Tornado Shelters Flooded Out in Oklahoma!
It's easy to advise that you should get into a tornado shelter when a Tornado Warning is issued. But is that always the best idea? Short answer is yes with a "but."
The tornado outbreak on Wednesday May 6th was epic, or so it appeared on radar. Supercell after supercell mowed over Oklahoma City throughout the evening, as you can see from the radar animation below. It was chaos.
At one point, there were three "tornado emergency" Tornado Warnings in effect, in some cases more than one covered the same area:
Soon after, the first "flood emergency" was issued for the OKC metro area because the storms kept moving over the city -- at that point the radar was estimating over 5 inches of rain in one hour! By the end of the evening, radar estimates were over 10 inches! (Actual amounts proved to be lower but one station reported two-day totals over 10 inches.
Cassie Todd of Mustang, Oklahoma, uploaded this terrifying photo the next morning:
That's her tornado shelter, up-ended and floating in mud and water. She told me on Facebook: "Last night we were headed out to the backyard to seek shelter. My husband said wait there's something on top of it. He came back in and said no that is our shelter. My daughter took this photo."
Thursday morning, they checked on the shelter again when another tornado warning was issued. It was still floating, the hole where it was buried completely filled with water.
She wasn't the only one.
Brian Graham shared this photo of his concrete below-ground tornado shelter in Moore, Oklahoma, completely filled with water Thursday morning. Via Facebook, he explained: "It flooded while me and my three kids were in it taking shelter during a tornado yesterday around 6:00-6:30 yesterday. My shelter has never flooded before, but I just got it a couple years ago. As quickly as the water started coming in it wasn't really an option to stay. Had maybe 30 seconds to get my kids out."
In the end, only three tornadoes were reported -- which is three too many for central Oklahoma, of course, but not nearly as many as supercells as I saw move across the radar screen that night.
This situation reminds me of one where NWS issued false Tornado Warnings during Hurricane Charley, in a desperate attempt to reach people to tell them to take cover from the storms high winds. The problem with that was the Tornado Warnings contained standard language telling people to shelter underground, which is not advisable, due to storm surge and widespread heavy rain.
I think the answer (if there is one) is that it's still better to go inside a shelter when a tornado warning is issued., though an above-ground shelter would probably be a good idea. The chances of being hit by a tornado are minuscule and the odds to be hit by a flood too is even more remote. However, you should take into account that flooding could happen, and if you start to see standing water, get out and act as if you had no shelter -- for example, get in a ditch or an interior room of a building. Remember that a tornado could lift debris onto your shelter, making it hard to get out at the last minute.
And now for something totally different: A visible satellite with warnings overlaid, along with storm chaser positions (click to enlarge):
