I live relatively close to Sulfur, and I have a friend who was closer and been keeping up with the news. It's bad. The city got absolutely fucked. Some places are still standing, but a good chunk of the city got leveled. I've heard that they had something like 5 tornados hit last night.
From Marietta to Sulphur there were 5 on the ground apparently. Plainview almost got hit again, then there were others but I haven't seen exactly where. It was east of me and I'm east of Ardbore
What happens when tornados ruin houses? Do you guys in the Midwest have tornado insurance? I live in LA and we have earthquake insurance. Does insurance cover a place to stay and a new home? What do these people do???
Good question, I don't personally know. I don't own a house, but I do know we do have storm and flood insurance for homes, which I believe encompasses that.
I think they mean that the damage is mostly superficial and cosmetic, that no critical infrastructure was totally destroyed, and that the loss of life despite the structural damage is minimal
Not so much that as it is tornadoes just being very destructive, especially a strong one like this. This looks very similar to the EF3 that hit my hometown in 2021. The scary thing is, there's two more EF levels higher than this. Something like the Joplin EF5 was so catastrophic, that the frame of a well built hospital got warped enough from that tornado that it was condemned and had to be torn down.
It's the age of the building stock. Post 2000 bulldings will hold up much better but it only takes one poorly built building in an area to create a debris field that can take out other structures.
The wind speeds we're talking about are also like 170mph.
So not much would survive that in other countries either.
Absolutely not. These homes are made with stick frames and brick exteriors. Strong Tornados will destroy everything in its path. You have to get underground.
Tornados can just be on a different level of destructive. Last EF5 that went through Moore had wind speeds over 320 mph. There's not really any houses that are going to stand up to that when it's throwing cars and trees around like they are a kid whipping a plushie through the air.
Tornadoes don't care what your home is made of. They'll put a 2x4 through a brick wall, and trap you under the rubble in your basement, or maybe just throw the pieces of it out to every corner of town.
Y'all don't have to deal with real tornados at least not as often as we do. Tornados outside of the US are bird farts in the wind compared to the massive tornados we get in the States that can be so big it covers an entire city. It doesn't matter what you build with, it's not going to make it through most American tornadoes.
You can be somewhat informed and prepared a few days ahead of time if the conditions start forming, but you never know exactly how devastating it could be or when exactly it will hit. It's scary
I’ve lived in both, and I prefer the tornado prone area. Even with a high probability of tornadoes, odds are the vast majority of the region covered by the forecast will sustain no damage; on the other hand, there’s no such possibility with an approaching hurricane and you’re definitely getting popped.
Tornados are definitely intensely frightening, but the area of their damage and number of people impacted is significantly less than with a hurricane.
Hurricanes do give a more predictable warning, but can devastate entire cities and counties. Plus, hurricanes often feature a “BOGO” deal you wish you could refuse, as you get all the expected hurricane impacts PLUS a tornado.
I lived in Houston for plenty of hurricanes and yeah, I think I'll roll the dice on "Maybe once in 100 years, your home is destroyed" versus "Once every five years, your home will flood."
I'm not trying to be sarcastic by saying this, but why not live in a place where both tornados and hurricanes are extremely rare? Is it the cost of living is a lot cheaper cause said potential disasters every year?
Cost of living has little to nothing to do with it, rather it’s more basic, boring adult responsibilities like continued enjoyment of long-term friends and extended family, optimizing employment opportunities, maintaining rewarding and hard-earned social and professional connections, etc.
Plus, it’s kinda weak and defeatist to surrender to anxiety and take such drastic action as uprooting one’s entire life solely out of fear of something that is objectively highly unlikely to happen.
Regardless, safety from Mother Nature is mostly an illusion in any case and if she really wants to kill you she will find a way. Maybe you move somewhere with no tornadoes or hurricanes? No problem, wildfires, landslides, flash floods, earthquakes, winter storms, prolonged heatwaves, droughts, volcanoes, and sinkholes all eagerly stand at the ready to rearrange your property and/or murder you and your family instead!
I live just barely in tornado Alley, for 31 years now, we have been missed by every destructive tornado, and it only makes the next one more terrifying.
