2/10/09 DISC: OK/AR/TX/MO/KS/LA

[Tim Newman]

Our sirens are controlled using the phone lines to turn them on. If we don't hang up the phone, it continues to sound. We had a storm last year that was warned. Our police chief made the decision to leave the sirens running through the entire event. He burned up several of our sirens and the cost to replace motors was over $100,000. We discussed this afterward and he said he would do the same thing in the same circumstances. I "what iffed" him with, "What if, after burning up 15 of 60 sirens, we have another storm come through that needs to be warned? What happens to the 25% of the population who are no longer within earshot?" He now realizes that it is not worth it to kill a quarter of the sirens each time we have a storm.

We do not sound an all-clear. We tell people, if they hear a second siren, they should take cover again.

 

[Chris Vagasky]

As far as people taking the repsonsibility for personal safety upon themselves, I agree with Jeff whole-heartedly. I grew up in this area and all three major OKC stations are picked up down there, plus four more local stations from Ardmore/Ada/Wichita Falls. I called a friend of mine in Healdton (about 15 miles west of Lone Grove) when the storm was just crossing the Jefferson/Carter county line, and he said they were watching the weather on television and were well-aware of what was going on...so at least one station was doing coverage. On the other hand, my family (who have always been complacent about severe weather despite my being a chaser) had no clue what was happening when I first called them. Once I got them to turn on the television, they were giving me updates when I'd call to check their status, from information they were hearing on television. My aunt was even able to tell me how wide the tornado was based on spotter reports, the last time I called before telling them to take cover. So it's not like there wasn't plenty of warning barring the sirens...if they didn't sound.

I was at one of the Oklahoma City stations on Tuesday night assisting with the coverage. When the storm was still in Clay (Montague?) County, I pointed out that storm and said that it was going to be the next player for our coverage area.

We came back on the air once the storm crossed into Jefferson County, and mentioned that it was dark and velocities were strong and to assume the worst case scenario -- that a tornado was on the ground and to take shelter and leave mobile homes.

We were on the air again as it was approaching Lone Grove, and came right back on after the warning mentioned a large, violent tornado.

We put out the warnings, and it is up to the viewers to react.

 

[Danny Neal]

First off, It is very unfortunate that eight lives were lost to this devastating tornado. When I heard there were people missing I thought their may have been dozens of fatalities but I guess about everybody had been accounted for. It could have been worse but still it is sad anybody died from this monster tornado. Another thing, has their ever a tornado of this magnitude during the month of February. This tornado may have caught many people off guard because I hav not heard of many violent tornadoes in the plains during this time of the year.

2/28/07 - The first "official" EF-4 tornado hit SE KS. I know Darin B had a (not-so) nice up-close encounter with that.

 

[STurner]

2/28/07 - The first "official" EF-4 tornado hit SE KS. I know Darin B had a (not-so) nice up-close encounter with that.

Yeah, what I meant to say was I believe that is the only violent tornado recorded in Oklahoma during the month of February. I only live about 30 miles from the tornado you are referring to that hit Blue Mound, Kansas.

 

[Danny Neal]

Was the whole UPS story confirmed? *Stranded outside in the parking lot at time tornado hit, story*

I moved my question here because I didn't want to take away the significance of the basement thread, and it would probably fit in better here..

 

[T. W. Miller]

Related to what someone stated earlier about other factors (distance from, wind/rain/hail noise, et al) in regards to hearing the siren(s), other factors to consider would be people watching their tv (non-local) or listening to their music at a high enough volume level such as to drown out any external sounds.

Bottome line, even with sirens sounding and adequate local broadcast coverage was available for ample warning, one can only speculate what any person was doing during that time that may have prevented or inhibited their knowledge of the situation.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

Lone Grove Tornado 911 Calls, Dash Cam Video Released

Authorities have released recordings of 911 calls that followed Tuesday's powerful tornado in Lone Grove.

"I'm west of Lone Grove," one caller said, reporting the tornado. "It's huge. All of the electricity has just gone out in Lone Grove. All of it. There is no lights. I watched it travel for about two miles. It was huge. It was on the ground."

"I am in Lone Grove. I am a storm spotter and I'm out of touch with the group," said another caller. "Can you please relay that there are massive power flashes in Lone Grove. We've got a tornado on the ground in Carter County."

 

[Bryce Stone]

From what I can determine, there is a two-word answer to why this tornado took so many lives: trailer park. Seven of the nine fatalities occurred in a trailer park.

One man interviewed by KOCO said that there was a community storm shelter in this trailer park. If there was a shelter (still unknown) and the warnings were there (they were) and the media coverage was there (it was) and the sirens sounded (they did) then it seems that the emergency management community's response was adequate to prevent (theoretically at least) any loss of life.

