The 1999 Moore, Oklahoma Tornado, also commonly referred to as the May 3rd Tornado, was an extraordinary and powerful F5 tornado. The May 3rd Tornado recorded the highest wind speeds ever measured anywhere around the world at 484 ± 32 km/h by DOW (Doppler on Wheel) radar. The 1999 More OK Tornado is considered the strongest Tornado ever recorded to have impacted the Oklahoma City metropolitan region, devastating the southern parts of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, and the neighboring towns and suburbs (Nejat et al., 2018). The Tornado covered an area spanning 61 kilometers, lasting for 85 minutes, killing 36 confirmed people, destroying thousands of homes along its path, and leaving behind damage worth over $1 billion, making it the fifth costliest Tornado, even without considering the inflation. This report presents a comprehensive analysis of facts about the 1999 Moore, Oklahoma Tornado (Brooks & Doswell, 2002). Specifically, this essay gives an account of the tornado site and situation, the tornado geophysics, the impacts, response, recovery & reconstruction, and the lessons learned from the 1999 Moore, Oklahoma Tornado disaster. The disaster occurred in Moore, Oklahoma. The town is situated south of Oklahoma City and is in the heart of Tornado Alley. The latter is a large area that covers the majority of the Midwest and Southwest United States. It is the ideal place for tornadoes' formation due to its geographical location being the midpoint between the Rocky Mountains and the Gulf of Mexico (Biddle, 2007). Warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico Rushes from the south and supplies the moisture for these storms while cool, dry, fast-moving air moves off from the Rocky Mountains and cause intermixing between the two air masses, which causes vorticity. Moore Oklahoma is a suburb of Oklahoma City, home to 45,431 people (US Census Bureau). It consists of a majority residential area with densely packed housing. People are usually prepared for severe weather during that time of year and have appropriate safety measures implemented (Hammer & Schmidlin, 2002). Tornado Shelters and weather warnings/radios. The SPC's predictions were calling for slightly severe weather in the region, so people were not expecting too much for Moore's day. Over the last two decades, the frequency of tornados in Oklahoma and Cleveland counties, when classified as per square mile, forms about triple the national average. This makes Oklahoma one of the most Tornado prone regions in the world (US Department of Commerce, 2016). Oklahoma is highly prone to tornados because it lies in the Tornado Alley, a great plains region that stretches from central Texas to South Dakota. Tornado Alley sits in a unique geographic location where warm, humid air coming from the Gulf of Mexico, hot, dry air originating from New Mexico and Arizona, and cool, dry air from Canada meets. During spring, these air masses work together to cause an environment suitable for forming a Tornado (Hammer & Schmidlin, 2002). Sometimes these air masses collide in Texas, sometimes in Oklahoma, resulting in violent currents.
Geophysics of the Phenomenon
The morning started off with dew points in the region around the mid-60s, with the dry line moving in from the west. The Storm Prediction Centre (SPC) was forecasting some convection in the morning to occur in the late afternoon, but nothing that would cause much concern. As the day went on, the clouds started to leave the area and allowed for extensive ground heating around midday. This caused rapid instability to form in the atmosphere and the SPC to re-examine the air variables present above. At 3:45 pm, the SPC issued an update which upgraded the severe outlook to moderate. The dryline Moved closer and began to move faster, causing a warm air uplift. Since the Condition changed so rapidly from the morning to noon, the SPC decided it would be beneficial to launch a special weather balloon to assess the environmental lapse rate. They found a large, significant change in conditions conducive to dangerous severe weather and caused them to issue an emergency update to the outlook.