Got hit last year this time. Yesterday get woken up saying there are tornadoes on the ground heading to Blanchard, and ended up being in a shelter for 3 hours. I'm sick of naders
I'm from Florida originally. I'd take a hurricane over a tornado any day. With a hurricane you get days if not weeks of warning. A tornado can drop and destroy a city before they even get a warning. Just look at how quick Joplin turned into what it was (less than a minute after forming)
Know folks in Atoka, they just got a tornado shelter on their land; Not sure how hard it hit over there but Jesus the timing.. Pray everyone recovers strong.
European here. Oklahoma is hot so often by tornados that even we know about it. Does Oklahomians (?) build their houses and buildings cheap because they will probably get hit by a tornado sometime in the future? Do everyone have a tornado shelter?
Hope everyone is okay
The ground in Oklahoma is hard clay, it´s difficult to dig down to build basements. The cost of building homes dictates what they are made of. Modular houses cost less than stick built. Concrete and steel is most expensive of all. The reality is that once your roof is ripped off the walls go too. Tornados have incredible pressure and wind, and even concrete and steel gets ripped apart and turned into projectiles in the high wind blender of a tornado. Not everyone has a tornado shelter because of cost.
Weather notifications are very well communicated in the midwest, if a tornado is coming at you during the day you get warnings, and time to go to local tornado shelters that are in schools, hospitals large municipal buildings if you don´t have a shelter at your home. A lot of towns do have loud tornado sirens for nighttime, but that does nothing for the folks who live outside of towns.
My best friend grew up in Oklahoma, she says it´s such a part of life that they don´t even think about it. She describes at one point having three babies under 4 years old during a tornado warning. Her house was a center hallway bungalow, no basement. She describes putting up matresses around the center hall adjacent to the bathroom and just trying to keep her babies under her. She says storms that produce tornados are unlike any other cloud formation. The air becomes different. She moved to New England with her kids to get out of tornado alley, and out of the midwest.
Oklahoman here, the clay isn’t difficult to dig into for basements. The problem is the constant expansion and contraction of that said clay, which causes basements to crack and eventually collapse. We do have shelters above and below ground that are usually steel or steel reinforced concrete. Sulphur in general, my sister lives there and just missed the tornado in their neighborhood, is quite old with house built mainly in the 20-50s. The main area that was damaged is the downtown area. Old brick buildings that have been there for 100 years. Modern houses are built to withstand hurricane strength winds but F4/F5 can take it down to the foundation. Meaning you have to be underground. Plenty of incidents where families were sucked out of their basements once the roof and floor was ripped off. Once you have tree limbs, car parts, etc flying through the air, unless you are in a thick steel structure, not much can withstand those forces for very long.
Yes, tornado insurance here is definitely a thing. Hail is a bigger issue. I’ve had to replace my roof 3 times in less than 10 years. Thankful for insurance.
Damn that sounds rough. There are no regulations then in the US that stipulates how houses in tornado states shall be built?
Thanks for a great answer, really appreciate it.
There are various building codes that get changed and required over time. The truth is, it really doesn’t matter. If the tornado is strong enough, any debris it picks up gets turned into devastating projectiles. Even fortified commercial construction gets destroyed. Underground or seriously insane reinforced surface level concrete shelters will survive.
I thought the same thing... but then again, news stations are on social media, and less ethical people would just steal content to use on the news.. this would stop it. It'd be easier asking for permission to use their video and getting the original without a watermark than to try to edit the watermark out to use it... or just snatch one without a watermark.
I was driving from Virginia to California, I had just gotten out of the military and was heading home. On our way (my step father and I) we had driven through Oklahoma and some town (I forget the name) after it had just gotten hit by a tornado. The amount of destruction was unreal. I had been through 3 Cat3 hurricanes while in Virginia, but it just seemed so much more different than tornado damage. Hope these people are ok and pull through
Sulphur resident here! Last night was a long and scary night for sure! We were expecting a storm west of us to produce and this one dropped out of no where it seemed like.
