15 dead in Lone Grove, dozens of injuries reported

[5X]

Source: Tulsa World

ARDMORE — With at least 15 confirmed dead after a massive tornado Tuesday evening, Carter County emergency officials were forced to suspend the search for survivors shortly after 1 a.m. until daylight Wednesday.

“It’s just too dangerous,” Sheriff Ken Grace said, referring to jagged metal and livewires hidden in rubble and debris. “We don’t need to be adding any more injuries to what we already have.”

Sheriff’s officials said this town of about 5,000 people was devastated when a tornado estimated to have been about a half-mile wide tore through the middle of Lone Grove, ripping buildings from their slabs, demolishing dozens of mobile homes and snapping any trees and power lines in its path.

Read more: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=12&articleid=20090210_12_0_Atorna11883

[Blaze Diem]

1. Very sad. I live about an hour south , in Texas. I know some very wonderful people in Ardmore.

Tornado season is just beginning.
What a sad story for this community.

[Uben]

2. I'm about thirty minutes south

Slept thru the whole thing!

[Blaze Diem]

3. lol. Too bad it didn't hit that stupid Casino near you.

Used to be a fun & friendly place. Then they got greedy, built bigger, and got all cheep on the payouts not to mention the staff is a bit stand-off-ish, stuck up, or whatever you want to call it.
Basically the place just lost its "personality".
Rarely go there anymore.

I've lived through a nasty tornado, was about 12 yrs old and it was the most frightening 20 minutes of my life.
I feel sorry for this little town today.

[TexasEditor]

5. LOL? 15 dead, maybe more...

And you're carrying on about a casino.

[Blaze Diem]

7. Whoa there !!!! 15 Dead and someone SLEPT through it??

Did you read my first post? I have friends in that area. I am quite concerned and well know the fear and damage tornado weather can do.

The "lol" comment was actually in reference to the fact that someone slept through a storm of the magnitude that surrounded them last night.

As for the casino comment. It is a bit of sarcasm thrown into the mix here and in NO WAY diminishes the tragedy of what happened in the Lone Grove area.
Re read my posts. You missed my point.
Chill.

[WriteDown]

10. Yeah, those NA's are just greedy....

:eyes:

[Blaze Diem]

12. Not dissing the NA's at all. Just the greed & A-hole management of the new & bigger casino.

IT was once a friendly & fun & welcoming place. That's all changed now.
That is my point. The 'personality" of the place has been lost with the expansion.

Don't believe I mentioned NA's & I resent you injecting that in my message.
Most of the management I refer to is white anyway.
K?

Back to the origin of this post, I have spent the day trying to get information from anyone who may know of the whereabouts of some of my friends in the tornado area.
I am trying to find contacts to send donations of cash or whatever may be helpful in this tragic loss of a great little community.

Maybe the big casino could do a donation too.

[WriteDown]

16. Well which casino are you talking about?

Choctaw or Winstar? Either way, the majority of the employee's are NA's. Expansion is the life blood of these peoples since without the casinos they would literally have nothing.

[Blaze Diem]

17. The one across the Red River from Tx. Winstar . I realize the casinos support the NA's

But does it give the right for a business that was once fun & friendly & profitable, to become a replica of the Corporate greed & we diss here on DU?
They are of course a for-profit business, but with their expansion I see them going the way of any greedy corporation in the world today. Regardless of race or color.

As to the employees I saw when I used to visit the place, very very few were NA. Most are white. Including the management. Rarely did I see NA's.

As I said, its lost its personality. But so do most companys when they get greedy or grow to a corporate structured busiiness.
Never experience this problem with any other OK casino we used to visit. Just this particular one.
The people I knew that once visited the place no longer go there because of this same reason.

Its their business, they can run it as they wish. They gave us a reason to no longer go back.
There's no point to disagree. It is how it is.

Enough of this.
Off topic and my concern is for the nightmare of last night's tornado victims.
I'm waiting to hear from any one of my friends in that area.
Have a good day.

[WriteDown]

18. Considering that most NA's blood has been diluted due

to the integration with white settlers, what you saw were most probably NA's (1/8 documented). How was the casino more greedy than before? Had the odds changed? Their goal is to expand as much as possible to try to lift their people out of destitution. You'd think after the trail of tears, people would understand that. They've still got a LOOOONG way to go to.

[Blaze Diem]

20. Give it a rest. You're preaching to the choir. I grew up among the Sioux Tribes of the Northern Plai

I much appreciate NA's. I'm talking about the greed of money and what I witness in that respect, regardless of who, where, or why it takes hold.

The payouts suck indeed, the employees are paid meager wages, and with the "tightening" of the machine payouts in ratio to what's put in, results in the meager paid employees who used to rely on tips for their income, now do with little in comparison. Add 'zero' benefits for those employees also.

I know this because that's what they, themselves tell me. I was friends with many of the employees that do the cleaning, cooking, & maintenance on the floor.
And thee greed of the place that once was packed 6 nights a week and made millions, now packs only on weekend nights, if there is a concert.

