Tragedy in Oklahoma

The tragedy in Moore, Oklahoma, is truly staggering. You look at images of the affected area, and it takes your breath away.

It looks like a bomb dropped in the area. There are some parts where you can see where there were once buildings, and now, all you can really see, pretty much, are the outlines of human development.

Nothing destroys like a tornado. I have heard that before, but this really gives you a deeper appreciation of the power of these wonders.

Indeed, I cannot think of a single natural disaster, save for a volcano, that can systematically destroy an entire landscape like a tornado can. Otherwise, very little can compare with the complete and utter devastation when some natural disaster hits like a tornado. Not an earthquake, which unless unusually large, more often than not leaves things relatively intact. Same with a hurricane, which can obviously cause substantial damage, but usually in concentrated (and frankly, predictable) areas, such as coastal areas.

Not only are tornados usually far more dangerous, but they usually come with little to no warning to give people time enough to prepare. The people of Moore had maybe a little over half an hour to prepare, and nothing suggested that this particular tornado would be as severe as it actually wound up being.

I heard estimates that it was anywhere from a mile to two miles and a half thick, and hit an area running approximately twenty miles long!

In it's wake, it left devastation the likes of which we rarely see. In a matter of seconds, Moore, Oklahoma, went from a peaceful and quite (presumably quiet, anyway) suburb of Oklahoma City, to the center of the world's attention in the news.

There were powerful images of teachers embracing students, of families reunited. The recovery efforts continue, and families will hope to enjoy similar reunification scenes.

As of right now, at the time of my writing this, there are at least 91 dead, and at least 145 people injured (there is a link to the New York Time article from yesterday below).

We can hope that we can continue to call efforts there search and rescue. Unfortunately, it is hard to imagine people having survived an event of that magnitude. We can hope for a miracle but, at this point in time, that is exactly what it would be: a miracle.

Now, I have a coworker, coming in cheery yesterday morning, joking around with everyone and freely giving his advice about anything and everything, as he always does. He had something to say about Oklahoma and tornados, apparently. I did not ask him (although I should have) if he had actually been to Oklahoma, or seen a tornado. Or knew anything about tornados at all.

I don't even really know him all that well, frankly. He just happens to be one of those loud guys, you know? You can hear his opinions from a mile away, because of the volume of his voice, which suggests that he wants to make sure everyone knows his opinion. He asked (sarcastically) why these people would live in a place that gets hit by tornados again and again, and pointed out a neighborhood called "Tornado Alley". Why didn't they just move?

If you look up Tornado Alley on the internet, you will quickly find that it is not a "neighborhood", but a whole section of the country, which includes (but is not restricted to) parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. There is an argument to be made, according to Wikipedia, that Tornado Alley is, in fact, much larger than that. Here is the section on it, which you can, of course, check for yourself, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_Alley:

The most common definition of Tornado Alley is the location where the strongest tornadoes occur more frequently. The core of Tornado Alley consists of northern Texas (including the Panhandle), Oklahoma and Kansas. However, Tornado Alley can also be defined as an area reaching from central Texas to the Canadian prairies and from eastern Colorado to western Pennsylvania. It can also be disputed that there are numerous Tornado Alleys. In addition to the Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas core, such areas also include the Upper Midwest, the Ohio Valley, the Tennessee Valley and the lower Mississippi valley.

It is not that easy to make a move out of a neighborhood to begin with, especially if some people have serious financial considerations and limitations preventing them from making a move. Not so simple. But then again, this coworker of mine always seems to have the quick and easy answers to things that he does not understand. Maybe he has been to Oklahoma and/or seen a tornado, and maybe not. I know maybe I should have asked him (always think of these things way too late, you know?).

But I did ask him one question, and rather pointedly at that (he seemed a little surprised, probably because few people at the job, and perhaps few outside of it, dare to challenge his assumed authority). I did ask him a question, and it was this: "Do you know of anywhere in Oklahoma that never gets hit by a tornado?"

He said he didn't, and more or less, the conversation ended there. But my point was this: this is a whole, huge section of the country. There is a lot of rich farmland, and people make a living there. Hell, based on the maps that are continually shown on the television and online news, it looks like Moore is right outside of Oklahoma City, which is a huge population center. 

Yes, there is a risk of a tornado if you live in Oklahoma (and to my understanding, pretty much anywhere in Oklahoma, or that entire region of the Midwest, for that matter). But where it there not some kind of a risk of something? In the northeast, we usually do not have tornados. Yet, we have gotten some very severe hurricanes that have almost literally altered the landscape, and destroyed home and lives along the way. We have also gotten some severe winter storms and heat waves at times, too.  These things happen.

If you live on the West Coast, you have to know that earthquakes are a threat. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, earthquakes tend not to be as severe and frequent as, say, Los Angeles or San Francisco, but there is a chance, however remote, that a volcano will one day blow up.

If you live in the Mississippi Valley, you have to know by now that the mighty river has often overflowed, and in the process, destroyed homes and lives.

Again, these things happen. There are no easy answers, even if some suggest it. It's easy to do when you approach it with not only a judgmental air (based on ignorance), but when you remain completely detached from the area.

Another brilliant thing that another coworker said was that tornados used to hit only trailer parks. He said it was if it was what could and should be expected. But now, they are hitting "civilization" (his word for it). I am not entirely sure that he said these things in the way that they came out, although he was laughing as well, and had the same detached air about it all. Chances are, he would not be laughing if he was living in that region, or had loved one who lived there.

It just really annoys me when people are that blatantly arrogant.

In any case, one other thing that some of my coworkers were talking about is how these storms seem to be a lot more frequent, and how the weather in general just seems to be going absolutely nuts. We had a huge tornado level Joplin, Missouri level a large part of a town last year. We have seen record droughts as well as floods in the Midwest in the last couple of years. And here in the Northeast, Hurricane Sandy absolutely devastated the coastal regions here, and left many in the New York metropolitan area without power for days, even weeks.

Something is wrong.

Just some personal observations.

In the meantime, I wish the best for the victims of this huge tornado, and hope that Moore stands again in the near future. Also, let us hope that we can pool together and be supportive in spirit and in action when people are down and out like this, through no fault of their own.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/us/tornado-oklahoma.html?_r=0