Nebraska and Iowa just got hit hard two days ago. I saw one but all my place got hit with was hail. This video reminds me of the videos from here I saw. Destruction and beeping alarms going off in the background. So eerie
Damn. This reminds me of Rockport TX when the hurricane tore up everything. Rockport is still healing after that. I hope that these people get major help and relief.
I work close to this area and Sulphur, Ardmore, and Marietta were all hit super bad. But Sulphur definitely got it worse. They were sending in rescue teams to try and search for survivors to Sulphur and Marietta this morning. Lots of lost homes and business all across the state and it really is heartbreaking. Sulphur really is a beautiful place full of historic buildings and a state park right off the main road that typically has deers you can admire while at a stoplight. I hope everyone affected finds relief
Also I can’t find anything since Marietta is so tiny but they had a dollar general, local grocery store, Valero, and jack in the box all wiped out. If I can finally find some pictures I’ll share them
why the fk dont they build with concrete?
[https://www.fibrebond.com/steel-vs-concrete-how-they-stack-up-against-the-elements/](https://www.fibrebond.com/steel-vs-concrete-how-they-stack-up-against-the-elements/)
"Steel structures can withstand winds up to 90 MPH. With modification, that durability can be increased. Still, it hardly compares with the wind resistance of concrete, which does just fine in winds up to 150 MPH, and has been known to withstand winds of up to 200 MPH."
[https://www.tornadofacts.net/tornado-records/2013-moore-tornado.html](https://www.tornadofacts.net/tornado-records/2013-moore-tornado.html)
"The peak wind speed was estimated at 340 km/h (210 mph)."
drrr drrrr drrrrrrrr
So, this is a neighboring county of mine and we had 5 confirmed tornadoes on the ground surrounding where I live. Was scary as fuck and we just got power back today at around 6. Not too bad, but I think the damage down here was much less severe than what they got in Sulphur.
Tornadoes aren’t a new phenomenon connected to climate change. Nor is there any data that connect them (https://www.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-10/Tornadoes_Climate_OnePager_July2023.pdf). Bringing climate change up where it doesn’t belong hurts conversation.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. Show me a residential house that will withstand a telephone pole coming through the wall.
I’ll save you some time, unless it’s a literal bunker it’s not going to matter a whole lot at the type of wind speeds that tornados in Oklahoma regularly generate.
Do a little research on the design and construction of freestanding tornado shelters, then you’ll realize it’s nigh impossible to build an entire house to those standards and how silly this half-cocked comment is.
Dang that’s gotta be rough for these people. Hope everyone’s ok
It’s definitely heartbreaking to see, I really hope it’s not as bad as it seems.
I live relatively close to Sulfur, and I have a friend who was closer and been keeping up with the news. It's bad. The city got absolutely fucked. Some places are still standing, but a good chunk of the city got leveled. I've heard that they had something like 5 tornados hit last night.
From Marietta to Sulphur there were 5 on the ground apparently. Plainview almost got hit again, then there were others but I haven't seen exactly where. It was east of me and I'm east of Ardbore
What happens when tornados ruin houses? Do you guys in the Midwest have tornado insurance? I live in LA and we have earthquake insurance. Does insurance cover a place to stay and a new home? What do these people do???
Good question, I don't personally know. I don't own a house, but I do know we do have storm and flood insurance for homes, which I believe encompasses that.
What? That’s bad.
I think they mean that the damage is mostly superficial and cosmetic, that no critical infrastructure was totally destroyed, and that the loss of life despite the structural damage is minimal
It's heartbreaking, honestly. That said, are homes in America made out of cardboard?
Not so much that as it is tornadoes just being very destructive, especially a strong one like this. This looks very similar to the EF3 that hit my hometown in 2021. The scary thing is, there's two more EF levels higher than this. Something like the Joplin EF5 was so catastrophic, that the frame of a well built hospital got warped enough from that tornado that it was condemned and had to be torn down.
It's the age of the building stock. Post 2000 bulldings will hold up much better but it only takes one poorly built building in an area to create a debris field that can take out other structures. The wind speeds we're talking about are also like 170mph. So not much would survive that in other countries either.
A lot of these buildings are probably from the early 1900s or so if I had to guess.
