Giant tornado devastates Oklahoma

didn't know they had basements in Florida. in some states (like California) it's not common to have them. in tornado alley I think you'd have to have one, or a tornado shelter.

lots of destruction there. normally these hit smaller areas or farmland but this suburb got mauled. :(
RIP the victims.
 
barros said:
No but still bad enough, I have friends and family in Florida and they told me when the hurricane arrives they are deep inside the basement because the tornadoes will form without any warning.
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Who has a basement in Florida? I don't think I've ever heard of anyone with one. They're almost impossible to build there.
 
Sir Matt said:
Who has a basement in Florida? I don't think I've ever heard of anyone with one. They're almost impossible to build there.
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Might depend on where you live in Florida, but I had also heard basements where rare in Florida. But never owned a home there, so it might just be one of those things that you hear, but don't hold up to fact.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=629912


Also, official death toll has been lowered to 24.
 
esmufc14 said:
Sky News really love to ramp it up don't they.
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they're not alone though. all the big commercial media outfits fall all over themselves when stuff like this happens.

wonder if the commercial British meeja will give as much coverage to the bombings in Iraq or the ongoing calamity in Syria?
 
utdalltheway said:
didn't know they had basements in Florida. in some states (like California) it's not common to have them. in tornado alley I think you'd have to have one, or a tornado shelter.

lots of destruction there. normally these hit smaller areas or farmland but this suburb got mauled. :(
RIP the victims.
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You can have a basement if you live in the top half of florida, a bit away from the water. But it's just water (and earth obviously) a few feet down if you're in the southern half.
 
Interesting part of this is that Oklahoma is global warming denial central as far as the states go. Also, big on not giving money for disaster aid. Now they have to confront those issues.

Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe could be described as the biggest global warming denier on Earth.

Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe (R), who maintains that global warming is a hoax created by former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations, said on Tuesday that it was "hard to explain" why Monday's tornado was "so much worse."

During an interview with John Berman on CNN, Inhofe remarked that the storm had transported a photo 80 miles from Shawnee to his neighborhood in Tulsa.

"So many things happen that are so hard to explain," he told the CNN host. "This thing was huge. This is one of the largest ones that we've had."

"What you're looking at now in Moore, Oklahoma is what you could have seen had you been there in 1999 or in some parts of of Shawnee. Devastation is devastation. And it's just that this is so much worse. Because you're talking about a two mile by 20 mile area. That's very unusual."

In terms of disaster aid, Inhofe said Oklahoma had "everything that we need," but he recommended donating to the Salvation Army and the Red Cross.

"It's going to be necessary to raise a lot of money."
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gooDevil said:
You can have a basement if you live in the top half of florida, a bit away from the water. But it's just water (and earth obviously) a few feet down if you're in the southern half.
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The top half of Florida is where lots of sinkholes occur. I would not have a basement there. I don't really want to live in Florida period though.
 
Silva said:
Excuse my ignorance, but why can't you build a basement near the coast when we can build tunnels under the channel?
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It's not about how close it is but what the ground is made of. Not ideal for doing anything underground. Florida is basically just a big filled in swamp. Sandy soil. Groundwater level is usually around 1 to 1.5 meters underground. You dig, you are digging a hole to fill with water.

Ends up being very, very expensive.
 
Silva said:
Excuse my ignorance, but why can't you build a basement near the coast when we can build tunnels under the channel?
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The first answer to that is that of course land and the water table are not the same in every spot on the planet.


Not sure of the exact geology but in much of Florida the water table is very close to ground level and this leads to problems if you try to have basements. My guess is that these are beyond the normal problems something like a sump pump would solve. There are probably ways to have a basement in most areas, but the question becomes one of costs, probably would need an engineer to explain it.
 
JustAFan said:
The first answer to that is that of course land and the water table are not the same in every spot on the planet.


Not sure of the exact geology but in much of Florida the water table is very close to ground level and this leads to problems if you try to have basements. My guess is that these are beyond the normal problems something like a sump pump would solve. There are probably ways to have a basement in most areas, but the question becomes one of costs, probably would need an engineer to explain it.
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Cost and need would be the real issue. You could build a house with a basement if you really wanted to, but you would have to dewater the area during construction, so the hole doesn't just fill up with water (Requires environmental approvals over here to do as well), and then you need to ensure what you are building is water tight so that it doesn't fill up with water once the dewatering pumps are turned off. Neither of those will be cheap, so I'm guessing unless you really need a basement most people wouldn't have bothered.
 
