Tornado Take Cover in OKC, where Michigan Softball team is
Tornado warning has been issued for OKC where the Women's College World Series is. Some players are tweeting about it in twitter like Haylie Wagner.
Keep them in your thoughts and prayers tonight as well as everyone in OKC.
Putting it into perspective-
The Weather Channel's Mike Bettis says truck he was in was tossed 200 yards by tornado in OKC area. All in crew are ok.
I live in an area where the most exciting weather that happens is snow. I can't imagine living in fear of tornados f'ing destroying your whole town every single year
Looks like a tornado is about to hit downtown OKC.
Edit: Forboding that the weather guy keeps talking about "drawing softballs".
called for a Tornado Emergency for the Oklahoma City area. There are a few ppl trying to text some of the team to see if they are ok. The tornado path is directed at the softball complex but the team SHOULD not be there unless they are watching the other games.
I will post on this thread if I find out anything. Thank God I did not venture down there today.
going through. The lines are down.
It's scary to think how often this happens in the entire state. Let's hope all athletes, fans, and residents of the region stay safe.
The official warning bulletin went up a few moments ago (LINK)
Earlier reports speak of gusts of 75 MPH in the storms, not counting any tornadoes that develop, softball size hail and flash flooding. Hopefully, everyone there gets through this alright - this is absolutely the last thing they need.
in a tornado shelter and safe. They are being well cared for.
We all need to say a prayer for ALL the teams and visitors. The field is expected to take a DIRECT HIT in about 20 minutes.
MGOSOFTBALL!!!
They postponed the games tonight several hours before they were to begin, well before the thunderstorms started popping up. The local meterologists were already warning that this was going to occur, and the softball organizers did the right thing and let everyone know well in advance that tonight's games would not be played.
Wow. I'm going to assume that the truck has a roll cage for the purpose of tornado chasing. 200 yards (rolling, assuming) is a lot of carnage. Looks like another property damage nightmare. Most people should be home today so at least people are more likely to be in safer locations than before.
Watching that NBC link, I'm amazed that there seems to be a fair amount of traffic out on the roads. And there's more than one tornado.
It is a Friday evening and OKC is a major crossroads, so a lot of traffic moves through here, but it is being excacebated by locals freaking out and trying to outrun the tornado. Local tv is saying there is a tornado right at Tinker AFB now.
This tweet just came through:
RT
: Hail from El Reno, OK.When I first read "Hail from El Reno, OK". I thought "What's a Michigan alum doing in El Reno, OK?"
A True Michigan Man. I laughed out loud at this one. +1 to you good Sir.
The Grand Rapids Griffins are scheduled to play OKC Barons tonight in downtown OKC in the conference finals of the AHL playoffs. The fans, players, and staffs were evacuated out of the arena and into the bottom level of the underground parking structure.
Edit: Just saw latest tweet saying fans are re-entering the arena and game "may not be canceled"
They haven't announced the new schedule yet, but figure on 4 games Saturday, 4 games Sunday, with the 2 "if necessary" games on Monday afternoon so they can start the championship series on schedule Monday night at 8:00.
Which would mean that the Michigan-Arizona State game will likely be at 9:30 Saturday night.
#WCWS Schedule Update: June 1 / CT Session 3 11 am Wash vs. Tenn1:30 pm OU vs. UTSession 46 pm Nebraska vs. UF8:30 pm ASU vs. UM
— NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) June 1, 2013
4 fields available to play on. However there is only 1 showcase stadium.
I think that in the pretty near furutre we will be able to at least predict in advance when these types of things are going to happen. The amount of data that we can collect and process is growing at nearly an exponential rate. Until then, what can you do?
Almost went to OKC with the Daily to cover softball, but I have plans in Canada. Last I heard is the sports reporter is in a shelter and is doing fine.
A bit off topic here (and score it accordingly, if necessary), but there's an awful lot of yellow and red on the radar headed this way, due to arrive in a couple hours.
The tornado last night in Broken Arrow was right behind our house, luckily there were zero injuries. My mom was in OKC today getting her Indian card and was out driving in this trying to get somewhere safe and she has finally made it to my grand parents house and are OK. They were at the casino and apparantly their procedure is to evacuate during tornado warnings??? I think this has been the worst season we have had in the 25 years that I have lived here.
been to Broken Arrow. My MIL is from Poteau and surrounding areas. Nice area (in my best Jim Price voice).
My wife and I have lived in Oklahoma for twenty years and were also discussing the number and severity of tornadoes and that just the past two weeks there have been more severe storms than seems normal in a year's time.
Thanks. I grew up in Michigan too, where most houses have basements. Here in Oklahoma, almost nobody does; the houses are built on slabs, go figure. We don't have a shelter, but the odds of an f4 or f5 tornado hitting us are still extremely small. With the technology available and the skill of the spotters (every major news channel out here has the latest radar and at least a half dozen trained tornado chasers giving visual reports), we have an excellent idea ahead of time of where the tornadoes are heading. Anything less than an f4, I would just ride out in a bathroom near the center of the house. An f4 or f5, I guess (I never even thought much about it before, to be honest, the odds of it occurring being so small--since 1950, there have only been 59 f5 tornadoes in the US) I would get in the car and head away from the tornado, avoiding the major roads and expressways after seeing what happened last night where local expressways were so clogged traffic was barely moving.
If we still had kids at home, I would probably invest in a shelter, but those old farts that I thought were crazy when they would say "they grow up so fast," were right, and only the youngest is home part of the time, on college breaks.
Thanks. I grew up in Michigan too, where most houses have basements. Here in Oklahoma, almost nobody does; the houses are built on slabs, go figure. We don't have a shelter, but the odds of an f4 or f5 tornado hitting us are still extremely small. With the technology available and the skill of the spotters (every major news channel out here has the latest radar and at least a half dozen trained tornado chasers giving visual reports), we have an excellent idea ahead of time of where the tornadoes are heading. Anything less than an f4, I would just ride out in a bathroom near the center of the house. An f4 or f5, I guess (I never even thought much about it before, to be honest, the odds of it occurring being so small--since 1950, there have only been 59 f5 tornadoes in the US) I would get in the car and head away from the tornado, avoiding the major roads and expressways after seeing what happened last night where local expressways were so clogged traffic was barely moving.
If we still had kids at home, I would probably invest in a shelter, but those old farts that I thought were crazy when they would say "they grow up so fast," were right, and only the youngest is home part of the time, on college breaks.