Just got internet back!!! I was worried about you, Dawn!

All clear here in NE Norman. We have lots of leaves in the yard. DH said it didn't rain that much, but we got quarter size hail for a short time. All the garden is none the worse for the wear. We DO have a suspicious clump of pink insulation in our drive...I suspect from the Washington area. I've heard from Seedmama. She's fine but also has some "debris".

I rode it out on the Southside of OKC. My law firm let us go about 15 minutes before it all hit. The traffic was horrible. I picked up the grandson and camped out at oldest DD apt @ I-44 & SW 89th. It was scary a couple of times, but no damage around her place. However, as I drove east on SW 89th street coming home...there is LOTS of damage around S. Santa Fe & 89th. Electric/telephone poles are snapped over about 3 ft from the ground and N/S roads are closed.

My work partner lives 7 miles east of Okarche and her home was spared. I'm concerned about Leava and Tree. And there are others in Logan county....and Lisa k....Everyone be sure to check in!!! Hope everyone is safe! And for those in the NE part, please let us know you're all safe too when this all passes you!

Paula

Here in the Village (NW OKC) all is well. Had heavy rain for a little while around 5:30, plus some small hail for a few minutes with heavy blowing winds, but an inch in the rain gauge for the afternoon. Was wishing I hadn't left my weather radio at work but luckily we kept power the whole time.

Still no internet at my apartment, but McD's here lets me use theirs. :)

Mia, any small houses for sale in your area? I could be very interested.

All is well here, OKC, 63rd and May. At work we all sat around in the break room after the sirens went off, and then all went back to work as usual, cept me. I got to sign out, as my shift was over.

Moni

Good here in Guthrie. The tornado struck two blocks north of us. The hospital in Logan county has been evacuated due to power failure and roof damage. I have been told that part of the roof of the High School was destroyed. We had been without power for a few hours, but it is back on now. Thank God for storm chasers.

Kelly

Kelly - good to hear you're ok! I still want to hear from Suzie up your way too. Moni - I'm glad you're good too! I know being transplanted is ....unsettling. I've got a feeling you're going to have a wonderful new yard soon.

Also, I've heard from newhippie (Jammie) and Chandra. They're both ok too.

Paula

There are still more of you!!! Report in please? I'll be back...after the "Dancing With the Stars" finals. (lol!)

all's well in jenks. heard from kelleyp that she's ok. i'm assuming since she lives next door to jo, that's she's alright as well.

i think i'm too much of a yankee for this. i've been here almost 15 years, and i still can't get a grip on it.

dody

Dody,

I grew up in Texas only about 80 miles from where I live now, and I'm still not used to this stuff either. It is just too scarey.

Think how lucky we are though. We have advance warning when severe storms are imminent, Doppler radar and technology that allow TV meteorologists to give street-by-street warnings as a tornado or tornadoes roar through the area, choppers in the sky tracking the storms, etc. We have the best professional weather service in the world in the NWS, and we have The Weather Channel providing constant updates and analysis. We have storm spotters and storm chasers, radar on our cell phones, and many homes have tornado shelters and safe rooms. Even though tornadoes can, of course, touch down suddenly at any time without warning, we still have a lot more warning than folks used to have.

I love talking with our elderly neighbors about "the old days" here, and a lot of them say that whole families used to sleep on the ground in tornado cellars at night when the weather seemed tornado-like because they didn't want to be sound asleep in the house when a tornado hit. We have it so easy by comparison. We can sleep soundly, knowing the alert on our NOAA Weather Radio will go off and let us know if a Tornado Warning is issued for our area.

Even when working out in the fields, they never knew when a funnel cloud might appear out of nowhere and send them running for the tornado shelter. One of our elderly neighbors who lived very close to our property once told me about how he and his wife stood at the door of their storm cellar, anxiously watching as their two teen-aged boys ran like mad to make it across a field and into the shelter with a funnel cloud right behind them. Can you imagine seeing that with your own kids today?

I think it is good that we stay nervous and can't get a grip on it. We must respect the storms' awesome power and know that we must protect ourselves by being aware and seeking shelter. When people become complacent or lackadaisical and tune out the warnings, that's when they are subjecting themselves to unnecessary risk. I think being scared of the storms is good!

Dawn

Another Villager here....I am just fine. Mia, I got an inch and a half of rain here.

Lisa

All's well here. Got text that friend's in-laws home was destroyed but can't find out where.

Is anyone old enough here to remember when Highway Patrol and police officers would stand on bridges with binoculars watching for tornadoes, phone in sightings and then the police cars would race around with their sirens blaring when one was spotted? That was "keeping ahead of the storm". (I grew up in MWC).

I've been so worried about you all. I lost internet yesterday so had to kick the kids off of the TV so I could watch the weather channel -- which, of course, made me all the more worried. I'm still trying to catch up on what all happened since our TV went out after a while. (We had storms.)

