Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People

This page: Oklahoma’s geographic
location is in the eye of Tornado Alley.
Opposite, left column and top: Disaster
relief workers immediately rally after
devastation caused by tornados—as
shown here in Moore, Oklahoma.
This relief crew camped at one of the
few remaining structures in that area,
which turned out to be a church.
The relief workers set up RVs complete
with showers, laundry facilites and food
prep. In this case they used the church
kitchen and fed both relief workers and
storm survivors. Therapy dogs are also
brought in.
Opposite, bottom right: St. Anthony’s
Catholic Church in Okeene.
Because of Oklahoma’s geographic location
in the eye of tornado alley, the threat of tornadoes
has created dread and consternation since
the first settlers made their home here. Without
warning, tornadoes spread destruction in early
Oklahoma. The state’s two deadliest tornadoes
killed more than 100 people each—in Snyder
in 1905 and Woodward in 1947.
As weather forecasters developed ways to
provide an advance warning of tornadic
activity, lives were saved. After the Woodward
tornado in 1947, no extensive loss of life
occurred due to tornadoes in Oklahoma for a
half century. However, on May 3, 1999, a rash
of record-making twisters hit the state. More
than seventy tornadoes hit the state within a
twelve hour period, the strongest an EF-5,
with the strongest winds ever recorded, and
killed 48 people and produced more than
$1.1 billion in damage.
The OKLAHOMA STANDARD again was
displayed as neighbors helped neighbors
and churches and other community organizations
rushed to the rescue. Within weeks,
the debris was removed and sounds of
hammers and saws rang through the hundreds
of square blocks that had been ravaged
by tornadoes.
Ironically, the May 3 tragedy was repeated
on May 20, 2013, when 24 people were
killed and nearly 400 injured when another
EF-5 tornado followed a similar track through
Moore and caused more than $2 billion in
damage. National news anchors rushed to
Moore for twenty-four hour coverage of
the horrific example of Mother Nature’s fury
and reported on the courage, good attitude,
and resilience of Oklahomans. The world
saw what the OKLAHOMA STANDARD
really was.
O K L A H O M A : A S t o r y T h r o u g h H e r P e o p l e
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