Our Altus Tornado Scare!

We tested out our storm shelter for the first time this past Thursday. The power went out city-wide, the national weather service radio station either wasn't working or just wasn't reporting anything aside from thunderstorm warnings and of course Internet and cable were down... but we heard the base sirens go off and the sky looked pretty ominous so Daddy asked Ben and I if we wanted to go on a little "adventure". We heard lots of wind and rain and hail but didn't have to stay down there very long. We were surprised that our power didn't come back on until about 4am... but not as surprised as our friends on base who aren't supposed to get theirs back until possibly Monday or Tuesday. We haven't heard any reports of injuries, but we were quite surprised by the line of destruction along Broadway and Veterans, two roads in Altus - thankfully not ours. They still aren't calling it a tornado mostly because they do not have good enough equipment to have measured anything, but there is some pretty obvious damage that doesn't seem to be just straight line wind damage. We didn't take pictures until today, Sunday, so a lot of cleanup has already happened but you can still get the idea. In addition to these, the base had some crazy stuff occur. Doors and pieces of a hanger ripped apart, insulation even ripped out of seams in the roof. The travel trailer lot was pummeled and there was even a trailer crashed on its side laying OUTSIDE of the fenced in area where it had been parked! There were bleachers from the intramural field that were carried over the fences and flipped upside down and more!

Anyway, here are some of the pictures we took! We feel so blessed to have been protected!

Power lines snapped for miles...

These power lines and poles got it the worse... there were about 30 in a row that were broken off at the base in a corkscrew twisting pattern that snapped the wood, or completely pulled out of the ground.
Tons of signs knocked over or shredded, including this huge one.
Trees down or snapped at the base all over, I counted almost 20 big ones down in one of our oldest parks.
The top floor of this hotel was ripped off... close up photos to follow.
Close up from the front...

Close up from the back...
Yikes! They used to have guitar lessons here.
Another roof torn apart on an apartment building.
Sheds and garages made out of this stuff did not fare well to say the least.

So I don't think our lifelong Oklahoma neighbors are laughing at us for having a storm shelter put in now!