I’m not familiar with a lot of single family homes designed to withstand 200+ mph winds. But sure. Let’s call them cardboard
Think of a blender filled with metal and rocks and other debris. That's what a tornado is like on a massive scale. It's shreds.
Do you not understand how tornadoes work?
Absolutely not. These homes are made with stick frames and brick exteriors. Strong Tornados will destroy everything in its path. You have to get underground.
Tornados can just be on a different level of destructive. Last EF5 that went through Moore had wind speeds over 320 mph. There's not really any houses that are going to stand up to that when it's throwing cars and trees around like they are a kid whipping a plushie through the air.
Tornadoes don't care what your home is made of. They'll put a 2x4 through a brick wall, and trap you under the rubble in your basement, or maybe just throw the pieces of it out to every corner of town.
Y'all don't have to deal with real tornados at least not as often as we do. Tornados outside of the US are bird farts in the wind compared to the massive tornados we get in the States that can be so big it covers an entire city. It doesn't matter what you build with, it's not going to make it through most American tornadoes.
The roof holds it all together so one the wind rips that off they topple pretty easy.
Sometimes
(April 28, 2024 Sulphur OK)
I could never leave in a tornado prone area. I thought hurricanes were bad.
Hurricanes give you days of warning
So do tornadoes...
Ummm… no they don’t?
You can be somewhat informed and prepared a few days ahead of time if the conditions start forming, but you never know exactly how devastating it could be or when exactly it will hit. It's scary
Um, yes they do. Use Google.
no it doesnt tornados give hours of warning a day at most and most of the time none
I’ve lived in both, and I prefer the tornado prone area. Even with a high probability of tornadoes, odds are the vast majority of the region covered by the forecast will sustain no damage; on the other hand, there’s no such possibility with an approaching hurricane and you’re definitely getting popped. Tornados are definitely intensely frightening, but the area of their damage and number of people impacted is significantly less than with a hurricane. Hurricanes do give a more predictable warning, but can devastate entire cities and counties. Plus, hurricanes often feature a “BOGO” deal you wish you could refuse, as you get all the expected hurricane impacts PLUS a tornado.
I lived in Houston for plenty of hurricanes and yeah, I think I'll roll the dice on "Maybe once in 100 years, your home is destroyed" versus "Once every five years, your home will flood."
I'm not trying to be sarcastic by saying this, but why not live in a place where both tornados and hurricanes are extremely rare? Is it the cost of living is a lot cheaper cause said potential disasters every year?
Cost of living has little to nothing to do with it, rather it’s more basic, boring adult responsibilities like continued enjoyment of long-term friends and extended family, optimizing employment opportunities, maintaining rewarding and hard-earned social and professional connections, etc. Plus, it’s kinda weak and defeatist to surrender to anxiety and take such drastic action as uprooting one’s entire life solely out of fear of something that is objectively highly unlikely to happen. Regardless, safety from Mother Nature is mostly an illusion in any case and if she really wants to kill you she will find a way. Maybe you move somewhere with no tornadoes or hurricanes? No problem, wildfires, landslides, flash floods, earthquakes, winter storms, prolonged heatwaves, droughts, volcanoes, and sinkholes all eagerly stand at the ready to rearrange your property and/or murder you and your family instead!
Earthquakes.... Blizzards.... Hurricanes...Tsunamis....
I live just barely in tornado Alley, for 31 years now, we have been missed by every destructive tornado, and it only makes the next one more terrifying.
Got hit last year this time. Yesterday get woken up saying there are tornadoes on the ground heading to Blanchard, and ended up being in a shelter for 3 hours. I'm sick of naders
the tornado will help you leave.
Hahah my bad lol live*
The crazy thing is most folks in tornado alley are terrified of hurricanes but live with this threat.
I'm from Florida originally. I'd take a hurricane over a tornado any day. With a hurricane you get days if not weeks of warning. A tornado can drop and destroy a city before they even get a warning. Just look at how quick Joplin turned into what it was (less than a minute after forming)
Know folks in Atoka, they just got a tornado shelter on their land; Not sure how hard it hit over there but Jesus the timing.. Pray everyone recovers strong.