I do love our weather radio and am incredibly thrilled that I get signal on it here. It went off dang near all night last night (mostly flood warnings -- they happen a lot here) so I didn't get much sleep but it sure beats not having that warning. As a kid in Kansas, we didn't have weather radios or TV or even decent forecasting on the radio. We went by the "feel" in the air and what the skies looked like. Everyone stood outside and watched. I saw several close-by tornadoes as a kid but I was fortunate that none ever affected me directly. My mom, however, was in a big tornado in Illinois in '67, right before I was born. The house & town were destroyed but she was able to hide in the basement.

Ramble, ramble...

Diane

Everything's okay where we live east of Blanchard. The Chickasha/Newcastle tornado passed 5 miles to our north, and the Washington/Goldsby tornado passed 7 miles to our east. We were able to see them both while we were out chasing, and for a few minutes east of Chickasha I was very concerned about it heading for our house. It sounds like it missed Blanchard just to the north but did some damage in Newcastle.

We got our power back about four hours after the first tornado went by, which I thought was very fast. Some friends of ours in Huntsville, AL, were without power for something like five days after the tornadoes they had down there last month.

Everything is fine here (Meeker/Jacktown). We did have to pump about a 1 1/2 ft. of water out of the neighbors cellar.
Lisak

hi,our family is fine.worst of it was 1.5 miles north.too close..........went right over us,many touchdown areas outside of town a bit.my heart is so heavy for those who lost people and property, my friend's son's house is gone in piedmont but they are ok.i just knew my garden was going to get pulverized by hail but just rain with a touch of tiny hail at one point.glad to hear those who have checked in here are all well.i am jumping at loud noises today............

Ilive in southern Logan county about a mile from the LAZY E Arena which is on Forest Hills rd. which is an exstension of Seward rd. where one of the tornados touched down. The major difference to me was the tornado was 11 miles west ofme and then it vered north into Guthrie. We had marble and golf ball sized hail here plus high winds. I found a tomatoe in my garden that was cut in half by a hail stone. Glad I MISSED that one. Peace to you all....

I spent my day storm watching but it was on my computer. LOL About all I got done yesterday was the shelter re-stocked. I watched the central storms because I have a daughter there, then the northern OK storms because I have a son there, then it finally made it's way to us.

One neighbor that lives on the street behind us came over and asked if his family could come to our shelter if it got bad, but they didn't have to come. My neighbor across the street called and asked if I would call them if I thought they should be in the shelter. Everyone knows I watch the storms. I finally did call them and tell them I didn't think it was going to hit us hard, but if it did it was going to be in the next few minutes, so they came over. We were close enough to the storm that the lightening was almost constant, but the early storms followed I-44 and went into Ottawa county then into Kansas. Another came south of us in the southern part of the county and the TV kept saying it was tornadic and I could see rotation forever as it slowly moved across the county. When everything was finally over and our friends started to leave for home, I watched another storm build and again move across the south end of the county. Again we were in the donut hole. We got rain but nothing else.

Leava- I'm so glad to here you and Jeff are OK. I've been worried and praying for you.

Warr Acres is fine, but we were real worried for a long time. Had closet cleaned out, but DH called (after several tries to get through) and said get down here- so packed up the dog. Went to a bar which is partially underground and on the east side of a building. Won't mention names since dogs and the health department don't get along. Have to brag- we have a wonderful well-behaved dog.

Praying everyone is safe.

Andria

We're okay ... our power is out and may be for a while due to all the downed power lines out here, but that's manageable. The tornado that hit Piedmont and Guthrie went just around us to the east and north. One of the news helicopters was shooting video from right over us. We had 16 people (9 adults, 3 teenagers, 3 kids, 1 baby) and 3 dogs in our cellar ... it was cozy :). I don't think we even got any hail, just a lot of heavy rain and high winds. Today when I drove out of our addition I noticed some strange things on the side of the road that I suspect might be debris from the tornado.

I had been very anxious about the weather all day and left work at 3:30. I got home just in time to change clothes and gather a few more things to take in the cellar (already had a bag ready from the night before, lol). The thing that really put me on edge though was the thunder. It was a constant rolling thunder, not the intermittent boom - boom that you usually hear in a storm. It never stopped, and at one point it was making such a rumbling sound that I thought it was actually a tornado that I was hearing. I've never heard thunder like that.

I'm glad to hear so many reporting in that they're okay, especially those of you that were really close to the areas that were hit. The news of the family in Piedmont with the small children is just the saddest thing. The ages of those children are almost the same as our little grandchildren. I am still hoping they will find that little 3-year-old alive.

Suzie

Not too bad here. Part of our little town was damaged by the last tornado of the night, and some friends had to stay with us because of their house damage.

Lost only a few tomatoes from wind. Electricity is back on this morning.

