Oklahomans? Midwesterners? You okay?

[nolabear]

I confess I seldom know where DUers are but I hope anyone in the tornado zone keeps safe and checks in when possible.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. 19 tornadoes reported so far

one heading into Des Moines, Iowa where my dearest friend lives......she has a basement, knows what to do in this weather.
Safely here in Ala. I can watch the news and cross my fingers...not our turn so far this week.

[KatyaR]

2. Some damage north of Oklahoma City and around Norman, but

most of the damage is around the Shawnee area, east of OKC.

We had some rain here where I live in OKC but nothing else. However, we're supposed to have storms all week....

Now THIS is springtime in Oklahoma...sadly.

[nolabear]

7. I have a friend with family in Norman.

Hope y'all come out the other side okay.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. That is one scary picture

Coming from a person who takes scary pictures for a living

[awoke_in_2003]

22. When I lived in Alabama...

at the age of nine, I watched a tornado from a ditch. I was horribly scary, yet so mesmerizing. It is kind of hard to explain.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. Like fires actually.

They are mesmerizing

[awoke_in_2003]

34. Very true...

I love fire, too

[kimsterdemster]

3. i live in...

Mustang, it was real close to here, very scary, watching destruction now on local news


heard at least 1 death

thanks for caring

[nolabear]

8. I do. Be safe!

[OKNancy]

4. Tulsa - OK so far

[nolabear]

9. Good!

[Wednesdays]

5. We're fine in OKC, but

If the one that struck Edmond-Arcadia-Luther, etc. had been just 10 miles southwest...

[nolabear]

10. Whoof. Hope it all passes soon.

What a Speing.

[Bjorn Against]

6. The sky is really dark in Minnesota

Looks like a storm is going to hit any minute. We had a couple storms earlier today although they did not do any damage that I can see aside from a couple small branches down. Don't know what the one coming in will be like, no winds or anything yet but the sky was a strange glowing orange a few minutes ago and now it is turning black.

[Brickbat]

11. It was cloudy here in NE MN and now it's getting darker and darker.

Just about black as night out there.

[freshwest]

13. That orange sky sounds like high winds and dust to the west - at least that's what I've seen.

Keep that weather radio on or listen for the sirens. I used to live in tornado alley. The volunteer fire department had a siren to let us know when they were in the area. They parked by my driveway. I lived on a hill and most tornadoes crossed my place first. They called it storm ranch. Some wild nights there. Had a storm cellar but managed to stay out of it, preferred the well house instead. Take care.

[awoke_in_2003]

23. The tornado I saw...

made the sky glow green.

[cynzke]

12. Watching the storms live on MSNBC

As they travelled across OK....intense!!! Today in Georgia we were hit with 8 inches of rain in two hours. I have never seen such a down pour my entire life and it kept going on and on. The lightening strikes were so intense it was more like thousands of flash blubs going off. Lots of flooding throughout the state.

[freshwest]

14. Did you get any hail with that? We had some about a month ago, looked like snow for a while.

[sheshe2]

15. Be safe everyone! nt

[Lady Freedom Returns]

16. I am now in Tucson, but I still have family in Joplin!

And they were showing a map on the new where that broke down the server. They broke it down from very bad to even worse. Joplin was in the heart of the very worse.

Since I seen that, I can't stop shaking. I am very scared for them.

[Still Sensible]

17. All clear in Norman

The big storm that hit Shawnee started rotating about five miles west of my house... then first touched down about seven miles northeast while passing over Thunderbird Lake.

Another one formed in North OKC and went NE thru Luther and Carney.

Lots of destruction. One life lost in Shawnee.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Let me add, be safe people, be safe

[behrstar]

20. Minnesota is GONE

Wiped out by tornadoes of God's Wrath in the after math of Marriage Equality.....NOT

[PD Turk]

21. Just southwest of Tulsa

Between Sapulpa and Kellyville. It weakened before it got here, had some small debris falling here from no telling how far away though

[Lady Freedom Returns]

24. Anything about SW Missouri?

[Anymouse]

26. First tornadoes of this round were here in Nebraska.

As this storm system continues to generate tornadoes I hope folk are okay.

One thing I note about living in an extremely rural area of the country is that tornadoes are reported far differently than more urban areas, such as Oklahoma City.

The first tornadoes of this system generated were here yesterday in Broadwater, Nebraska, a town of 127 conservatives and me in the Panhandle. Three tornadoes were generated within five miles of town and all within ten minutes. One entered town (striking the cemetery but causing no deaths). News outlets, if they even bothered to mention the tornadoes at all, mentioned them as "striking mainly rural areas of Morrill County."