Sometimes I guess it all comes down to people heeding the warnings and staying alert about the weather situation.

 

[Brian Stertz]

Was there ever a final path length determined by aerial survey on the Lone Grove EF4?I just have not seen the official record on this yet...unless I have somehow missed that info statement from OUN.

 

[Kiel Ortega]

Was there ever a final path length determined by aerial survey on the Lone Grove EF4?I just have not seen the official record on this yet...unless I have somehow missed that info statement from OUN.

The aerial surveys (several were done) had difficulties on the extreme ends of the damage path, especially the beginning of the path, due to spotty damage (mostly just trees...power poles if they were present). There isn't an official length yet, but I surveyed the path from the Red River to just NE of the Majestic Hills neighborhood in Ardmore for a VERY UNOFFICIAL path length of 35 mi. The damage in TX south of Spanish Fort really wasn't much (if any) and I have yet to see any photo evidence of the tornado on the ground there (not saying it wasn't on the ground, just haven't seen anything). So if anything in TX is added, it'll bump the length up by 3 or 4 miles. If you go to the OUN webpage for the 10 Feb tornadoes and click the "GIS Data" link, you can get the preliminary path in a Google Earth kmz that I put together, including ones from OKC/Edmond and points north.

 

[Brian Stertz]

Great thanks for the info Kiel....yeah was wondering if there was any Montague Co. TX segment on that thing. Looked like things on radar really exploded updraft and couplet wise in W. Love Co. Think thats when things went from just a run of the mill tornadic supercell to the more strong/violent class. That KXII radar snapshot over Lone Grove was very impressive. Can only imagine how incredible the structure would have been if that was a pre-sunset scenario to have more solid visuals.

 

[Kris Hair]

I followed this storm from before it was warned north of Bowie. We had just left the outflow dominant storms in Wichita Falls when we saw it form.

One thing that I can't help but keep thinking about, and maybe it was just a malfunction of my equipment was that I had no Weather Radio information out there. The airways were dead. From well south of Nocona, through Nocona, and all the way to Spanish Fort, Tx. (I ran out of road there), I never had Weather Radio information. The only way we knew it was warned was by my GRLevel 3 software (and we could see it rotating violently)

Even when we got to the Texas/Ok border, still no Weather radio. And we could see the tornado on the ground through the flashes of lightning.

Maybe it was my equipment, but it was definately something I think about a lot. Not to mention I was back through Nocona the other day, and I picked it up perfectly. I even have an external antenna for it.

 

[Jason Young]

Welcome Kris !!!!

I was able to get the NWS Ardmore radio but it was weak on the west side , but I wasn't able to get the Nocona Tx. tower. Anyone know why NWS norman put out a thunderstorm warning on this as it passed in to Ok. All I can think is that S/C Ok. is in the blind spot of Ok radar's.

 

[Tony Cook]

One thing that I can't help but keep thinking about, and maybe it was just a malfunction of my equipment was that I had no Weather Radio information out there. The airways were dead. From well south of Nocona, through Nocona, and all the way to Spanish Fort, Tx. (I ran out of road there), I never had Weather Radio information. The only way we knew it was warned was by my GRLevel 3 software (and we could see it rotating violently)

Even when we got to the Texas/Ok border, still no Weather radio. And we could see the tornado on the ground through the flashes of lightning.

Had the same experience coming south on 81 across the Red River just north of Ringgold. Scanner with external antenna, and no wx. radio that entire stretch. My data feed failed also during this time. I knew the storm was rotating from the last scan we picked up before the loss of data. I wanted to get south and cut east on 82 at Ringgold, since from our angle, the core was blocking the business end of the storm. Figured it was too close a call to try it, though, so we bailed back north. At the time, I thought either it was my equipment, or we were in an area of no coverage. We started getting the NWS signal again somewhere further north, between Terrel and Ryan, although I don't remember exactly where.

In retrospect, I *think* we would have beaten the circulation and gotten a nice view of the storm as it crossed the river. Not a big fan of punching a core to get to a potentially tornadic circulation, though, especially without data or radio. The safe play did eventually result in a distant view of the power flashes as the storm hit Lone Grove.

Maybe it was my equipment, but it was definately something I think about a lot. Not to mention I was back through Nocona the other day, and I picked it up perfectly. I even have an external antenna for it.

Definitely sounds like something happened to the signal up there that evening. Glad you mentioned this, as I have not really thought about that aspect of it since the chase. Just assumed it was the usual equipment snafu in the heat of battle.

 

[Kris Hair]

It just made me wonder how many people didn't get the warning until it was too late?