Oklahoma lost a town tonight

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silvercamaro · #1 Post by **silvercamaro** » Sat May 10, 2008 9:59 pm

There's not much left of Picher, a former mining town in the far northeast corner of Oklahoma, after a tornado hit the town tonight. The storm took out an area of approximately 20 square blocks -- but if you think that doesn't sound like much, the town's population was only 300. Reports say that at least six people have died, "many" were injured, and rescue workers are still going through the rubble of residential areas to search for additional victims.

Tornado deaths also have been reported in Missouri and Arkansas.

It's a sad, scary night for too many people.

SportsFan68 · #2 Post by **SportsFan68** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:03 pm

Oh no.

I hope some of the local Red Cross disaster-trained folkses will be going to help.

kayrharris · #3 Post by **kayrharris** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:04 pm

Stay safe. I hope the storms are dying down and no more damage will occur. That entire town will literally be affected in some way.

wbtravis007 · #4 Post by **wbtravis007** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:14 pm

Good Lord.

The winds worldwide seem to be very strange right now.

Nothing real big here, but we've had really strong winds almost every day this spring.

Not normal, that's for sure.

silvercamaro · #5 Post by **silvercamaro** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:19 pm

kayrharris wrote:That entire town will literally be affected in some way.

The old mines left the town on a polluted super-fund site. Both the state and the federal government have been conducting voluntary buy-outs, but there still were hold-outs who didn't want to leave "home." The tornado spared a few structures in the downtown area, but virtually all of the residential areas were destroyed. Now, there's almost nothing left for anyone to return to. I seriously doubt that rebuilding will be attempted (or that financing would be available for anyone who wanted to try. )

christie1111 · #6 Post by **christie1111** » Sun May 11, 2008 8:06 am

How horrible.

I hope everyone else turns out to be okay.

Hurricanes I can deal with. You know they are coming.

Prayers heading out to Oklahoma.

peacock2121 · #7 Post by **peacock2121** » Sun May 11, 2008 3:27 pm

This makes me very sad.

My heart goes out to those people.

a1mamacat · #8 Post by **a1mamacat** » Sun May 11, 2008 3:35 pm

sending thoughts and prayers to the affected.

Stay safe, Silver

mrkelley23 · #9 Post by **mrkelley23** » Sun May 11, 2008 4:11 pm

This is very bizarre.

The local fishwrapper, the Sunday Courier and Press, carried a full page story on the town of Picher. The story was about the town's death throes, but of course, made no mention of the tornado, since the paper was "put to bed" about 10 pm on Saturday evening.

I can't find it in the online version, but it was a little eerie to read shortlay after reading this post from sliver this morning.