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Deadly Tornadoes Rip Oklahoma, Kansas

By JEFF LATZKE,
AP
Posted: 2008-05-26 08:05:11
OKLAHOMA CITY (May 25) - A slow-moving storm packing tornadoes and hail battered rural Oklahoma on Saturday, destroying several buildings, tearing up trees and tossing a mobile home onto a highway. The bodies of two storm victims were found in Kansas.

A twister destroyed three barns at a hog farm near Lacey in Kingfisher County, about 75 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Emergency Management Department.

No injuries were reported at the farm or elsewhere in the state.

"It's all been out mostly in the countryside," Kingfisher County Sheriff's dispatcher Lonnie McDade said. "But that farm happened to be in the path and took a direct hit."

John Hardaway, a production manager at the farm, said the 3,900 pigs housed at the farm were kept in crates and most were not hurt.

In Garfield County, a trailer was blown onto State Highway 74 near Covington and power lines were downed, said the county's emergency manager, Mike Honigsberg.

The pace of the storm was slow for a system producing so many tornadoes, Daryl Williams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Norman.

"It gives us time to get the warnings out, but where the tornadoes are on the ground, it creates a lot more damage," Williams said. "We've been lucky because this has been mostly rural areas, but it's not lucky if it's your farm."

Saturday's storm followed two days of violent weather in the Midwest. In Kansas, cleanup was under way a day after a storm system raked the state with at least 17 tornadoes.

That storm killed at least two people, injured at least six others and heavily damaged at least 19 homes, authorities said.

Test Your Tornado Safety Smarts

All tornadoes have funnels.

  • True
  • False

Which element of a tornado is the most dangerous?

  • Extremely strong winds
  • Lightning
  • Flying debris
  • Hail

If you're in a vehicle and a tornado is near, what should you do?

  • Pull over and stay in the car
  • Get out of the car and lie on the ground
  • Try to drive away from the tornado

If you're in a mobile home and a tornado is near, what should you do?

  • Get out
  • Take cover in an interior room
  • Take cover under the home

If you're in an office building during a tornado, which is not a good place to take cover?

  • A stairwell
  • An interior elevator
  • A windowless room
  • A basement
The two people killed in the storm were found Saturday in a car near Pratt, the Pratt County Sheriff's Office said. The vehicle had been blown 150 yards off a highway. Gary S. Whitlow, 33, and Kimberly S. Whitlow, 29, died.

Authorities are looking into whether lightning killed a camper in Osage County.

A Kansas Highway Patrol aircraft flew along the path of the tornado to search for other possible victims.

In northern Colorado, where a tornado struck Thursday, killing one person and damaging hundreds of homes, residents of the hard-hit farming town of Windsor were allowed into their neighborhoods Saturday to assess the damage and in some cases, salvage what they could.

"Our house is not too bad," said Courtney Schinner. "Our roof is gone, a lot of windows are blown out, but the interior is OK.

"We got really lucky compared to a lot of people," she said as she gathered her valuables and prepared to move into a hotel while her apartment is repaired.

Officials advised residents of the dangers in the area: exposed electrical wires, severed gas lines, nails, broken boards and other debris.

Of the 596 homes officials said were damaged by the Colorado storm, 102 were deemed unsafe to occupy.

About 100 people have died in U.S. twisters so far this year, the worst toll in a decade, according to the weather service, and the danger has not passed yet. Tornado season typically peaks in the spring and early summer, then again in the late fall.

Associated Press writers David Twiddy in Kansas City, Mo., Ivan Moreno in Denver and Murray Evans in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-05-22 16:11:33
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Recent Comments

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2385 comments

harsmi5 11:11:23 PM May 28 2008

Often an outcome that flows from a strong current depends upon a critical area of human thought and action. For example, according to Scripture, the prophet Jonah was forced against his will to prophesy doom to the city of Ninevah because the inhabitants were in great need of "repentance," or nacham, literally "submission" to the Higher Nature. In other words, the culture of the city was devolutionary and immoral. But after he delivered his prophecy of doom, the people were deeply affected and made major reform efforts. Consequently, the disasters Jonah had prophesied did not manifest. At the end of the Book of Jonah, the prophet complains to God that now he looks like a charlatan because doom did not befall the city to vindicate his prophecies. God replies that the response of the people averted disaster, and the prophet should rejoice. The people of the city repented. Human thoughts and actions can influence the weather.

