posted 05-10-2003 04:14 PM
Twister Caps Nation's Worst Tornado Week
Long Link
Sat May 10
By JULIE E. BISBEE, Associated Press Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY - Capping what may be the nation's most tornado-stricken week ever recorded, residents of Oklahoma City got a double dip of both devastation and enormous good luck.
For the second time in as many nights, a massive tornado hopscotched across the city's outskirts, laying waste to homes and spraying debris through Oklahoma's highest population concentration.
Yet somehow, no one was killed in either storm.
Five injuries were reported — one person was critical — after Friday night's twister tore up a southwest-to-northeast swath.
It did not appear injuries would climb above a dozen, "which is unbelievable when you look at the pictures and that it went right across the metro," said Paul O'Leary, a spokesman for the Emergency Medical Services Authority.
The critical patient had suffered a head injury; others were in fair condition, O'Leary said.
The day before, a similarly strong tornado moved through Oklahoma City's southern suburbs, injuring 134 and damaging or destroying hundreds of homes and businesses. Of those, 21 remained hospitalized Friday, O'Leary said; at least three were in critical condition.
Friday's tornado dropped from a storm that began in southwest Oklahoma and slowly grew to tornadic level near the town of Cogar, about 60 miles west of Oklahoma City.
Police Sgt. Mike Klika said the twister first touched down in Oklahoma City south of Interstate 40, moved north into the suburbs of Bethany and Warr Acres and then moved back into Oklahoma City along I-35. It then turned northeast back along I-44 and continued to track toward Tulsa.
"I think our citizens had early warning and I think they learned their lesson, they took heed and took cover," Bethany Police Chief Neal Troutman said.
When it was over, neighbors came out to help Gene Wilson, whose mower service was heavily damaged.
"We got here just after it rolled over us," Wilson said. "It's just devastating. My building and everything I've worked for 30 years is down on the ground."
His wife, Carol Wilson, looked through papers scattered in the rubble. "Oh my God, I couldn't believe it. It's horrible. It's our whole life," she said.
In Missouri, tornadoes touched down in at least two western counties Friday night, causing damage and some minor injuries, as a weeklong rash of severe weather in the Kansas City area continued.
"It came down right on top of me," said Freeman Police Officer John Smith. "You could just here this 'brrrr' and I thought that was it. I thought it was going to pick me up and throw me."
Tornadoes and other severe weather have killed 42 people in Missouri, Tennessee, Kansas and Illinois in the past week, which will likely qualify as the nation's most tornado-active in modern recorded history, said Rich Thompson, lead forecaster at the storm prediction center of the National Weather Service (news - web sites), in Norman, Okla.
"We just don't have a down day; that's what's been very unusual. It just doesn't seem to stop. I just issued another tornado watch not five minutes ago," Thompson said around 4:30 a.m. Saturday.
In the past seven days, 298 tornadoes have been reported to the weather service nationwide, Thompson said, a number that is still somewhat in flux, and is most likely to rise. The most recent comparable rash was 159, set in 1999.
He stressed that because of new tracking technologies and a burgeoning network of weather spotters, the average number of recorded tornadoes is ever on the rise. Adjusting for that, Thompson said, the most twisters within a seven-day period had occurred in the mid 1970s.
"I think we've pretty clearly exceeded that now," he said.
And it doesn't appear to be over.
"We're got one more system to deal with and expect one more big severe weather day (Saturday)," he said. The storms were expected to move through the Mississippi and Ohio valleys and Great Lakes.
But there's an end in sight, he said.
"By late Sunday, a big cold front will scour out most of the country. We'll see some pleasant temps and dryer conditions ... of course, it's May, so that could change real fast."
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