retroputing

[SteveW]

Any of you Okies still in the land of the living? According to what I saw on a TV at the thrift store I was at earlier, Oklahoma was chewed up pretty good by tornadoes. Rob, you still alive?

[Flack]

I'm alive. I have a terrible stomach virus and slept through most of the fun. Susan did take a picture of a tornado out her car windows on the way home though. No damage in Yukon, despite the news reports. It was all E/SE of here.
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Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[Flack]

People who don't live in tornado alley often ask me, "How much warning do you get before a tornado arrives?" In this case, it was around 24 hours. On the Sunday evening news, we were warned of possible tornadoes Monday evening. That doesn't mean there's much you can do about it (other than not be home when it hits), but at least you know it's coming.

On the way home from work Monday, Susan took this picture with her cell phone.



That is what's called a "rope tornado", and it was right over our home town (Yukon). Fortunately it was small, and didn't do much damage. The people of Choctaw, however, saw this:



Yeah. That's not good. And by the way, often tornadoes bring hail. My friend Hubert took this picture in his front yard yesterday.



Again, yeah -- that's friggin' baseball sized hail! Do you know what happens when that hits your car? This happens:



Oh, and as for that big tornado -- do you know what happens when that hits your convenient store? This happens:



For the record, this is the Love's we stopped at to get gas on the way home with the camper on Sunday, the night before.

Our friends and family are fine, although I heard reports of at least one co-worker's home being demolished and others sustaining serious damage.

Wind. It's stronger than you think.
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Flack
The Gas Chamber | robohara.com | Twitter | Facebook

[SteveW]

That's the reason I'd like an underground house if I lived up there. Something that can withstand a tornado strike. I don't know if there's any Minuteman missile silos in Oklahoma, but since the government doesn't have all that many missiles anymore they've started selling those silos off. I've seen websites where people buy them cheap and make them into the coolest houses on Earth. That's the kind of place I'd want to live if I moved to the Great Plains. Better than worrying about my house and loved ones getting destroyed when a storm moves in.

[ubikuberalles]

Problem with underground houses: they flood. I remember one missile silo that was for sale but it had a major problem: the bottom of the silo was flooded out. Make sure the site is well above the flood plain or put a dam around the thing (an anti-moat?).
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(Pronounced: OO-bik-OO-ber-ALL-ess)

[SteveW]

Maybe a Dutch-style windmill, attached to an Archimedes screw, to lift the water out of the bottom of the silo. And it would be environmentally friendly.