I have a full time temporary home for a job I have in Oklahoma City, while trying to also live in the northeast part of the state. Have been full time rv'er for 10 years, so one has to like camping to do this. I also have the bus project that I make tiny little bits of progress on from time to time, but will mostly wait for a little while longer to pay more attention to it. 6 May, 2015 we - being the people that I live with in the full time temporary place - had a tornado come through and blast it into oblivion. This type of experience can be traumatic, and while I came out of it unscathed compared to many, I do have a tough time 'revisiting' it in terms of looking at pics I took at the time. Hence the delay in this post. I used to keep many of them on my phone and shared with friends/family not directly involved. Just looked at them again for the first time in several months and thought I would share some of it....small pieces at a time - mainly 'cause it takes so long to edit the pics for showing.
First - we had tornadoes a week before this one came through, and SWMBO and I had been out to dinner and on the way back, a small tornado (F2 or so) had caught me out of the car taking pictures of the storm, so I got caught in the debris cloud just a little bit. It was literally like walking into a full body sandblaster. Less fun than one would hope... Got back in car and drove away fast, but it kind of jangles the nerves and sets the tone for the entire spring storm season. A week after the 6 May storm, we were back at our other less temporary home, and had another F2 come through less than a mile from the house. I am now convinced the Storm Gods are actively searching for me!! I feel that search continues today!
May 6.
Weather reports said storms likely afternoon through the evening into the night. Few things around here more exciting than tornadoes after dark! I work at the edge of a small town that houses the National Storm Center - Norman, OK, so they should know, and they said these could be severe with likely tornadoes! About 4:00 pm, everyone left the office to go to their homes, and I decided to go south a few miles and just sit this one out and maybe get some pictures from a distance. So far, so good. Went to a little town called Goldsby and found a truck stop parking lot to watch had a great view of the first storm of the day. By the end of the day, the rv park had 19 people in the hospital, 9 critical condition, but NO deaths!
So, with big thunderstorms, lightning, hail, tornadoes, and extreme winds moving into the area, what would one expect people to do to prepare for that? Take cover, perhaps? Find a storm shelter? Avoid large metal objects that might attract lightning? Well, in probably every other state of the union, that might be the preferred approach.
The only problem with that is you might miss seeing something very cool !!
So, get a ladder. Put it against a nice tall metal box and climb up to see!! Lower left hand corner...see the Okies! I do have to confess, I really wanted to go climb up there, too! The center of the pic is where the first tornado of the day is located. It was an F1, about 1/4 mile wide. Under the wall cloud slightly to the right, you can see a little lighter area with a rain burst going to the ground. The funnel was rain wrapped and centered behind that tan building in the center.
This is the one that went directly over the plant I work at and took out some power poles, lots of trees and pulled part of the roof off the building. So far, so good...not too bad.
![Image](http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l598/stealthcamper90/Tornado%20destruction/IMG_0257_zpso8b9cxig.jpg)
This picture is the same storm about 5 minutes later, moving east as it headed toward Norman. Little blurry, but the edge of the rain/funnel is center of pic, and is the entire dark area to the left.
![Image](http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l598/stealthcamper90/Tornado%20destruction/IMG_0264_zps2vflm7te.jpg)
This shot was taken at the exact time it was over the plant tearing stuff up.
![Image](http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l598/stealthcamper90/Tornado%20destruction/IMG_0275_zpsnw9hhbne.jpg)
I 'followed' the storm as it went on by, heading north to go home. Still plenty of storm, and more cells building on my left. I think they said we had about 15 tornadoes in the area over the next 4 hours. More than enough for me.
![Image](http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l598/stealthcamper90/Tornado%20destruction/IMG_0280_zpsjqvteue8.jpg)