An unbelievable experience.  We anticipated the day to have large tornadoes and the threat basically extended from the Oklahoma City area southward to the Red River.  I told people in Oklahoma City to pay attention, but that in general, the biggest threat would be just south of the city.

I picked up Thom at his house near 19th and Eastern in Moore and we started driving south on I-35.  The plan was to get well ahead of the Highway 81 corridor where storms would first form – let them evolve a little – and jump on the one that looked to have the best long-term potential.  We stopped at the Wayne/Payne exit and observed several storms to our NW, W, and SW both visually and on radar.  When I saw the storm forming southwest of Moore, I mentioned to the others that it was forming in a dangerous spot.  Northeast would cut through Oklahoma City – east northeast would go through Moore – a hard right and it would hit Norman.  I also didn’t think established tornado producing storms would wait until they got by the population center.  Still, we really didn’t have a plan of targeting this storm because it can be extremely difficult to chase through a metro area.  We had just made the decision to go south toward the Duncan storm when I saw radar data that told me a tornado was imminent.  A tornado warning was issued and without much thought we were all of a sudden north bound on I-35 trying to figure out an easy intercept.  The first plan was to take Highway 9 and move around the east side of Norman/Moore and wait for it to come out, but the farther up I-35 we went there were little signs that the road was congested or blocked / either by State Troopers or people parking under overpasses.  With a good fix on the location of the tornado by radar and spotter reports, we drove to 19th street in Moore and took up a viewing position just east of the interstate.  The expectation was that the tornado would cross I-35 between 19th and 4th (or very close to our north) and if we needed to, we could flee east on 19th.

The tornado became visible to our west in a mass of debris that extended out north and south about the width of the tornado itself.  The entire “blob” was about two miles wide.  As the tornado approached, we watched for signs of a northward component to the movement.  There wasn’t much and I became concerned that we would not be a safe distance from the tornado when it passed.  When the tornado got to within two miles, the roar started and we began to have light debris falling on us.  Larger pieces of debris were not that far off and it became time to move.  The first thought was about Thom’s wife who was at his house about 1/2 mile from us.  I made contact with her and had her meet us out front for pick-up.  This worked well and after the two minute pick-up process we started heading south to a comfortable position.  Before we found that, we stared the tornado in the face about 24th and Eastern.  Motion was incredible, the sound was incredible and the amount of debris that was moving around the tornado was incredible.  I had a brief sick feeling for a bit that we may have waited too long to make a move to safety.  We did get south without incident and found a viewing area just east of Bryant on 34th where we watched the tornado until it dissipated just west of Draper Lake.
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We made a quick stop to pick up Thom’s son at one of the local non-affected schools and dropped he and his wife off back at their house.  There was no damage to their house, but the neighborhood was littered with all kinds of small debris.  The damage survey shows that the tornado passed between 1/2 and one mile to their north northwest.  We made a somewhat half hearted attempt at playing storms farther south near Pauls Valley, but after the adrenaline had drained from us, we were pretty much done for the day.  Getting Thom back home and finding a way around the damage path was a bit of an adventure.  We left Thom about 1/4 mile short of his house and he had to walk back in.

Numerous things flash through your mind after an event like this.  Within a few hours we were hearing about the loss of life among children and it just made us sick.  I find myself asking the question, why?  How in the world does a city get hit by four violent (2 EF4′s, 2 EF5′s) tornadoes in 14 years?  My scientific thinking mind tells me that the odds of that happening are astronomical.  I have also had to remind myself that this event would have happened whether we were there or not.  And, we had nothing to do with it happening.  From a storm chaser/weather enthusiast point of view, the chance of seeing the dynamics of a storm like that up close was important.  I’m not sure how, but it just causes the chase, the forecast, everything involved to be viewed a little differently.

And finally, if you are caught in the path of a storm like this, don’t let the TV weather folks issue you a death sentence!  These storms ARE survivable!  Thousands of people lived by taking typical, suggested advice.  We saw an incredible amount of traffic that may have been enhanced by people on TV yelling that you either have to be underground or out of the way to survive.  I wonder if anyone was killed that left a house they could have survived in and were caught in their car?  Yes, underground is best – but if that is not available – go to the center part of the house / lowest level / smallest room.  Cover up with blankets and pillows / stay down and hang on!  It works most of the time!