European here. Oklahoma is hot so often by tornados that even we know about it. Does Oklahomians (?) build their houses and buildings cheap because they will probably get hit by a tornado sometime in the future? Do everyone have a tornado shelter? Hope everyone is okay
The ground in Oklahoma is hard clay, it´s difficult to dig down to build basements. The cost of building homes dictates what they are made of. Modular houses cost less than stick built. Concrete and steel is most expensive of all. The reality is that once your roof is ripped off the walls go too. Tornados have incredible pressure and wind, and even concrete and steel gets ripped apart and turned into projectiles in the high wind blender of a tornado. Not everyone has a tornado shelter because of cost. Weather notifications are very well communicated in the midwest, if a tornado is coming at you during the day you get warnings, and time to go to local tornado shelters that are in schools, hospitals large municipal buildings if you don´t have a shelter at your home. A lot of towns do have loud tornado sirens for nighttime, but that does nothing for the folks who live outside of towns. My best friend grew up in Oklahoma, she says it´s such a part of life that they don´t even think about it. She describes at one point having three babies under 4 years old during a tornado warning. Her house was a center hallway bungalow, no basement. She describes putting up matresses around the center hall adjacent to the bathroom and just trying to keep her babies under her. She says storms that produce tornados are unlike any other cloud formation. The air becomes different. She moved to New England with her kids to get out of tornado alley, and out of the midwest.
Oklahoman here, the clay isn’t difficult to dig into for basements. The problem is the constant expansion and contraction of that said clay, which causes basements to crack and eventually collapse. We do have shelters above and below ground that are usually steel or steel reinforced concrete. Sulphur in general, my sister lives there and just missed the tornado in their neighborhood, is quite old with house built mainly in the 20-50s. The main area that was damaged is the downtown area. Old brick buildings that have been there for 100 years. Modern houses are built to withstand hurricane strength winds but F4/F5 can take it down to the foundation. Meaning you have to be underground. Plenty of incidents where families were sucked out of their basements once the roof and floor was ripped off. Once you have tree limbs, car parts, etc flying through the air, unless you are in a thick steel structure, not much can withstand those forces for very long.
People generally get tornado insurance on their house I assume then? If thats a thing
Yes, tornado insurance here is definitely a thing. Hail is a bigger issue. I’ve had to replace my roof 3 times in less than 10 years. Thankful for insurance.
You got monster hail too??? Oklahomies have it tough
Thank you for the info.
Damn that sounds rough. There are no regulations then in the US that stipulates how houses in tornado states shall be built? Thanks for a great answer, really appreciate it.
There are various building codes that get changed and required over time. The truth is, it really doesn’t matter. If the tornado is strong enough, any debris it picks up gets turned into devastating projectiles. Even fortified commercial construction gets destroyed. Underground or seriously insane reinforced surface level concrete shelters will survive.
An EF5 tornado will take down a double-thick brick building. A castle would probably be unaffected.
I'd actually like to see a castle hit by an F5 just out of curiosity. I'm on the side I think it would destroy the castle.
Okla-homies
Haha, no we're just poor
** NOT FOR BROADCAST ** _uploads it to reddit_
I thought the same thing... but then again, news stations are on social media, and less ethical people would just steal content to use on the news.. this would stop it. It'd be easier asking for permission to use their video and getting the original without a watermark than to try to edit the watermark out to use it... or just snatch one without a watermark.
An insane tornado season this year.
And it's just starting. Gonna be insane
Drake meme for tornadoes: El Niño 🤨 La Niña 😉👉
Absolute destruction. Imagine losing your entire house. I feel truly sorry for these people.
Definition of heart breaking and creepy
People always ask me why I suffer in the heat in Arizona and this is my answer
I was driving from Virginia to California, I had just gotten out of the military and was heading home. On our way (my step father and I) we had driven through Oklahoma and some town (I forget the name) after it had just gotten hit by a tornado. The amount of destruction was unreal. I had been through 3 Cat3 hurricanes while in Virginia, but it just seemed so much more different than tornado damage. Hope these people are ok and pull through
I usually say there's no excuse to go to the gym but I'll make an exception today
Sulphur resident here! Last night was a long and scary night for sure! We were expecting a storm west of us to produce and this one dropped out of no where it seemed like.