Harry

harsmi5 10:50:09 PM May 28 2008

It is important to understand that future of the planet and humanity ripens from a causal or "karmic" chain of consequences that originate in human thought and action. The near future is a tightly articulated field of probabilities whose outcomes can be altered in a major way only by extreme transformation in the present, while the far future can be radically changed by small transformations consistently applied--not unlike navigation on the high seas. Human thought and action create the physical and noetic environments that produce chains of events and probable outcomes. Human beings do not yet realize their continual influence upon natural events such as earth changes, climate, and weather,especially tornadoes.

Often an outcome that flows from a strong current depends upon a critical area of human thought and action. For example, according to Scripture, the prophet Jonah was forced against his will to prophesy doom to the city of Ninevah because the inhabitants were in great nee

donreg2000 07:16:45 PM May 27 2008

It amazes me that individuals are so quick to condemn people and the choices they make. How can tahey be so heartless? Surely they must realize that whatever will be will be. There is no escape from our fate and round house or not, when the time for disaster to strike there is no place one can hide unless Karma so wills it. Where is your heart?

emania81 05:55:06 PM May 27 2008

It's very clear that we haven't seen the last of those monsters for this year. For those who survived the wrath of the natural killers, they are lucky. But don't think for even a fraction of a second that a tornado won't strike again. As Mother Nature proved last week, no one is safe if she decides to either hit your area multiple times within a few days' time and/or unleash a lot of tornadoes in one area. For anyone who believes that they won't be hit directly or sideswiped by tornadoes, whether they are in a house or in a car, she will prove to you that you are dead wrong. No one, not even myself, can control these elemental demons. Anyone who is oblivious about taking shelter from these wind-filled assassins will either wind up in a hospital or in a grave. That may sound harsh, but dying at the hands of a twister (if they did have hands) has got to be one of the worst ways to die.

wandaimel 05:01:58 PM May 26 2008

I just want to know if ther was damage in St. Charles Minnesota.

rednana04 09:49:43 AM May 26 2008

I saw my first tornado 50 years ago , when i was 5,,, we had never heard of global warming back then , we didn't have all these so called 'social issues' that we are supposedly being punished for ...it was just bad weather.... the next one i saw hit our house when i was 14,,, in january even. and then it started to snow ... again , just bad weather.... stop making more of this than it is ,, it's sad, and heartbreaking , but it's not a call from God , or punishment or whatever...think science!!!

bocabrad 06:02:12 AM May 26 2008

Where is Pat Robertson with this claims that God is mad at someone and therefore destroying their lives? Has God finally had enough of his followers and now wants to destroy them for their lifestyles? He is amazingly silent when it comes to bible-belt destruction.

jheckers 02:56:24 AM May 26 2008

Unfortunately, as the polarity of the earth shifts (completing in 2012) there will be more and more "natural disasters." Soon, this will be followed by crop failures, and then by food riots. Read my spiritual blog at http://spiritualmastery.blogspot.com/ for more info on 2012 and spirituality.

stargazer33154 12:51:46 AM May 26 2008

no one deserves to lose everything.. if you believe that you're a moron

ganzerl 12:45:46 AM May 26 2008

tanoujin 12:19:41 AM May 26 2008

Report This! THESE PEOPLE ARE STUPID. ROUND SHAPED HOUSES CAN WITHSTAND THE FORCE OF A TORNADO AND UNDERGROUND POWER WIRES CAN'T GET BLOWN DOWN. STILL THEY BUILS SQUARE HOUSES AND HANG WIRES ON TELEPHONE POLES. THEY DESERVE EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO THEM
----------------------------
400 mph winds will take out a round house just as fast and a square one.
Underground power wires are very expensive and maintenance even more expensive.

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