Oklahoma City Tornado and Aftermath

The devastation is reminiscent of pictures of the aftermath of the Hiroshima atomic bomb destruction.

And, more tornadoes are forecast for today!

"The devastation is reminiscent ..." - that was my first thought on seeing the newsreel.

Best wishes for all in Oklahoma.

Yes, i wonder when the blame game starts, was the warning to short, did the tornado appear more quickly than anticipated?

Also Best wishes to the people in the hit area

This is tornado alley.

Tornado Alley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
They were prepared. They had ample warning and that's why so few lives were lost.

Norman OK. is close and has:

National Weather Service Forecast Office - Norman, Oklahoma
Still a LOT of work to do.

I could be wrong, but I believe that a thorough search of the news will indicate that no victims were caught unaware and/or outside. Warnings were issued well in advance. Several (3 or 6, I don't recall) days prior, a high probability of strong tornadoes was predicted.

This was a case of a tornado that was powerful enough hitting a heavily populated area. It's just too expensive to construct buildings to resist EF4+ tornadoes, given their sporadic nature. (Though that particular town getting struck by major twisters 3 times in 30 years should be VERY educational...)

Update: the number of tragedies is uncertain at this time.

Tornado hits U.S every year and destroys whole city in flip of seconds. This mostly happens in central America. Is there no solution to this natural calmity?. Can there be tornado proof houses designed to protect the people and minimize the loss of human life and property.

You have no idea. Last year there were 1,037 tornadoes reported in the USA alone.

Building a house strong enough to survive a EF4, not the strongest, would triple the cost of a home. The odds of being hit by a tornado are minuscule, and the risk does not justify the cost.

Predicting where, or if, a tornado will even touch down is also an impossible task.

Last casualty count is 24 dead and 240 injured. Small numbers when compared to the amount of devastation caused by the storm.

We have two Lyn's? I think a house similar to those Hobbit homes would have a chance of surviving as they merge with their surroundings (ground).

On the warning side, the first news i saw about it is that people were caught by surprise by these tornadoes (anyway politicians will use it to throw mud anyway)

The first news you saw was WRONG! INCORRECT.

Everyone within 100 miles of the tornado knew it was coming.

You do not seem to be connected to reality here.

Only 1-2% of tornadoes get this strong. The path of destruction is "only" 1-2 km wide and several dozen km long. That's part of a city. The vast majority of twisters hit sparsely populated areas with winds of ~200 km/hr that last for seconds. Last year's season was probably an outlier, with two large cities taking direct hits from strong twisters.

The way to survive a strong tornado is to get below ground level with a sturdy cover. That's all. Though most families in that part of the country have storm shelters, few have basements for reasons that strike me as inadequate (mainly cost). If they put more thought and money into their next homes, not only they but their prized possessions could emerge relatively unscathed.

We've seen some good tornado video from Europe this year.

We're learning more and more about tornadoes but they are deliciously chaotic, hard to study and of course hard to predict with precision. It has been many years since I've laid eyes on one, and I look forward to seeing another in person soon - from a secure position in the middle of nowhere.