This is a wonderful story. Cats and smallish dogs were relatively fortunate in being small enough -- form factor??? -- to be lucky enough notto be crushed by the collapsing homes and find shelter in the void spaces of the debris piles. But the many horses in the Moore area weren't so fortunate, just too darn big to hunker down and disappear into the cracks. Early TV coverage showed some horses weathered the storm out in the open and wandering around in the background, apparently roaming free after their stock barns had been demolished. But that is not the whole story. Here is some English press coverage that tells of hundreds of less fortunate horses whose corpses littered the landscape: 'Piled high amid a trail of destruction, these tragic horses are among more than 100 thought to have been killed in the Oklahoma tornado. 'As well as human lives that were lost, farms around the suburb of Moore took a direct hit from the giant twister which swept up everything in its path with winds of more than 200mph and the power of up to 600 nuclear bombs. 'Witnesses who cowered in terror described seeing 'horses and stuff flying around everywhere' and returning to find 'scorched earth' and crumpled buildings. 'They came across distressing scenes of horses lying in the middle of the road, surrounded by piles of twisted metal and uprooted trees. Others were tangled in power lines.' Read more, and some very graphic photographs: Tragic sight of dead horses piled high as farmers return to find 'just scorched earth' after Oklahoma tornado | Mail Online
We watched that little news bit with the woman finding her dog in the rubble... it was a moment of joy that didn't go unnoticed in a place filled with so much awful destruction.
CBS news interviewed a 93 year old women who came up from a bunker shelter she had on her property with her family.
I just read there are 13,000 destroyed homes after this storm passed through... 13,000 homes... just man... where are all those folks going to stay.
I could not imagine losing your home, car, school and job in the same day. The mental devastation alone would be near impossible never mind the financial. Rebuilding with insurance money can take time. I had a Coworker who lost her home in the Cedar Fire in San Diego years ago. Pretty much the Fire Dept knocked on her door at 3:00 in the morning and said get dressed and leave in 5 minutes.Insurance paid for her living arrangements while insurance paid to rebuild her home. She found a rental home and with a check in hand sought a contractor to build her home. Well not to mention all the ripe off companies taking advantage of people she managed to find the 5 one off home builders in the city that have been in business for over 20 years. The problem was 2,000 families were seeking contractors at the same time. Every builder told her at least a 12 month delay to start and 4-6 months to complete the project. They managed but it was a huge inconvenience. Her one child seems the nervous type still wakes up with nightmares. Can't imagine what some people are going through
Then matter of Oklahoma school districts being required to provide tornado resistant structures is a painful to contemplate conundrum. In that the children were in school that day because they were required to be so by state and/or municipal requirements, in loco parentis issues are involved; that is, to what levels of student safety/protection is a school system held legally accountable. News accounts have said that the State of Oklahoma has had a system in place for a number of years to help school districts retrofit or build new tornado resistant structures. Apparently, a FEMA approved above ground system built as a multi-purpose space goes for some $1.2M. And 20 or so such structures have been built… but not in Moore, OK. But ultimately, it comes down to who will pay for the up grade. Even with federal and state help, the local tax payers will have to voluntarily pay more taxes. And therein lies the rub. If the tax payers in Moore are anything like the ones here, there is a sizable, even majority, group of older and younger tax payers who don't have primary/secondary school age children and don't want to pay. (We can discuss whether this is a short sighted civic outlook ad nauseum.) But then, I've heard that some, if not the majority, of the children who died at the school drown. How that happened is not obvious to me. I'm not sure how it is connected with the tornado resistant structure issue, other than had the children been in one the drownings might not have happened.
Reminds me of my neighbor in my old house some 15 years ago. Super nice guy, VP Sales, making bank, wanted to build a Built In Pool for him and his wife in the back yard. Wanted the pool to go from 4 feet to the deep end 9 feet with a diving board. Contractor said OK, gave him a contract, and away they go. Well the back hoe got about 3 feet deep and hit solid rock. They used some type of small explosives to get another 2 feet down , and it costs some extra bank. he stopped there, no diving board but a water fall and slide. Bedrock can make it more expensive.
Different dog story > Dog Guards Dead Victim's Body After Oklahoma Tornado Disaster (PHOTO) (UPDATE) Truly Man's Best Friend.
