May 10, 2010 Norman tornado This is the Norman tornado at the exact moment it was going through our neighborhood. I had been forecasting earlier in the day for a client and was monitoring this storm with GRLevel2 Analyst. I had my evacuation kit (important papers, etc) and grabbed them and blasted a mile east to Harrah Rd and a few miles south. This was about 4 minutes after I left the house. Photographed just south of Harrah Rd & SE 269th (Lindsey) looking north-northwest. This was a separate event from the debris cloud I saw about 2 minutes earlier while fleeing south... I think the earlier event is what destroyed Country Boy. Some of the first damage that I saw, 4 minutes after the tornado just south of Harrah Rd & Rock Creek Rd, looking south. My way back into the neighborhood was blocked by downed lines. Our supermarket, Country Boy, about 6 minutes after the tornado. Looking northwest near Little Axe school on 168th. Lines blocked Hwy 9 at 48th St. I had been driving west to escape the next cell, as I was blind and could not drive east or south due to downed lines everywhere. I ended up going north on 60th. Approaching our neighborhood; this is Rock Creek & 180th looking south. The scene in my neighborhood as I arrived, about 45 minutes after the tornado. We were waiting for them to clear Running Deer with a front-end loader and get some emergency crews to the house across Pawnee and just to the south. I waited here about 30 minutes. While waiting, a horse from the "Hummer house" (which was levelled) showed up. I don't know how it survived. This is the scene turning onto Pawnee, looking southeast. The house across Pawnee is directly ahead. This is Pawnee Rd looking south from our mailbox. Evening at 10 pm on the first night with no power. There was nothing to do but read or listen to the scanner. This is our driveway the next morning. I had done some clearing the previous night to get the car in, and later on this afternoon I cleared it out a lot more. This is our south yard fence, looking west. Our house. I am amazed it survived. Another look at our house. The upper half of a tree came down in our yard. The chicken pen and coop amazingly survived. Initially I thought two chickens were killed, but when I recounted them later I found all 14. And miraculously even our hot tub survived. There is a very large limb on the roof to the left, which can't be seen. This is Running Deer south of Pawnee, looking north toward our house. Here is the unfortunate "Hummer house" which was one of the 6 or 7 houses in our subdivision that was destroyed. The house across the street. Further down Running Deer there were some loose cattle. This is a house on the west side of Running Deer, at about the 9 o'clock position. Another house. I recall that this was another fancy type of designer house like ours, though a little smaller. These are the houses down Corvette St, which frankly was completely trashed with litter, garbage, and junk even before the tornado. However they did sustain some damage and probably injuries or fatalities (I'm not sure). This is the scene on 180th between Hwy 9 and Rock Creek on Wednesday evening. OEC crews were putting up these new metal transmission poles to replace the ones that were split by the tornado. This is 200 feet north of our house on Rock Creek. The tornado was strong enough to snap this pole. We were REALLY lucky. You can see a pole on the ground that OEC placed there Wednesday afternoon in preparation to restring the lines. Another look at that snapped pole. OEC working on the distribution lines just south of Harrah Rd & Rock Creek on Wednesday evening, looking south.