Guild Wars 2

Hope those affected are fine. Be strong and safe.

Agreed Praying for moore.

Did someone set off a supply trap there or something?

The tornado was devastating 2 miles wide at base, my thoughts and prayers go out to those affected. I wish you a speedy recovery.

Never heard of Oklahoma, is that somewhere in the northern Shiverpeaks?

Is this the official ‘something tragic happened in America’ forum now?

Blackelk.3784:

The tornado was devastating 2 miles wide at base, my thoughts and prayers go out to those affected. I wish you a speedy recovery.

For a non-american, is this rare? i live on the other side of the planet

I hope they are fine. And my deepest regrets for those who are not…

That said, I have two reservations with this post.

First: why is this in the WvW section? It’s a terrible tragedy, yes. but why is that announced here?

Second: I realise a lot of Northern Americans are christians or at least religious, and I respect that.
But I’m not, and the post assumes we all ‘pray’.
I don’t.
And I don’t see this as a religious forum. So why is the assumption here that players of Gw2 (WvW) pray?
I have a lot of sympathy for the people struck by disasters, not only those in the US mind you… but don’t assume we all pray, or all should pray.

Fuzzion.2504:

Blackelk.3784:

The tornado was devastating 2 miles wide at base, my thoughts and prayers go out to those affected. I wish you a speedy recovery.

For a non-american, is this rare? i live on the other side of the planet

Fairly rare. In the past 14 years there have been a total of 9 Tornadoes even close to this strength Worldwide.

In a cruel turn of Fate, this town has been hit by two of those nine and after analysis they are likely to be ranked #1 and #2 in terms of most powerful recorded Tornadoes ever (Winds exceeding 200mph/320kph).

Kimbald.2697:

I hope they are fine. And my deepest regrets for those who are not…

That said, I have two reservations with this post.

First: why is this in the WvW section? It’s a terrible tragedy, yes. but why is that announced here?

Second: I realise a lot of Northern Americans are christians or at least religious, and I respect that.
But I’m not, and the post assumes we all ‘pray’.
I don’t.
And I don’t see this as a religious forum. So why is the assumption here that players of Gw2 (WvW) pray?
I have a lot of sympathy for the people struck by disasters, not only those in the US mind you… but don’t assume we all pray, or all should pray.

No one assumed you prayed each person dedicated THEIR thoughts and/or prays to those affected….

The real tragedy is that they know that storms like this hit these areas and yet they continue to build houses out of wood and brick. Apparently it is possible to build a structure that can withstand winds of a tornado: These guys have done it

Yet i’m watching the Weather Channel who is really covering this and what I see is a whole block of wooden houses that got reduced to foundations. Anyone who didn’t have a storm shelter was seriously screwed in that situation. And the school is the worst part about it. Each classroom could have a storm shelter in it and yet they send the kids into the hallway which is only marginally better than the classroom at protecting them.

Oklahoma is no stranger to tornadoes. Surely they could have building codes in place requiring shelters at a minimum.

It’s tragic to see this happen and my heart goes out to them.

Which elementalist was responsible for this?

lioka qiao.8734:

The real tragedy is that they know that storms like this hit these areas and yet they continue to build houses out of wood and brick. Apparently it is possible to build a structure that can withstand winds of a tornado: These guys have done it

It’s like a quote from the late George Carlin

“Ask those people in hawaii who build their homes next to an active volcano then wonder why there’s lava in the living room.”

Source – Good for a watch~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL8HP1WzbDk

CHIPS.6018:

Which elementalist was responsible for this?

Pfft. You can whack those tornadoes to death with a sword!

And this thread shouldn’t be here.

Im an Okie….my folks still live there. they live about a 100 miles NW of moore. A tornado touching down is a common thing to have happen there. Tho usually it happens outside of populated areas.

lioka qiao.8734

I just wanna point out its not the winds you realy have to worry about…ITS WHATS IN THE WINDS cause these types of things will pick cars and trees up and throw them around like rag dolls…while i do agree with you on the storm shelter thing if you live down there its probably a very good idea but going over the flaws now will not fix anything that happened

hope everyone is ok and for the ones that are not i hope you find peace and can move forward..

