Uncle Joe Radio

Over a Dozen Tornadoes Touch Down in OK on May 10, 2010

The tornado attack on the Oklahoma City area Monday was an intense time here at Uncle Joe’s studio.  Just as rush hour began, severe weather started to blanket the greater Oklahoma City metro.  Strong winds and hailstones – some as large as softballs – accompanied these storms as they passed overhead. 

And then the sirens began to howl out their nightmare warning: tornadoes!

The first was spotted roping across the western sky in the NW suburb of Yukon.   It didn’t appear to be very strong, but these things are known to quickly become damaging.

Within a few minutes, another tornado was spotted to the southwest near the southern suburb of Moore.  This bedroom community still reels from the memory of a category F5 (300+ mph winds) on May 3, 1999 that carved a mile-wide path of destruction through town. 

Warning sirens were sounded again and again as the threats appeared and diminished  just as quickly over the next two hours.   Tornadoes crossed two Interstate Highways.  One TV helicopter pilot reported being underneath one rotating cloud formation while looking at a different tornado.  With the skies boiling, the pilot had to perform an emergency dive to gain enough airspeed to escape the winds clutching at his aircraft. 

The largest tornadoes began near the southern metro city of Norman, OK,  home of Oklahoma University.  One crossed from NE Norman into SE Oklahoma City and beyond to the northeast.   Another formed to the south of Norman and headed E-NE across five counties, wreaking havok in the towns of Tecumseh and Seminole.  These tornadoes produced much of the damage that you’ve seen on television: the wiped-out trailer park, twisted cell and power towers, and the amazing survival story at a demolished Love’s Country Store truck stop.  Over a dozen tornadoes would come down statewide.

The fatal storms injured over 100 and destroyed as many homes.  Nearly 10,000 were reported to be without electricity, mainly due to damage to heavy transmission lines and equipment.  Amazingly, only two deaths have been reported so far in the aftermath of the outbreak.

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