Oklahoma Sen. Coburn: Tornado relief funds must be offset with spending cuts (click here)
By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 9:10 EST
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 9:10 EST
...The death toll in Oklahoma as of Tuesday morning stood at 24, seven of them children,according to revised figures from the state’s medical examiner’s office. Earlier death reports included much higher numbers, but officials later said that some of the victims were counted twice amid Monday’s chaos. Local hospitals took in hundreds of people injured by flying debris as well, including 70 children. Authorities in Moore, Oklahoma have said they expect the death toll to rise....
In this May 31, 2013 file photo a tornado forms near Banner Road and Praire Circle in El Reno, Okla. The National Weather Service says the deadly tornado that struck near Oklahoma City late last week was another top-of-the-scale EF5 that packed winds reaching 295 mph. The weather service also says the twister's 2.6-mile width is the widest ever recorded. (Alonzo Adams / Associated Press / May 31, 2013)
I don't believe there was a year that passed in the recent decades Oklahoma didn't suffer deaths due to huge tornadoes and tornado outbreaks in the double digits.
'Amazing' Oklahoma tornado was largest in U.S. history (click here)
In this May 31, 2013 file photo a tornado forms near Banner Road and Praire Circle in El Reno, Okla. The National Weather Service says the deadly tornado that struck near Oklahoma City late last week was another top-of-the-scale EF5 that packed winds reaching 295 mph. The weather service also says the twister's 2.6-mile width is the widest ever recorded. (Alonzo Adams / Associated Press / May 31, 2013)
I don't believe there was a year that passed in the recent decades Oklahoma didn't suffer deaths due to huge tornadoes and tornado outbreaks in the double digits.
'Amazing' Oklahoma tornado was largest in U.S. history (click here)
June 4, 2013, 3:15 p.m.
A tornado that swept through Oklahoma on Friday was the widest tornado in American history, the National Weather Service said Tuesday.
The El Reno, Okla., tornado scraped out a damage path up to 2.6 miles wide and 16.2 miles long, a swath at points wider and longer than Manhattan. The storm broke the record held by a 2.5-mile-wide Hallam, Neb., twister.
"It was amazing and something that's extremely rare," Howard Bluestein, professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, said of the storm's strength -- which now presents a puzzle for researchers whose solution could help mean the difference between life and death.
The human aftermath left by Friday's twister was painfully apparent, with at least 18 people killed in the latest massive tornado to carve through Oklahoma this spring.
The storm itself, however, remains much more of a mystery.
Researchers don't know why the twister got as big and powerful as it did, and its strength wasn't immediately apparent as it scoured a rural area, leaving few of the physical clues that help determine wind speeds....
