There really isn't much anyone can say anymore about the horror. As always, hard working photojournalists have captured this moment as a nation mourns and rallies to help its neighbors in Oklahoma. Click here for more photographs and photographer credits.
A CBS reporter was interviewing an elderly lady who lives alone with her dog. The tornado tore the dog out of her hands and she thought she had lost him for ever. This is a moving tape in the mist of utter devastation.
Plaza Tower Elementary School
Thousands of homes have been totally destroyed and the death toll has risen to over 50 people including some children at an elementary school. The tornado by size, distance and destructive power is one of the worst to hit the United States. Above is the picture of the Plaza Towers elementary school.
The damage from this mile wide monster tornado is massive. Some long time observers describe it as the worse they have seen. Here is the first clear video of the tornado. It was hard to get clear shots because it was so massive and rain-wrapped.
Warning in second video you can hear people cry for help. Just click on the second one to start it.
Yesterday saw well over two dozen tornado's hit across five states. Some towns, like Shawnee (Oklahoma), saw massive damage. Two of the weather communities most famous personalities and icons, the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore and Storm Chaser Reed Timmer, were in Oklahoma following the storm.
What resulted was this both terrifying and exciting video.
Over ten tornados touched down in North Texas late yesterday evening and last night. The death toll in the areas just southwest of Dallas is six and is expected to rise after day light. Over a hundred people have been injured and many of them critically. The areas of Lake Granbury and Millsap were hard hit. Many of the tornado's hit in Hood County. Damage is considered massive in the area with dozens of homes totally destroyed.
View more videos at: http://nbcdfw.com.
AccuWeather.com has issued their hurricane forecast for the upcoming hurricane season that starts officially on June 1st. Actually it is possible we could have our first tropical storm the last week of May.
The news is not good news especially for the East Coast still reeling from Hurricane Sandy!
Here is their forecast in full:
After a devastating blow to the East from Superstorm Sandy in October of 2012, residents and homeowners on the Atlantic coast should anticipate another active season in 2013.
AccuWeather.com's long-range team predicts 16 named tropical storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes for the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season. Of these, three are predicted to make landfall in the United States.
Atlantic Hurricane Season Key Points:
1. The season may begin quickly this year with development in the Caribbean in June.
2. AccuWeather.com is predicting strong storms this year with a strength of category 2 or higher.
3. Areas along the East coast to the Gulf of Mexico are at risk for impacts from a tropical system.
Warm water across the Atlantic and Caribbean, paired with less frequent wind shear, may result in an above-normal number of storms. The normal number of named tropical storms in a given year is 12, according to NOAA.
Additionally, 2013 could set the stage for stronger storms than were seen in 2012.
Episodes of Saharan dust, a factor that can stifle a storm's development, may be less frequent this season. The reduced amount of dust may allow storms with a strength of category 2 or higher to develop.
The season is predicted to be normal in development, compared to last year when two storms were named before the official start of Atlantic hurricane season, June 1.
Should storms brew early in the season, from late May to early June, the season total for storms may be even higher than originally forecast.
Last year's early storms were an "anomaly," AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski said. "We think that this year will be more in line with a typical active season."
The biggest concerns for the upcoming season include development in the Gulf of Mexico, an impact in Florida and also another East Coast impact.
Florida is long overdue for a direct hurricane hit, Kottlowski said. Though they have been impacted by named tropical storms in the last couple of years, a direct hit by a hurricane has not occurred since Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
Concern is high for the East because of the remaining devastation as a result of the October 2012 landfall of Superstorm Sandy.
"It would be very difficult for a storm to hit right where Sandy hit," Kottlowski said. However, impacts such as storm surge, strong winds and heavy rain are possible as far as a few hundred miles from a storm, he explained.
The areas impacted by Sandy remain vulnerable as powerful storm surge wreaked havoc on the dune systems that were in place along the coast. Without dunes, there is increased potential for severe inland flooding.
Overall, however, the exact areas to be directly impacted this season and the severity of those impacts remain unclear.
"Those are very, very difficult to compute early in the season," Kottlowski said. "As we get into the season and see how things are setting up, then it becomes a little bit more noticeable
Sixty years ago this week one of the worse tornado's ever to hit an urban area hit Waco, Texas. By the end of the rampage 114 people were killed which makes it one of the twenty worse tornado's every to hit the United States.
LIFE Magazine reported:
Today, six decades later, the 1953 Waco tornado remains tied with the 1902 Goliad twister for the grim distinction of Texas’s deadliest, and is the 11th deadliest in U.S. history.
In the immediate aftermath of the tornado, LIFE’s John Dominis and correspondent Scot Leavitt, who had just recently moved to Texas, made their way to the devastated city. All of the photos in this gallery, many of which never ran in LIFE, are Dominis’s; in a note sent to LIFE’s editors in New York, Leavitt noted that “through virtually all [of Dominis's] shooting, rain fell, the sky was dark and the mood was somber.”
New Yorkers were caught totally by surprised this morning when serious flash floods hit the city. The 2.5 inches of rain came down in just a couple of hours causing serious flooding in New York and Northern New Jersey. Here are photographs from Weather.com.
Hurricane Sandy was the biggest (in size) Atlantic hurricane ever to travel up the East Coast and it slammed into New York and New Jersey happen just six months ago. While others states were heavily impacted, areas around metropolitan New York City were devastated. Tens of thousands of homes were destroyed along the coast. It was the worse weather disaster in the history of New York City. New Jersey had its worst hurricane in its history.
Over 250 people died in the path of the hurricane and it was the second most costly storm to every hit America. Only Katrina did more damage in its attack on the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Ike comes in at a close third. An estimated $70 billion was tallied by the all the impacted areas from storm Sandy.
Now Six months have passed and still the devastation is everywhere but progress is being made by the communities. Hospitals have reopened, transit systems are working, shelter is provided for everyone and New York city tunnels are no longer filled with water. However if you journey down to the sea the impact of Hurricane Sandy is still seen everywhere. There are glimmers of rebuilding taking place and some seaside cities will be fully operational by summer.
Boston.com's Big Picture this week did a photo essay on the area six months later.
YOU CAN SEE ALL THE PHOTOGRAPHS, CREDITS AND DESCRIPTINS BY CLICKING HERE>>>>>
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