Tornado Take Cover in OKC, where Michigan Softball team is

Submitted by DISCUSS Man on

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.

gwkrlghl

May 31st, 2013 at 7:47 PM ^

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

MGoSoftball

May 31st, 2013 at 7:56 PM ^

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.

LSAClassOf2000

May 31st, 2013 at 8:06 PM ^

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. 

DISCUSS Man

May 31st, 2013 at 8:11 PM ^

Haylie Wagner just tweeted they are underground and safe.

Jennie Finch who is also there covering the Series for ESPN tweeted they evacuated and are underground as well. Wouldn't be surprised if all softball teams and personnel from ESPN are underground with eachother.

MGoSoftball

May 31st, 2013 at 8:14 PM ^

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.

DISCUSS Man

May 31st, 2013 at 8:18 PM ^

Saw a UW player tweet a pic of ALL teams underground in one bunker. ESPN personnel in hotel basement.

UMgradMSUdad

May 31st, 2013 at 9:02 PM ^

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.

NOLA Wolverine

May 31st, 2013 at 8:35 PM ^

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. 

Mi Sooner

June 1st, 2013 at 10:05 AM ^

Tinker AB is just north of Moore between Midwest City and Dell City. The last tornado season in OK I was in (mid 80's) the tornados ripped through Dell City, Midwest City and Tinker.

I was watching the storms roll in drinking beer; it's what you do for fun down there.

DISCUSS Man

May 31st, 2013 at 8:46 PM ^

Michigan softball twitter says OKCPD says its all clear now and they are safe to come above ground.

Fhshockey112002

May 31st, 2013 at 9:28 PM ^

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"

Alton

May 31st, 2013 at 9:42 PM ^

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.

GoBluePhil

May 31st, 2013 at 9:51 PM ^

A mother and her small child were sucked out of their vehicle and killed on a freeway in OKC. Mother was in seat belt and child in a safety seat. Freeways are all closed.

urbanachiever

May 31st, 2013 at 10:23 PM ^

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?

Mi Sooner

June 1st, 2013 at 10:12 AM ^

Especially in OK is that the sky's can be clear then a half how later you are diving for cover. OK is at the "right" place for tornados to occur. Wet moist air brought up from the gulf via the jet steam and heated air off of the plains of western OK. The two mix and out comes tornados and/or severe storms in the metro OKC area.

I Bleed Maize N Blue

May 31st, 2013 at 10:27 PM ^

Weather Channel tornado hunters became the hunted.  Pretty amazing Mike Bettis & crew walked away from this.  He said they were all belted in, they ducked down, and the air bags deployed.

BlueBarron

May 31st, 2013 at 10:42 PM ^

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.

ckersh74

May 31st, 2013 at 11:23 PM ^

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. 

BLUEOkie

May 31st, 2013 at 11:32 PM ^

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.  

UMgradMSUdad

May 31st, 2013 at 11:50 PM ^

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.

UMgradMSUdad

June 1st, 2013 at 10:51 AM ^

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.

UMgradMSUdad

June 1st, 2013 at 10:51 AM ^

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.