OT- sorry-

andria, you MUST know my daughter!!! she was in that same bar last night, during the storm! (as far as i know, there's only one bar in tulsa that fits that description.) she would have been the one with the bright blue hair and full sleeve tats. (she goes by kater) she's a little scary looking, but she's also the sweetest thing to walk the face of the earth.

I think we got off light, just North of Tahlequah. Didn't have time, this morning, to check the garden. But our animals were all fine. Two nights ago a tornado aparently went through/over Moodys, which is nearby. A house, up the hill from us was struck by lightening and burned to the ground.

George

Impatience,

They still do that here! Last night, our county deputies and other storm spotters were out spotting storms. The one closest to us was on a bridge about a mile from our house as the crow flies. I was glad knowing he was there since it is on much higher ground than we are and I knew he'd see the tornadoes before we did. And he did, too, so we had advance warning to stop staring at the sky and get into the shelter.

They do not necessarily drive around with their sirens on alerting people in our county depending on where the storms are because Thackerville, Marietta, Shady Dale and Greenville, I think, all have storm sirens that the firefighters sound when a tornado is spotted near them or is known to be moving towards them. Out in less populated areas, some of the firefighters do drive around in the firetrucks sometimes sounding their sirens to alert folks.

Leava, I'm glad to hear you and Jeff are alright and the storm missed y'all. We were really worried about you last night as the storms sounded too close to yall for comfort.

I would have been worried about you, Miraje, but I knew you were chasing the storms while the rest of us were running from them. I am glad they missed your home.

Suzie, I was nervous on your behalf, just hoping you made it home from work before it got to your place. I knew you had a shelter and would be in it if you got home before the storm arrived, so I'm glad you left work early.

Down here, the Ardmore schools let the kids out at 1 p.m., so I knew that folks in Carter County were indeed watching the skies and taking the storms seriously. Apparently a lot of schools around the state did that too, and I think it is a smart move.

I'm hoping they find the 3-year-old alive too even though I know the odds are against it.

Last night many of Tim's and Chris's coworkers from the D-FW metro area were calling and texting us and checking on us throughout the storms. Ironically, after we were in the clear here, the D-FW metro area was hit by much worse storms that we had here in Love County, and some of those co-workers had much more storm damage than we did.

Dawn

Dawn, The storms seemed a little odd last night about building again after the major storm had passed. My son had lost all communication except phone at his house and was depending on us to tell him when they could come out of the basement. I called to tell him it had passed and by then everything was back on again. Awhile later another storm built up and went almost the same direction again. Then later when almost everything had left Oklahoma another storm kicked up and went across the south end of our county and the north part of Adair county when there was nothing else in the area.

I had heard them say earlier in the day that that could happen, but I don't know why that happens. I wasn't seeing any rotation in that last one, so I went to bed.

It is 71 degrees here today and is probably the coolest 71 that I have ever felt. Everything is so wet and that wind is blowing across it making it feel much cooler than 71.

Everything in our part of the state is under flood warning, of course. I haven't left home so don't know what the area looks like. Al had a board meeting in Miami today and said he would be going the back way since we thought the road would probably be closed up that way. He has been asked to spend Saturday helping with the clean-up in Joplin.

Carol,

Sometimes after strong storms, new storms can form from the outflow boundaries, although I don't know if that is why the late storms were forming last night. I did notice some of those late ones and wondered if they ever were going to stop.

Dawn

Tulsa area came out ok. I can't believe how much red dirt that storm left on my vehicle. The local dirt isn't that red so it must have been imported.

We've just spent the past 45 minutes here in the basement with a couple of tornado warnings but it looks like everything really nasty is going east of us, at least in this round. The tornadic cells are now starting to hit Quincy where FIL lives and hubby is working.

I'm so glad to have a basement (and NOAA radio, working wifi, and netbook)!

Diane

adella

I was just about to say that we got some of the red dirt here in south tulsa. the winds were some of the strongest Ive seen here in years. no hail or damage though.

As with some of you I watched the clouds on the computer radar, because that roaring F5 north of here had all the TV's attention. I was watching the cloud just NW of Lawton become relevant. It never became what I thought was dangerous until it went a few miles east of here around the Grady and Caddo Co lines. I then saw the hook echo and not long after that it became the Chickasha Tornado. All is well here though. Tks for concern.
Best of Luck to you all
Bill

That Chickasha storm was headed straight for us. We got the appliance fort all ready and the animals in the crates. At one point we had our coats on, ready to run in there but then the storm fizzled. We got strong winds, tons of rain, and marble sized hail for maybe a minute but that was it.

The scariest part of the whole day was trying to get home before the storm hit. I took back roads because the highways were at a standstill but the storm was moving much faster than I was. I was listening to the radio as David Payne almost got sucked up. Had a few heart palpitations but I made it home safe.

andria, please excuse my post earlier... can i blame it on the lack of sleep and the allergy pill...total confusion in my brian, that's all i can say....

der.... :)

dody :)

I heard from Larry this morning. They are fine.