Dargonk said:
Cost and need would be the real issue. You could build a house with a basement if you really wanted to, but you would have to dewater the area during construction, so the hole doesn't just fill up with water (Requires environmental approvals over here to do as well), and then you need to ensure what you are building is water tight so that it doesn't fill up with water once the dewatering pumps are turned off. Neither of those will be cheap, so I'm guessing unless you really need a basement most people wouldn't have bothered.
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$10k to build a tornado proof shelter is probably cheaper and easier.
 
you'd imagine that people that live in tornado alley would have those shelters but it seems that most don't.
maybe the odds of needing it are so slim that it puts people off putting thre money towards one, where they could spend money on things they feel they will need.

I do live in an area prone to severe earthquakes and I haven't done anything in particular to prepare for one, other than check the water heater is braced and know where the gas valve shutoff is.
 
CNN Article on the lack of basements in Oklahoma. Seems there are multiple reasons, but mostly cost, for not having a basement. Though there are other options besides a basement for tornado shelters. Also it seems just a plain basement might not be enough since if the house is pulled off the foundation you are basically left in an unprotected hole which does you no good.

Of course even if they start building all new home with some kind of shelter that will do nothing for the many existing homes that do not have them.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/22/us/oklahoma-tornado-basements/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
 
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/...-theory-theres-weather-weapon-stuff-going-on/

Conspiracy talk show host Alex Jones, increasingly a favorite of conservative media for his extremely vocal support of gun rights, outed himself Tuesday as a tornado truther by telling a caller on his show, “Of course there’s weather weapons stuff going on.”

Jones, a longtime proponent of the idea that the U.S. government can manipulate and even produce weather systems like tornadoes and hurricanes, went on to say that if people saw helicopters or small aircraft in the area, then “you better bet your bottom dollar they did this.”

“But, who knows if they did?” he asked. “You know, that’s the thing. We don’t know.”
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I wouldnt blame the govmnt for the weather but i would place some blame with them. there's plenty of money for the next new weapon but none left for shelters.
 
What a fecking idiot.

Scratch that, what a fecking cnut for preying on idiots.

Wait, feck that shitbag for being way ahead of all of us taking money from stupid people who lap up this tripe. The cnut.
 
Saliph said:
Yeah, I don't think bricks will help much against an EF5
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Even asphalt struggles against F5s. I recall the massive F5 tornado that hit Jarrell, TX, back in the late 90s (think it was the day before the 97 CL Final) ripped up chunks of asphalt in some subdivisions. Annihilated one particular subdivision.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Central_Texas_tornado_outbreak

Confirmed...
Grass and soil in fields near Jarrell were ripped out of the ground to a depth of 18 in (46 cm), reducing lush fields of grass into wide expanses of mud. When the tornado crossed county roads outside Jarrell, it tore a 500-foot (152 m) length of asphalt from the roads.

 
The second and last videos up there... the people who took them are seriously brave! They would've been fecked had the tornado changed direction.
 
MrMarcello said:
Even asphalt struggles against F5s. I recall the massive F5 tornado that hit Jarrell, TX, back in the late 90s (think it was the day before the 97 CL Final) ripped up chunks of asphalt in some subdivisions. Annihilated one particular subdivision.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Central_Texas_tornado_outbreak

Confirmed...
Grass and soil in fields near Jarrell were ripped out of the ground to a depth of 18 in (46 cm), reducing lush fields of grass into wide expanses of mud. When the tornado crossed county roads outside Jarrell, it tore a 500-foot (152 m) length of asphalt from the roads.

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Christ. Tornadoes really are fascinating, unstoppable forces of destruction.
 
How common are tornadoes in Europe?

I recall reading how the first explorers in what became America were in awe of tornadoes labeling them the "fingers of god."
 
MrMarcello said:
How common are tornadoes in Europe?

I recall reading how the first explorers in what became America were in awe of tornadoes labeling them the "fingers of god."
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Not very common to my knowledge, at least not tornadoes that cause any real damage. I think those only occasionally turn up in the Netherlands (though nowhere near as powerful as the ones in the US), and perhaps a few other places. We have some very weak ones here in Norway too occasionally, but they're very rare.
 
Especially in a couple scenes where her shirt is soaked.

Added a longer, more detailed video (documentary) on the Jarrell, TX, tornado. The thing started as a small tornado and grew and grew. Spawned around 1:15pm and hit Jarrell at 3:15pm. Two hours on the ground! Insane!

 
ateamamerica294d_small.jpg
 
Few more touching down tonight on already devastated areas and millions in is path. Hopefully it's not as bad as the previous one.
 
Unnerving footage (1:44 – 3:36) of two overzealous storm chasers trying to escape yesterday's tornado:

 
Sir Matt said:
Who has a basement in Florida? I don't think I've ever heard of anyone with one. They're almost impossible to build there.
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They live in Palm Coast and they built the house with a basement (portuguese=wine) and I can tell you a lot of Portuguese who built their houses there if not too close from water they will have the basement with permit or not.
 
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