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"Free" sounds good if you say it fast... I've never lived in OK but I did live through a tornado once in MN where I stood in the kitchen and watched our front door fly off, all of our living room furniture blow into the dining room, several windows explode and the neighbor's roofs flying off (including a nearby church) and cars being smashed by falling trees. All the while, we never had a warning and no one saw it coming. My employer's building was destroyed. The sirens went off about five minutes after we all made it out of the house and were sitting on a massive tree that had fallen in our yard. We were trying to regain our composure. (Also enjoyed watching small ones from afar that just stirred up some dust).
I have also experienced several several hurricanes while living in FL. At least we had had some advance knowledge that there was potential risk and had time to decide whether to stay or leave.
Now I live in an area that is more likely to get hurt by forest fire. Every area has it's own risks...
Today, at least here, for several days before the weather guy (and most stations only hire real meterologists for the weather guy instead of some cute women in flashy clothes) repeats over and over that there is a storm coming and take your precatuions. Then they repeat the precautions. Programming is suspended from the time the storm arrives until it leaves, and they have teams with their own equiptment to suppliment the National Weather Service. The weather guy on the abc station is one of the best meterologists in the country. So you aren't surprised. You can also follow the radar on your laptop real time.
They've done a lot of work on the sirens since the last one in Moore all over. The only thing I'd say we need is some way for more people to have shelters.
Contrast this with earthquakes. The only warning is that roar you sometimes hear, very distinct from other roars. Then it shakes. Sometimes the early ones are small then they grow. You are where you are, no guarentee you can even dive under a table. When the Northridge quake hit, and it shook all the way down the coast, I was in our little computer room, with a heavy monitor in front and nothing to get under. Husband got in the doorway. I leaned over and held back the monitor and hoped it stayed. My cousin live a quarther mile away from the epicenter, and the family ran out among broken glass. He sent them to stay with her family, and with his loaded hunting rifle, lived in the pickup in the driveway for a month. It was patroled twice a day, an area over a mile of damage. Most people lost more from looting than the quake.
The truely terrifying thing about earthquakes is you have NO warning. If your in a good place, lucky. If not you take your chances. And should 'the big one' come in California, look for no power, water, gas for some time.
Life is a roll of the dice. What scares me about quakes here is we are MAKING them with all the fraking, and what if we manage to trigger a really large one. But my doorjam has been fixed once and replaced once from damage from quakes. No wind damage ever and the house has been here 81 years.
Ugh, fires. I really wanted out after the fires in Orange, Riverside and San Bernadino joined and the ash was so thick you couldn't open the door. And with all the dry areas and drought, a fire like that now would be disastoros. In fact here in OK I'm actually more worried about drought and fires than tornadoes.
I lived in TX for 12 years and during my time there witnessed two tornados. After a while you get used to how extreme the thunderstorms are out there and it really isn't that scary. The Doppler radars that they use are very accurate and can literally tell you which street the tornado is on. So, if the reason for not living in Moore is due to tornados, I'd most certainly live there in a free home.
Not me. Weather like that, I suppose I'm being irrational, but I regard it as personal harassment directed at me. I want no part of it. If I had my choice, where I would live there would be no tornadoes, no earthquakes, no wildfires, no hurricanes, no ice storms or blizzards, no more than (say) 12 inches of rain per year and only about 3 cloudy days all year long, no windos stronger than 5 mph even during storms, and it would never be colder than 50 yet also no hotter than 85--yet it would still be affordable to live in with plenty to do yet ALSO not be crowded with traffic. ALL of this, ALL of it.
Well, if you want to live in a nice suburbian area and the house is FREE, then find out if it has a storm shelter. If it doesn't spend some money and put one in your free house. Have a cable to your tv provider brought down, and if your really that scared, go sit in it and watch until the storm is gone. And have insurence.
Storm season only covers a few months of the year, as well.
No, but tornadoes have little to do with it. I just don't find any appeal in living in OK.
Why not? Because liquor stores have to be closed on Sunday and because grocery stores aren't allowed to sell wine at any time? Or are you too scared of all the earthquakes that happen there every day: http://stillwaterweather.com/okareaearthquakes.php
Last edited by StillwaterTownie; 03-29-2015 at 12:16 PM..
I lived in Oklahoma for 5 years and it wasn't bad. Very peaceful. Small town air force base. People were nice. Now Oklahoma City area - nope.
IF it was Altus, you couldn't pay me to live there. Too far removed from urban Oklahoma, such as Tulsa and Oklahoma City areas. Enid, though isn't nearly so bad with its air force base, since it isn't too far from Oklahoma City.
Last edited by StillwaterTownie; 03-29-2015 at 12:38 PM..
Pass on OK. There is a reason why folks from OK live in CO, and both have tornadoes.
Really, because of skiing in the winter, along with legal marijuana in Colorado. In Oklahoma, you can get up to life in prison for being caught selling marijuana. So you better have a good lawyer.
Granted, the Moore area does seem more prone to be hit by tornados than the area I grew up in (Stillwater area).. they just don't terrify me for some reason.
Only two tornadoes, both rated F3, have cut through Stillwater since the 1960s.
Why not? Because liquor stores have to be closed on Sunday and because grocery stores aren't allowed to sell wine at any time? Or are you too scared of all the earthquakes that happen there every day: Recent Oklahoma Earthquakes
I lived in socal for all my life until moving here. I do admit that the tornado watches make me uneasy. But then you know there is a chance for one. Before I moved there was much hype about 'the big one' and they showed how a rupture of the san andreas which was fairly close would go. We had this quake early in the morning and I was upstairs in an apartment which had had a waterleak most of which soaked into the ground. It turned out not be much of a quake but it *felt* a whole lot worse. I thought about how good it was to be on the top floor. My neighbor below said she couldn't get out (she had mobility problems) and decided if it pancaked it was goodbye time. That quake wasn't much but it was scary, knowing we were on jelly.
There is still a part of quakes which shakes you up more because the first warning is that earth based roar. And you don't always get that. I was sitting watching the radar last storm on my computer with the tv on watching and ready to sound the alarm. Still want something more secure than a drywall lined closet, but KNOWING does matter.
I personally think the companies doing the fraking which is making all the quakes should provide free quake insurance for everyone in a wide area around their operations. Make is expensive and see how happily willing they are.
The first time I had damage to my house, a dislocated door jam where the front door barely closed, was here on a fairly small quake. None ever in California.
I do wish I could buy wine at the store since I like using it in cooking. The laws about alchol do seen outdated but then its a minor thing. I want to be able to order the really good mead I bought at a show too.
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