Tornadoes are bad and kitten but this has nothing to do with World vs World, there are better forums for this type of discussion.

lioka qiao.8734:

The real tragedy is that they know that storms like this hit these areas and yet they continue to build houses out of wood and brick. Apparently it is possible to build a structure that can withstand winds of a tornado: These guys have done it

Yet i’m watching the Weather Channel who is really covering this and what I see is a whole block of wooden houses that got reduced to foundations. Anyone who didn’t have a storm shelter was seriously screwed in that situation. And the school is the worst part about it. Each classroom could have a storm shelter in it and yet they send the kids into the hallway which is only marginally better than the classroom at protecting them.

Oklahoma is no stranger to tornadoes. Surely they could have building codes in place requiring shelters at a minimum.

It’s tragic to see this happen and my heart goes out to them.

In 1999 Oklahoma was struck by a series of tornadoes that whacked many homes but left others standing relatively unharmed , so one of the government agencies (I think it was the Army Corp of Engineers) tried to analyze why. What they found was pretty incredible … exterior walls made from wire mesh and stucco over mere slats across the studs (no sheets of OSB to prevent racking), roof trusses simply toenailed to the top of walls instead of using hurricane straps like the IRC (essentially a national building code) requires, etc. I found the report complete with pictures on the internet so I assume it is still out there somewhere, but the bottom line was that the majority of homes built to code held up far better than the rest and saved lives in the process.

It also beats me why schools there don’t have concrete basements (with tunnels for safe egress) for the kids to go to when a hurricane warning is in effect.

I understand it’s what’s in the winds too. Of course your house won’t last if a volvo gets thrown through the window but those images suggest that 90% of it was pure wind power. Mount Washington has definitely endured that much wind (since they have the record for it).

My point about the schools still stands though. Now that we solidly know that a school building won’t survive a really powerful tornado like that we can build storm shelters into the classrooms there. It doesn’t help if a school is 2 floors but at least in that case (a 2 story school building) the first floor might be able to get away without storm shelters. The school is government funded I hope and they should put in a shelter for at least every 2 classrooms if not every one.

Seriously seriously wrong forum for this, but.

I’ve lived in central Oklahoma (ie, where the news about most tornadoes comes from, but not where most of the tornadoes are, which is out in the relatively empty west) for 44 years and I’ve come vaguely close to a smallish tornado precisely one time.

The odds of actually taking any tornado damage at all, much less catastrophic damage like this one, are very very very small. The cost/benefit ratio for building a safe room that will survive a massive tornado and not trap you inside is waaaaay out of whack.

The wind record at Mount Washington is 231mph. The record in their “new” building was set in 1980 at 178mph. This tornado clocked in at over 200mph, and the May 3. 1999 tornado (the EF5 one) clocked in at over 300mph. Tell me again about building codes. When a tornado that powerful is capable of pulling concrete slabs and asphalt up off of the ground, there’s really not much you can do about it except get the heck out of the way.

Yes, schools need to be built better. I have no idea when the two schools that were hit and destroyed (one of which had no fatalities) were built, or to what design standard. I know of the 5 elementary schools in my town, several have certified storm shelters, and two of them are in the process of being replaced with new schools which are having massive storm shelter hallways put in. I can only hope more schools do go that route.

And before non-Okies start going on about basements, the reason we don’t have a lot of basements is because of the soil. Being primarily clay and sand, with bedrock hard to reach and a relatively high water table, the ground goes through a crazy dry/cracked and sopping-wet cycle constantly. It is next to impossible to keep basements dry, much less sealed and dry. I also want to point out that some of the children killed at the one elementary school apparently drowned by being trapped under debris in a low area (I’ve read both “basement” and “not basement, just low area”) when water pipes burst. I dunno about you, but I’d much rather be under some debris aboveground than under some debris in a hole with rain pouring down. Aboveground saferooms are much better, but again, when we get to EF5 levels of tornadoes, even that may not be enough.

Why continue to live here? Because the odds are still incredibly small. I stand a much better chance of dying in a car accident just driving across town. And so do you.