IN ONE ZIP CODE
AARDVARK

Tornadoes are a way of life here. People who visit here always ask how anyone can stand to live here (sometimes the people asking that aren't even referring to tornadoes, but I digress). It's really like any other natural disaster, like floods and volcanoes and earthquakes, etc. Tornadoes are obviously much more common than some of those, but the really damaging ones don't come along too often, and we have ways of dealing with them -- and when I say dealing with, I mean running and/or hiding from.

Jesus Christ! Well, I'm glad your house wasn't destroyed and that your family is OK. That goes without saying, but man, I'm sayin' it!

There was a twister in Parker, CO a couple years ago, but it being nowhere near me, I didn't fret much. Plus, it snowed today on May 12th, so I've got crabby fuel for like another three months.

But no, that's terrible and I'm glad you're all right.

I thought of you when I read about them in the paper, I'm glad you're ok.

People who don't live in tornado alley often ask me, "How much warning do you get before a tornado arrives?" In this case, it was around 24 hours. On the Sunday evening news, we were warned of possible tornadoes Monday evening. That doesn't mean there's much you can do about it (other than not be home when it hits), but at least you know it's coming.

On the way home from work Monday, Susan took this picture with her cell phone.

[img]http://www.robohara.com/pix/blog/tornado_2010_1.jpg[/img]

That is what's called a "rope tornado", and it was right over our home town (Yukon). Fortunately it was small, and didn't do much damage. The people of Choctaw, however, saw this:

[img]http://www.robohara.com/pix/blog/tornado_2010_2.jpg[/img]

Yeah. That's not good. And by the way, often tornadoes bring hail. My friend Hubert took this picture in his front yard yesterday.

[img]http://www.robohara.com/pix/blog/tornado_2010_3.jpg[/img]

Again, yeah -- that's friggin' baseball sized hail! Do you know what happens when that hits your car? [i]This[/i] happens:

[img]http://www.robohara.com/pix/blog/tornado_2010_4.jpg[/img]

Oh, and as for that big tornado -- do you know what happens when that hits your convenient store? [i]This[/i] happens:

[img]http://www.robohara.com/pix/blog/tornado_2010_5.jpg[/img]

For the record, this is the Love's we stopped at to get gas on the way home with the camper on Sunday, the night before.

Our friends and family are fine, although I heard reports of at least one co-worker's home being demolished and others sustaining serious damage.

Wind. It's stronger than you think.