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May 3rd, 1999 Tornado Impacts
Once the third risk assessment was published just before 4 pm, the first severe thunderstorm warnings in southern Oklahoma along the Red River began to be issued just 15 mines later. At 4:47 pm, the first Tornado Warning was issued, with the first spotting occurring at 4:51 pm. This made meteorologists know that due to the rapid intensification and the multiple reports of tornados in different locations, this would be an outbreak (Biddle, 2007). The radar began showing multiple strong supercells to form and producing the famous hook echo on the reflectivity image. The 1999 Moore Oklahoma Tornado caused both direct and indirect damage to the local economy. The direct losses came from the assets destruction from the first impact of the Tornado. The direct impact also caused the loss of human lives, damage to roads, power lines, factories, homes, crops, phone lines, and natural resources. The indirect losses happening from the destruction of the physical assets were huge. The indirect losses for the Moore tornado included a significant reduction in production and sales, lost labor and incomes, increased time for commuting, reduced tourist activity, goods are rerouted, and transportation costs increases and utility disruptions (Hammer & Schmidlin, 2002). The economic activity also reduces and, as a result, leads to a loss in taxable receipts and consumes the federal disaster relief funds in helping to do repairs, cleaning, and replacing the lost or damaged assets. The 1999 Moore Oklahoma tornado also saw a loss in production. This resulted in an increase in commodity prices because of an acute shortage of basic needs. Most refineries in the region and factories stopped production for some time; some never came back to operation, ultimately contributing to increases in commodity prices. The 1999 disaster in Oklahoma saw the insurance companies raise their premiums for the region, reasoning that it is a high prone region for tornado disaster (Nejat et al., 2018). Some insurance firms do not even cover Tornado. Businesses, therefore, have to contend with the high premiums and reduced coverage. The May 3rd Tornado also affected the environment significantly by destroying trees and killing animals. The destruction of plants and the killing of animals disrupted the food chain and interrupted the region's environment. The farms were also destroyed, causing food to be expensive and unavailable for an extended period. Other challenges were water contamination, sewerage systems finding their ways to clean water supply. The Tornado also destroyed the community park. After the storms dissipated, first responders were able to start to reach people in need. President Bill Clinton signed a federal emergency disaster declaration allowing federal funds to be allocated in rescue and recovery efforts. FEMA responded and granted 1.6 million USD in disaster funds so that people could rebuild. The full damage report in 1999 totaled up to $1 billion in damages. Disasters are natural calamities that call for a serious logistical deployment to transport humanitarian and equipment resources and goods to provide relief and reduce economic, social, and environmental impacts. This paper presents air transport as a method for the provision of resources for disaster relief operations. Whenever disaster strikes a community or a region, air transport usually is one of the most effective transportation modes for the urgently required relief supplies and first responders. After a hurricane, an earthquake, or a tsunami, most rail tracks, roads, and ports are normally rendered unusable because of debris blockages. On the other hand, airports are very sustainable since the damages caused to the airport infrastructure can always be repaired in hours, and it comes back to operation in a few hours. Two main areas need to be addressed to prepare for disaster relief traffic, including the tarmac and the runway infrastructure, and the air traffic control installations. Air traffic control installations are important in ensuring the airport's safety and effective and efficient traffic flow. The air traffic control infrastructure is normally vulnerable to natural disasters (Speheger et al., 2002). To avoid such vulnerability during disaster relief missions, there is a need to install satellite-based equipment, specifically the GPS approaches and the ADS-B systems. ADS-B is the modern air control traffic surveillance system that is antenna-based. There are possibilities that the aircraft underuse to deliver goods through the air may crash in bad weather. There is, therefore, a need for an emergency response team. This team will be deployed, ready to respond appropriately when a crash is reported. After the emergency report, there is a need to begin the recovery process immediately to restore the community to normal conditions. Helicopters are today an indispensable aid for effectively solving disaster-related problems. The helicopters do not require a runway. They are flexible; they can carry emergency medicine and food and are faster in service delivery in areas that normal aircraft cannot reach. Overall, the United States response machinery worked well to help save lives aftermath. One major problem in terms of response was that Oklahoma has never experienced such a massive scale of disaster for a very long time (Simmons, et al., 2015). It caught the locals unaware. The disaster response teams were not prepared adequately. There were challenges relating to funds, transportation, evacuation, insufficient equipment, food, and human capital.
Recovery and Reconstruction
The 1999 Moore Oklahoma tornado changed the communities in the region forever. After losing many lives, property destruction of the environment, and life coming to a standstill in Oklahoma when the Tornado strikes, the reconstruction effort began almost immediately. There was support from the local and federal governments. Different government departments and different organizations, including the Red Cross, came to the people's rescue. It took several days and months before things began to come to normal. The government championed the rebuilding of basic infrastructure, including the restoration of bridges, the building of roads, restoring power and phone lines, and other basic needs (Nejat et al., 2018). The insurance came in to help people and businesses begin rebuilding homes and businesses through new terms. Disaster management follows in the line of an integrated, logical, and progressive sequence of activities, a cycle of action, and preparedness. The disaster management plan has four main activities: risk mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Mitigation
The mitigation activities reduce or eliminate the chances of a disaster or minimize the effects of an unavoidable disaster. Some of the mitigating measures that were taken by the various response parties in the May 3rd Tornado disaster included land use management, zoning, educating the public, using safety codes and regulations in building, and analyzing the vulnerability. Mitigation measures were heavily dependent on the integration of the appropriate actions in regional and national development planning (Hammer & Schmidlin, 2002). Unfortunately, there were insufficient regional planning in case such a disaster strikes. The effectiveness of a mitigation activity depends on the availability of information regarding hazards, emerging risks, and countermeasures, yet the Moore residents were never educated before about tornados and such disasters. The Red Cross did their best to help locals understand their situation, help the vulnerable, evacuate affected people, and collect the bodies.
