The Final Call

Oklahoma, other tornado-hit states brace for more

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Friends and neighbors help out a resident in Lyon County just south of Emporia, Kansas, May 19 after an apparent tornado touched down.

The May 19 tornado that tore part of the roof from Ms. Carter’s frame house—one of few such homes in the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park near Shawnee—laid waste to many of her neighbors’ places, and killed two people and injured several others.

The tornado was one of several that touched down in the nation’s midsection, concentrating damage in central Oklahoma and Wichita, Kansas. Two people were killed in or near the mobile home park, which is outside of Shawnee, a community about 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City.

At least 39 people throughout Oklahoma were injured, according to the state’s emergency management director.

The National Weather Service was forecasting more of the same for the region—including Oklahoma City and Tulsa, warning of the possibility of tornadoes and baseball-sized hail. Residents of Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri were also warned to watch for bad weather.

Gov. Mary Fallin began touring the hardest-hit areas early May 20, including Carney, in Lincoln County, and a mobile home park near Shawnee, 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, that suffered a direct hit and was where the two confirmed deaths happened. Forecasters had been warning of bad weather since May 15 and on May 19 said conditions had ripened for powerful tornadoes.

Tornadoes were reported in Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma as part of a storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota.

At the nearby intersection of Interstate 40 and U.S. 177, a half-dozen tractor-trailers were blown over, closing both highways for a time.

“It seemed like it went on forever. It was a big rumbling for a long time,” said Shawn Savory, standing outside his damaged remodeling business in Shawnee.

Gov. Fallin declared an emergency for 16 Oklahoma counties because of the severe storms and flooding. The declaration lets local governments acquire goods quickly to respond to their residents’ needs and puts the state in line for federal help if it becomes necessary.

Heavy rains and straight-line winds hit much of western Oklahoma on May 18. Tornadoes were also reported to the North and Northeast of Oklahoma City. The supercell that generated the twisters weakened as it approached Tulsa, 90 miles to the Northeast.

In Wichita, Kansas, a tornado touched down near Mid-Continent Airport on the city’s southwest side shortly before 4 p.m., knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses but bypassing the most populated areas of Kansas’ biggest city. The Wichita tornado was an EF1—the strength of tornado on the enhanced Fujita scale—with winds of 110 mph, according to the weather service.

Golf ball-sized hail slammed homes in the area.

The weather service reported two tornadoes touched down in Iowa— near Huxley and Earlham. Some 6,000 customers were without power May 20, including in the hardest-hit areas where the tornado sirens were also rendered silent. In the event of new impending strikes, first responders planned to use their emergency vehicles’ sirens to warn residents. (AP)