Bigger is not always better. Its greed and its the corporate way in America. The place is no fun to go to and that's my point.
This subject can be continued in another thread should you like to start one.
Bye for today.
Blaze

[WriteDown]

21. Read and learn...

1200 more jobs to a place that desperately needs them.

http://newsok.com/article/3130766/1190379133

I just hope my tribe is as lucky one day.

[Blaze Diem]

24. Nice promo story. Good luck keeping those 1200 people employed

more than part time when the profits are down for lack of patronage.
I hear also the turnover rate is high, and most cannot afford the drive at any distance with Winstar's crappy low wages & poor tips.
Beautiful place, Absolutely. And they will keep a profit going the same way all corporate structured operations do. Cut wages, hours, benes, and in this case cut the payout to input ratio to about 20 cents on the dollar or less.
Economy is bad, and money isn't coming in as it used to when this new expansion was a gleam in someone's eye.

Night

[Marrah_G]

Oh wow

Such a sad story

[Submariner]

4. Is that part of the country nothing but mobile homes

or are they magnets for tornadoes. It seems that EVERY time I read of a tornado tragedy, it involves mobile homes in the tornado pathway.

[TexasEditor]

6. Texas tornados have hit downtown Fort Worth, Wichita Falls...

NO MOBILE HOMES THERE.

[Ian David]

9. God hates them because they vote Republican?

Wasn't it Oklahoma that was the only state with zero counties going to Obama this year?

Global Warming is real. Get used to winter tornadoes, or start voting for Democrats to try and fix things.

[tanyev]

11. Lots of damage in Colleyville, TX. Big expensive houses near John McCain Road.

Moral of the story: Don't ever live near a road named after John McCain?

[Blaze Diem]

13. Well that explains it then. George Bush Turnpike, John McCain Road, What's next to bring this wrath

upon us all. Its not the gays after all, its the republicans !

[LeftyMom]

15. It's because mobiles are more economical in rural areas and more vulnerable to tornadoes.

My late grandmother lived in a very rural area (northern Nevada) and almost all of the houses outside of the towns and a fair share of the ones in town are prefab mobile or modular homes. There are a few reasons: first of all, because they're cheaper, and in rural areas where jobs are scarce that's a big motivator. Second, because in a very rural area there may not be much in the way of a construction industry. If my grandmother had wanted to get a stickframe house built, the nearest construction company was probably an hour's drive away. Needless to say a two hour commute into BFE to build one house probably isn't going to be a very enticing job, and won't get a very good bid, if it gets one at all. Supply deliveries will also be outrageous, if they're even possible. So when we're talking poor rural areas, you hear about mobile homes because they're plentiful.

The other reason you hear about tornados destroying mobile homes is because they destroy mobiles when stickframe houses (and their inhabitants) survive, so that's where the story is. There are two reasons for this: first, the aluminum construction of mobiles makes them vulnerable because it's very light and easily picked up and pulled off by the wind. Second, because mobile homes sit off the ground and stickframe houses do not. That means that wind can get beneath mobiles and send them tumbling, creating what is in effect a rollover accident with somebody's house. On the other hand this can be advantageous in areas where flooding is a concern- a stickframe house will be under 2' of water while a mobile will be dry and nearly undamaged (some wiring will need replaced, as electrical connections are generally underneath a mobile,) unless floodwaters will have substantial current.

It's unfortunate that we can't provide people in wind-vulnerable areas (whether vulnerable to tornadoes or hurricanes) with safe, well-built housing.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Tornadoes are very frightening

and if you are in their path, all you can do is get to shelter, hunker down, and if you are a believer, pray (it relieves stress to do so). My heart goes out to the families of the victims and to the survivors who must now pick up the pieces. Hope all who had friends or relatives there hear from them soon, and that they are all well.

[Blaze Diem]

14. agred, You are at the mercy of nature. It is a terrifying thing to go through.

Recall the tornado season in Omaha area last summer.
The boy scout camp that got hit hard. There was no protection where they were staying, and they were basically out in the open and directly in its path.
Bless the brave kids and sorrow for the ones who died as a result.

They said the tornado that hit OK last night was half mile wide. Some of these small towns aren't even a half mile wide at best.
The fact that it came during the dark of night made it so much more frightening for anyone in its path.

[npk]

19. Some peoples attitudes just piss me off

Like the people who talk about how we need to do more to help the poor and middle class in this country, and then without batting an eyelash will come into a thread and make fun of people who have lost their homes, lives, anything and everything of value, simply on the belief that they are republicans. It is really sad to be honest. Funny I didn't see an (R) next to the name of the people who lived in these mobile homes that may have been killed. And even if they were republicans, to state or imply they deserved it based on that fact is beyond asinine.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

22. Look at the size of those hailstones!

They must have packed a wallop.

Sending good vibes for the people of Lone Grove.

[Cha]

23. I'm so sorry..those things

are so deadly..how do you get away from them?!