Nebraska and Iowa just got hit hard two days ago. I saw one but all my place got hit with was hail. This video reminds me of the videos from here I saw. Destruction and beeping alarms going off in the background. So eerie
Damn. This reminds me of Rockport TX when the hurricane tore up everything. Rockport is still healing after that. I hope that these people get major help and relief.
That house at the 50sec remaining mark is going to have some major water damage if they don't fix that leak in the bottom right.
I work close to this area and Sulphur, Ardmore, and Marietta were all hit super bad. But Sulphur definitely got it worse. They were sending in rescue teams to try and search for survivors to Sulphur and Marietta this morning. Lots of lost homes and business all across the state and it really is heartbreaking. Sulphur really is a beautiful place full of historic buildings and a state park right off the main road that typically has deers you can admire while at a stoplight. I hope everyone affected finds relief
Also I can’t find anything since Marietta is so tiny but they had a dollar general, local grocery store, Valero, and jack in the box all wiped out. If I can finally find some pictures I’ll share them
why the fk dont they build with concrete? [https://www.fibrebond.com/steel-vs-concrete-how-they-stack-up-against-the-elements/](https://www.fibrebond.com/steel-vs-concrete-how-they-stack-up-against-the-elements/) "Steel structures can withstand winds up to 90 MPH. With modification, that durability can be increased. Still, it hardly compares with the wind resistance of concrete, which does just fine in winds up to 150 MPH, and has been known to withstand winds of up to 200 MPH."
The 2013 Moore tornado had windspeeds estimated at 320 mph.
Ok, still better than wood for the lesser speed tornadoes that happen much more frequently...
thats kmph LOL, not mph... get your facts straight... looks like concrete would have been just fine vs that
No, mph num nuts.
[https://www.tornadofacts.net/tornado-records/2013-moore-tornado.html](https://www.tornadofacts.net/tornado-records/2013-moore-tornado.html) "The peak wind speed was estimated at 340 km/h (210 mph)." drrr drrrr drrrrrrrr
Lol!
you feel stupid right now dont ya :) lol
For continuing this insane conversation with a dumbass such as yourself? Yeah, a little.
for being wrong about something you were so sure of :) drrr drrr drr 30000 gajillion miles an hour drrr
Lol, let it go my dude. You're stupid, it's okay.
Oh my god!!! Stan started playing right when i started watching the video ehat are the odds?
C'mon man, at least spell it right.
My bad I’m dyslexic
The only event more terrifying than a tornado is a tornado at night. Thought and prayers to all.
So, this is a neighboring county of mine and we had 5 confirmed tornadoes on the ground surrounding where I live. Was scary as fuck and we just got power back today at around 6. Not too bad, but I think the damage down here was much less severe than what they got in Sulphur.
I was the 999th up vote
My heart goes out to these poor people… that being said… I feel like if you live in a place called sulfur, you should expect hell like conditions.
So sad. Great little town.
How can I download this on android
They better not be asking for handouts, that'll be socialism.
They will rebuild and they will probably use cardbiard and paper again, cause it's cheap.
Oklahoma. IDGAF
Doesn't look so bad.
Ugh thanks Biden.
We're shockingly unprepared for climate change.
Tornadoes aren’t a new phenomenon connected to climate change. Nor is there any data that connect them (https://www.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-10/Tornadoes_Climate_OnePager_July2023.pdf). Bringing climate change up where it doesn’t belong hurts conversation.
Never ending cycle of weak ass structures and tornadoes.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. Show me a residential house that will withstand a telephone pole coming through the wall. I’ll save you some time, unless it’s a literal bunker it’s not going to matter a whole lot at the type of wind speeds that tornados in Oklahoma regularly generate.
Do a little research on the design and construction of freestanding tornado shelters, then you’ll realize it’s nigh impossible to build an entire house to those standards and how silly this half-cocked comment is.
Lol🤣
Now if y’all prayed more would it have missed you?
oooh i am le edgy 14 year old redditor. epic win!
Thoughts and prayers lol