Breaking: Tornadoes Tear Through Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa (Okla. Funnel 'Half-Mile Wide')
Source: CNN / Associated Press / CBS News
@AP: BREAKING: Tornado causes major damage at trailer park near Oklahoma City; spotter says earth `scoured' -RJJ
updated 8:51 PM EDT 05.19.13
Tornadoes tear through Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa
By Dana Ford, CNN
(CNN) - Tornadoes touched down in three states on Sunday, ripping roofs off homes and turning trees to matchsticks, as severe weather swept the region.
A large "violent and extremely dangerous" tornado was spotted on the southwest side of Wichita, Kansas, the National Weather Service said.
A second confirmed tornado was seen near Edmond, Oklahoma, said the weather service. Another tornado was spotted in nearby Luther, Oklahoma, but it was not immediately clear whether that was the same twister.
A third tornado touched down near Wellston, Oklahoma, taking out power lines and damaging several homes, according to video from CNN affiliate KFOR. The affiliate's helicopter pilot estimated the funnel cloud to be about a half-mile wide.
"It's tearing up everything," the pilot said. "Just ripping everything up in its sight."
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/19/us/severe-weather/index.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57585230/powerful-thunderstorms-rumble-through-hard-hit-midwest
BREAKING: Tornado Causes Major Damage at Trailer Park Near Okla. City; Spotter Says Earth "Scoured"
EDMOND, Okla. A powerful storm system rumbled through the Plains and upper Midwest on Sunday, spawning tornadoes that damaged homes and buildings near Oklahoma City and put the Tulsa area on high-alert.
There were no immediate reports of injuries caused by any of the tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma and Kansas, including one that hit the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond before moving northeast toward Tulsa, 90 miles to the northeast.
For days, forecasters had been warning about the possibility of tornadoes from a weekend storm, and emergency responders as far north as Minnesota and as far south as Texas were keeping a close eye on the powerful system pushing eastward and northward through the nation's breadbasket.
Forecasters say a supercell of thunderstorms packing baseball-sized hail, heavy rain, and tornadoes could do a lot of damage, CBS News correspondent Anna Werner reports.
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You could hear the sirens miles away, often long before the ones near you went off. There was no place in town, or in the suburbs that didn't turn on their sirens when a funnel was sighted in the vicinity.
And make no bones about it. Everybody would have KFDI on their radio when there was a chance for tornados. I would be at work and they would pipe KFDI over the PA system so people would know what was going on. Also, to know that families were safe. Not much work would get done, but that was better than sending people home and having more cars on the roads mucking up any emergency traffic if something bad happened.
And often enough it did get serious, so companies took this shit seriously.
I remember two bad ones, both ef-4 or ef-5. One went through Andover and killed a bunch of people... Yup! In a trailer park.
Another wiped a little one company town, Hesston, Kansas about right off the map. Here's a pic:
I remember a very excited KFDI mobile unit reporting from under a bridge on I-35 within sight as the tornado crossed the expressway just ahead of him. "There goes the Pizza Hut. And there goes the gas station." The people in the gas station and the Pizza Hut all survived by heads up thinking of the Pizza Hut manager who got everybody into the big walk-in refrigerator and slammed the door just before both buildings were destroyed into kindling.
Two of my close friends lost their homes in the Andover storm. Both lived in Sedgwick County, in other words, Wichita, 30 miles from Andover.
One doesn't mess around with weather there. You don't peek out the window if there's a warning.
Still waiting to hear from a friend that lives in Shawnee. Had a little debris falling a while ago, mostly paper and leaves that obviously weren't falling from trees. Some drywall and stuff fell on my friend's place a few miles southwest of here. It's been a crazy day 
Violent storms freak me out anymore. There's just no telling what's going to happen.
I hide in my interior closet, too. If things continue like they have been in recent history, I'm thinking of putting in a mini fridge in the darn thing. 
Here, where it's all solid rock and requires blasting, 10K is the norm. Not a lot of storm shelters or survivalist burying buses, etc. around here. We do have extensive cave systems though!
Hunker down. Be safe. The season is still young, sad to say.
My three cats all have to be in the closet with me. However, we don't have sirens here. Tornadoes do happen, but they aren't as prolific as up in your area. Here you use the internet, and NOAA radio to track them until you hear they're heading toward your neighborhood.
Then you:
A) panic.
B) dig the cats out from under the bed, off of the top of the wardrobe, out of the back of the bookshelves, and try and cram them into the closet.
C) extract cat claws from your back/neck/head.
D) sip wine and sprinkle catnip liberally on the floor for your fellow closet refugees.
Come to think of it I need a better plan myself. 
This one even my partner can hear (he is totally deaf in one ear). The thing is I have really good hearing, so if I miss the initial wind-up because the horn is facing in a direction away from my home, then the first blast always causes me to jump! The first time the sirens were tested this year, I didn't know about the newest placement, so when the sirens went off, I literally fell off the couch because I jumped. My partner looked over at me, and said, "are you OK?!" I said the sirens scared me, to which he replied: "what siren?" 
THEN he heard it!
When we lived in the other house and trained Tony (cat) and Voodoo (dog) to go to the interior bathroom, my partner was home when a test took place, and I told him he had to go with us. So, I am shooing everyone saying "Tornado! Tornado! Everyone to the bathroom!" My partner is laughing at me hysterically, until he looks over at me and sees I am shooting him "that look." Upon seeing it, he apologized profusely and promptly sat on the floor of the bathroom. I take drills very seriously; years of working in universities and colleges.
If you want to train your cats, you can use a very distinct sound maker (phone app or something), and train them to go to the closet. You'd be surprised how quickly they learn what to do when they hear the sound, even if they are sleeping elsewhere in the house.
HOT DAMN! The storm is slowing a bit, and the lightening is far way for the moment...I am gonna go jump in the shower! YEA!!!!
having major flash flooding tonight. Anywhere between 4 and 8 inches of rain has fallen in a short period of time (along with some damaging winds and small hail). The ground was also already pretty saturated from recent rains and the melt from the big May Day snowstorm. State Hwy. 9 and US Hwy. 218 are both CLOSED. Weatherman reported that Emergency Management is also saying that most of the gravel roads in the county are impassable or treacherous. No travel is advised.
I grew up there and I can't remember Hwy. 9 ever being closed like that, so it must be crazy there right now. Hope everyone is safe....
