Following the trail is tornado

In Oklahom, the events of the computer game were tragically implemented

This was the name of the 2010 computer game, the action of which takes place in Oklahom. Her heroine Nancy Drew, being one on one with a tornado, was not afraid - which was quite enough for her for further adventures. But in life everything happens a little different ...

City of Moore, Oklahoma. Elisha Hall with her husband and miraculously surviving after a tornado two -month -old daughter

In the peak of May, nature twice harshly and mercilessly checked people for strength in different parts of the Earth. The 22nd tornado hit the Tula region of the Russian Federation-local residents who are not accustomed to such cataclysms survived a real shock. Thank God there were no casualties, although there are victims - twenty people, including several children. The American state of Oklahom was much worse - a giant tornado swept along it two days before the Tula emergency.

“I was just taking my four -year -old daughter to the hospital, who had an attack of asthma, when it all started,” said Johnson, a resident of the town of Moore, who came the most powerful blow of the elements. - A hail poured from the sky, and I put a helmet on the child, ran into the emergency room, laid the child against the wall and covered it with a mattress ... ”

In the AGAPELAND Learning Center kindergarten, educators at the sound of a siren (a warning about the impending tornado came in 16 minutes) gathered fifteen children in two toilets, covered with blankets to protect and started choral singing so that the kids would not panic. From one of the toilets, the roof was torn off, the kindergarten complex was almost completely destroyed, but the children remained unharmed.

The Wall Street Journal quotes Jerry Loik, a representative of the Oklahoma Emergency Situations Department: “Rescuers tried to turn each log turning over in the Plaza Towers survivor (in Moore), which was completely destroyed by Thornado.” William Brown, a 26-year-old guard, and his wife Jennifer rushed to Plaza Towers when the hurricane passed. “We pulled out children - about eight or nine were alive. Then it turned into an operation to analyze the rubble, ”William told the newspaper.

The result of the 45-minute revelry of the elements: 24 dead, 237 victims, 13 thousand houses were badly damaged or destroyed. Tornado left a strip of destruction almost 30 kilometers long and two wide. The speed of the wind inside the tornado funnel reached 337 km/h-unlike the usual hurricane, the tornado is much more fleeting, but the wind speed in the core is two to three times higher. The power of the Oklahomsky tornado is 600 (!) Once exceeded the power of the atomic bomb dropped to Hiroshima - the total damage may exceed $ 3 billion.

Lightning in Polnoba: Thunderstorm Tornado passes over the town of Clearwood, Kansas

"We are unarmed"

Resident of Mura Carol Kauela on the ruins of his house
When analyzing the rubble in Moore, rescuers came across a stuffed deer

America is used to natural disasters - here it is an annual phenomenon. In 2012, one hurricane Sandy left without a roof over his head of thousands of states in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and caused the US economy for $ 50 billion. The states of the American South were used to tornado and the Tornado and the states of the American south. The same Moore in Oklahoma 14 years ago managed to survive a similar catastrophe: on May 3, 1999, the tornado lasted 1 hour 25 minutes, took 41 life, left 583 victims and caused damage in the amount of over $ 1 billion. Now the Moore is called the “most unlucky place in America” and the “Thorne capital” of the country.

Tornado is born due to the contrast between the wet and warm low pressure zone and the rising cold and dry air stream. In the United States, hot flows arriving from the southeast, from the Gulf of Mexico, are projected into the central states. That is why most often the Tornado phenomenon is observed in Texas, Oklahom, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio. Of the 1200 tornado, annually formed on the planet, 150 are carried over the United States. But!

“Unlike cyclones that are easy to find both from the space and with the help of radars, we are unarmed in front of Tornado, we are not able to foresee them,” says Richard Rotno, a specialist from the National Center for Atmosphere Research in Colorado. - We are not able to measure the temperature in the low layers of the atmosphere, under the cloud from which the tornado is formed - we still do not have tools for effective data collection. And this means that we cannot accumulate statistics sufficient to create models on which forecasts could be based. ”

And this means that the trouble came again in Oklahoma unexpectedly. But, alas, the human factor is also present.

Underestimation of the threat

The authorities of the same Oklahoma annually carry out a lottery with the involvement of federal funds - winners receive money for the construction of asylum. According to the BBC, in total, by 2011, thanks to this program, about 10 thousand shelters were built. However, not all winners use the winnings for their intended purpose, underestimating the threat of Thornado.

Another problem: most houses in Oklahom have no basements due to clay soil. And this leads to a rise in the cost of building shelters. The construction of one fortified shelter (it will not protect the house from destruction, but life can be saved) costs $ 8-10 thousand, not everyone is resolved in Oklahoma for such expenses.

11-year-old Hayly Hawke is trying to help neighbors whose house is destroyed. Haley herself took the parents from school a few minutes before the Tornado destroyed her
One of 13 thousand destroyed houses in Moore. Its owner Jason Owen gathered a surviving utensils in a backpack

It does not help effectively counteract tornado and bureaucracy. In 2011, the Oklahoma authorities requested from the Federal Agency for Emergency Situations $ 2 million for the construction of shelters in 800 private houses. However, Fema, according to the NBC television company, constantly postponed the decision on financing.

By the way, Fema has released a special standard, how to equip the shelters in case of a tornado. Such rooms should not be large: tornadoes usually do not continue for a long time, and you can wait for them at least in the closet. A room of 0.5 square meters is considered ideal. meters, preferably in the basement and having its own walls, separate from the external contours of the building.

Another thing is that you can build such rooms far from everywhere. “The city of Joplin (Missouri State), which was exposed to the most deadly in the history of the United States Tornado two years ago, which took the lives of 158 people, is in the area of ​​the old mine, and it is basically impossible to build underground bunkers there,” said The New Times Larry Tanner, an engineer of the Technological University of Texas (whose inhabitants also know about tornadoes and hurricians Pathas). - However, having arrived at the scene of the tragedy, we found 11 ground shelters there. In Oklahom, we also saw such, and people were able to escape in them. ”

Of course, the degree of need for such shelters depends on a specific area. In the same Virginia, for example, they are almost not needed - at least they were not needed until recently. On the other hand, in the state of Florida, subject to raids of hurricanes several times per season, you simply can not do without them. There are almost every house in Florida in Florida. These rooms are located in the middle of the dwelling, they have fortified walls and doors and, of course, there are no windows. As a rule, these are bathrooms in which you can spend several days.

Oklahoma-City. Young inhabitants of the dilapidated street look for surviving household utensils, furniture, household items among the ruins

Expensive and ugly

The main question is the survival of the house itself. Is it possible to reduce the scale of losses using the latest construction technologies? As it turns out, you can. However, experts unanimously ask the question: is it necessary?

“Of course, you can build a house that can withstand a tornado plaque,” ​​explains Larry Tanner. However, according to him, "this is extremely impractical: firstly, expensive, and secondly, very ugly." Tanner was also supported by a colleague with a degree in Randy Shakelford, who is part of the Executive Committee of the National Association for the provision of shelters in the event of an element. According to him, the design "should consist of durable concrete, be without windows and with steel doors - not everyone will agree to live in such a house." “In order to completely protect yourself, it is necessary to build a house that is able to withstand the direct hit of the rocket. In the United States there are such - for example, Pentagon. ”

Photos: AP Photo, AFP/East News, Reuters