Six die in Oklahoma tornadoes
The deadliest outbreak of tornadoes in Oklahoma since 1999 killed at least
six people, including an infant, in Picher on Saturday.
The death
toll has moved down from seven to six. The Oklahoman’s Michael Kimball and
Sheila Stogsdill are reporting.
The south end of Picher has been destroyed.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. George Brown said the infant died at a Tulsa
hospital and five adults were found dead in Picher. Identifying those killed
could take up to a week..
There are many people missing, but authorities could not give an estimate
given the extent of the damage.
At least a dozen ambulances were seen leaving the area shortly after the
twister struck. Utility poles were snapped in half in the area and car
windshields were blown out.
More than 30 people were transported to Integris Baptist Hospital in the
nearby town of Miami. Of those, more than 20 were treated and released.
At least five tornadoes in all touched down Saturday in northern and eastern
Oklahoma.
The Picher tornado is Oklahoma’s deadliest since the May 3, 1999, tornadoes
that killed 44 people in Oklahoma.
Gov. Brad Henry declared a state of emergency late Saturday.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Picher and all of the other
Oklahoma communities that have been impacted by the latest wave of severe
weather,” Henry said in a statement.
Federal and state officials will be on the scene Sunday or Monday to see if
the area qualifies for disaster relief assistance.
Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, said he would work with Henry to get the area
declared a federal disaster area.
“I was down in Moore, Oklahoma, about 9 years ago and it was nothing like
this,” Inhofe said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
In all, at least 20 people have been killed in Oklahoma, Missouri and
Georgia.
The same storm system that ravaged Picher, also killed 12 in southwest
Missouri, according to the National Weather Service. Ten of the dead were
killed when a twister struck near Seneca, about 20 miles southeast of
Picher, near the Oklahoma border.
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Storm footage and recap
National Weather Service forecasters haven’t confirmed if storms that moved
Wednesday afternoon through the Oklahoma City area produced two tornadoes,
about 10 minutes apart.
The Oklahoman’s Brian Sargent reports it’s likely that tornadoes will be
confirmed.
At 5 p.m., a storm spotter reported a tornado near State Highway 66 west of
the John Kilpatrick Turnpike in Yukon. The tornado lasted about a minute,
the storm chaser said.
About 10 minutes later, an observer at Wiley Post Airport told the weather
service there was a tornado three miles east of the airport. Damage was
reported near NW 63 and Meridian Avenue.
Only one injury was reported.
Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. reported about 160 customers with power outages
earlier this morning.
Today in OKC: Partly cloudy. Highs in the upper 70s. Tonight: Partly
cloudy. Lows in the upper 50s. Twenty percent chance of thunderstorms.
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Raw video from Myanmar
Check out this footage from Weather.com:
The Weather Channel brings you video of Tropical Cyclone Nargis making landfall and of the post-storm destruction in the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar, which is also called Burma.
It’s Saturday, time to test the tornado sirens
Last Saturday, I drove over to John Marshall High School to shoot some riveting, possibly fascinating footage of… a tornado siren going off. Glamorous stuff.
As we all know, every Saturday the storm sirens are tested at noon. Here’s the video Angi and I did about how those sirens are tested.
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Storms brewing in Oklahoma
When you see a storm warning on TV or online, here’s what the media sees from the National Weather Service: a bulletin in all caps like today:
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WATCH IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM THIS EVENING FOR 27 COUNTIES (ok, ok, enough shouting!!)… The watch includes the metro counties of Canadian, Cleveland and Oklahoma counties.
And some other news making headlines in the state.
Police in Tulsa are investigating the death of a 17-year-old boy who jumped
through a plate glass window at a downtown hotel this morning. The teen, who
has a California address, apparently jumped through a window on the ninth
floor of the Great Western Hotel and landed on the second floor.
Police are investigating the deaths of two men whose bodies were found this
morning near a homeless shelter in southwest Oklahoma City. The deaths are
being called homicides.
Tonight is opening night for the Oklahoma RedHawks at the AT&T Bricktown
Ballpark. First pitch is at 7:05.
Sunday storm recap
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