Preparedness
An emergency preparedness initiative aims to attain a satisfactory level of readiness to respond to any emergency case via programs that strengthen the communities, organizations, and governments' managerial and technical capacity. These actions can be defined as logical readiness to address the disasters and can be improved by putting in place response procedures and mechanisms (Burgess, et al., 2002). The measures can be further improved by conducting regular rehearsals, developing short-term and long-term strategies, developing early warning systems, and educating the public. Preparedness can also take several other forms like having ready water, equipment, medicines, food, and other essentials if a disaster strikes. In the preparedness phase, organizations, governments, and individuals create plans to reduce disaster damage, save lives, and improve disaster response operations. The preparedness measures include emergency training, preparedness plans, installing warning systems, developing evacuation plans, mutual aid agreements, public education, contact lists of emergency personnel, and emergency communication systems (Nejat et al., 2018). Concerning the mitigation efforts, the preparedness actions are dependent on the inclusion of the correct measures in regional and national development plans. Additionally, their effectiveness depends on the availability of information regarding hazards, the emerging risks and the countermeasures in place, and the level at which the government agencies, NGOs, and the entire public can use the provided information. An emergency response aims to provide immediate help to improve health, maintain life, and support the affected population's morale. Help to the population may come in different forms, including giving the refugees transport, providing limited aid, giving food and temporary shelter, and setting up temporary camps. Disaster response also involves repairing the damaged infrastructure (Hammer & Schmidlin, 2002). A response mechanism's objective is to provide the affected person basic needs until a more sustainable and permanent solution is provided. Humanitarian organizations come in very handy in the response phase of a disaster.
Recovery
As the team on the ground and the taken measures help bring the emergency under control, the impacted population can undertake several activities targeted at controlling their lives and enhancing the infrastructure that supports them. No one-bullet solution will bring the situation back to normal; however, several small actions taken will enhance prevention and increase preparedness and reduce vulnerability. The idea is to have a smooth transition from disaster recovery to ongoing development (Speheger et al., 2002). The disaster recovery activities will go on until all the systems are returned to normal or improved. Both long-term and short-term recovery measures are considered, including the restoration of life-support systems to the minimum operating standards, safety and health education, temporary housing, reconstruction, public information, economic impact studies, and counseling programs.
Lessons Learned from the Tornado Disaster
The first lesson learned from the May 3rd Tornado is that Moore, Oklahoma sits on the bed or on the path of a disaster that is likely to repeat (Sites, 2010). Therefore, the local and federal governments, the people, and the relevant institutions of interest need to work together to put long-term measures to help prevent the impact of consequent tornadoes in the future. These include more effective and early Tornado warnings, better and faster evacuation techniques, infrastructure needs to be built in consideration of future tornado disasters, and policies to protect the people (Nejat et al., 2018). After the 1999 tornado, Oklahoma is now adequately prepared to handle such disasters with lots of infrastructure and systems in place to help during a disaster. There are more advanced tornado warning systems, the food system is now more stable to cover people in case of a tornado, rescue missions are now more elaborate, and people are better learned and know what to do if a tornado strikes. Initial damage surveys conducted by Tim Marshall concluded that housing structural integrity for the affected houses was built to less than adequate standards for the time. It was proven when Texas Tech University did Air cannon studies on replica walls found at the scene (Biddle, 2007). They found that a two by four launched at even 100 mph penetrate three-quarters of the way through. In the F5, Tornado, boards were found to go through both exterior walls and interior walls, almost as if the house were non-existent. The success of recovery speed from a tornado disaster highly depends on the local community's preparedness, the local and regional government, and response speed (Marshall, 2002). When there is adequate preparedness, there will be a warning before tornado strikes. The government will warn people to move to higher grounds. People will wear safety clothing. The rescue teams will be on alert, and the teams would work together to reduce the impact and take quick response and recovery action after the disaster.
Conclusion
In sum, facts regarding the 1999 Moore Oklahoma tornado have been discussed. From the analysis, it has been discovered that Oklahoma lies in a strategic position where warm winds and cold winds meet once in a while, creating a conducive condition for a tornado to occur. The 1999 Tornado caused massive damage to the community, including disruption of food supply, a stop in production, human life loss, killing of animals, and destroying trees, homes, and the environment. Unfortunately, when the disaster struck Oklahoma in 1999, the city was not much prepared. There were no elaborate tornado warning systems. The people were not trained on what to do when disaster strikes and the infrastructure to help prevent and recover. After 1999, Moore is now better prepared to handle a tornado disaster.
References
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