That is the usual of news reporting: we are "mainly-rural areas," not people. Lots of damage or deaths, that is news. Little damage or deaths, not news. The only place you will see Broadwater mentioned is on the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Website (which is providing all incidents of tornadoes, high wind, and hail from this system, where we are mentioned first in the list):

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/130518_rpts.html

Fact is, people live in these mainly-rural areas too. The cemetery tornado was less than a quarter-mile from my house. My yard has debris from the cemetery in it. A large number of farm buildings and crops were torn up both north and south of town, some cattle were injured by flying debris (I don't know if any were killed).

[hrmjustin]

27. Welcome to DU my friend!

[Anymouse]

29. Thank you.

I have been following DU for a long time, and this evening decided to throw my password into the ring and sign up for the forums.

My poor wife did not realise I was a liberal until after she married me. (:: It makes for some interesting political discussion around the house for the last four years.

[hrmjustin]

30. Well We are glad you joined up. Enjoy DU!

[Skittles]

31. we can make a liberal out of Mrs. Anymouse

yes INDEED

[Anymouse]

33. Mrs Anymouse gave out a hoot over that post

I read my wife your post, she let out a hoot.

I try to tell her she holds progressive ideas but is simply afraid of the terms "progressive" or "liberal," but she insists on clinging to that ol' conservative moniker.

[uppityperson]

35. Welcome to DU. I spent part of a yr in Sidney, train derailed outside my rented house in 78(?)

before it got into town. Yes, it is rural and glad you didn't get any worse damage from the tornadoes.

Tell Mrs A that labels are too restrictive, that most of us want a place to live, enough food, the ability to raise our children and be involved in our communities. Beyond labels.

[Skittles]

36. it's a hard one to break but I live in Texas

and I KNOW it can be done

[Anymouse]

37. Wife needs her conservative fix.

My wife's favourite political forum is GOPUSA. She is going there now to get another fix.

As for cleaning up my yard, I suspect my neighbours will come over to help (my wife is the town librarian and has to work, I had surgery on my right hand a few days ago and cannot do it).

As far as the conservative and liberal labels go, they tend to go out the window when someone in the community needs help. On Great American Cleanup Day (May 15), several of my neighbours came over and raked my yard because I could not handle a rake with my arm in a cast.

Likewise when my neighbours have needed help I didn't first ask what their political views were. (That and I already know.) Around here folk are more interested in whether it is going to rain (or we will have tornadoes like yesterday) and what the prices of wheat or cattle are rather than whether it is unseemly for a Marine to hold an umbrella for the President and a visiting prime minister.

[Skittles]

39. gawd, I took a peek at GOPUSA

what a load of garbage - I feel for you buddy and sorry, there's much more to it than just "labels" - helping out people you see with your own eyes needing help is one thing - empathizing with people down on their luck whom you DON'T know is VERY much a liberal / progressive trait

[Anymouse]

38. Tornado photo

The news finally got around to noting we actually had tornadoes here . . . as usual the news article uses the phrase "mainly-rural areas" which is why they didn't bother to report Saturday tornadoes until early Monday morning.

From KNEB radio, Sidney, NE. http://kneb.com/index.php?more=6hsjnxx8

They have photos too, (taken from inside a car from miles away) though they didn't interview anyone here, just the sheriff sixteen miles away. (At $4 a gallon, gas is too expensive to go interview people in mainly-rural areas.)

They quote the sheriff as saying as of Saturday evening there were no reports of damage. That is because the tornadoes were Saturday evening, not because there was no damage (part of the cemetery is still in my yard).

(one photo from miles away)
(taken by a resident two blocks from my house)

[Rhiannon12866]

40. Yikes! Those are scary looking!

Just glad to hear that you're okay! Welcome to DU, Anymouse! It's great to have you with us!

[LoisB]

28. Hope everyone is ok.

[Behind the Aegis]

32. And why did I leave NOLA?! Oh yeah, hurricanes...which I think I prefer.

Another storm just kicked up here, really bad wind and lightening. We tries to take the dogs out for one final "nite-nite" potty run...oh hell to the no! There weren't having any of it. Of course, they are Chihuahuas, and given the speed of the wind, the possibility of them becoming airborne was a factor. They also never learned the lyrics to "Leroy Brown," so they DO piss in the wind!

[nolabear]

41. Hang on, Cher! Hang on!