Oklahoma, you are in my thoughts...

As I drove home a few days ago... this is what I saw as I approached the little town that is right where I live... the bell tower for the church that is about 1 1/2 miles from my house.   Sure looks like something 'ominous' weather-wise is going to happen, doesn't it?   However, many times... I've seen the sky look like this... and nothing happens... other than RAIN... sometimes it even blows away and it did in this case.  No rain as a result of these suddenly approaching dark clouds.

When I was a child in Oklahoma... living in the country, at the lake, you had to learn to read the skies at an early age.   In Oklahoma, if you saw the sky look like this... it was worth noting.

I heard the news and saw some photos on the Internet news about what happened in Shawnee and Moore a few days ago.

I also noticed a lot of people, on the Internet news areas (where comments could be left), critizing Oklahoma and Oklahomans about not having basements.   It made me sad.  I have never in my life known anyone having a basement in Oklahoma.  They just don't exist.   Small metal or cement block cellars are 'often' in the yards of many rural homes and in the yards of the homes in towns and maybe even in the larger cities?.  

It would be awesome (space wise) to get to have basements in one's homes-- but, they just won't work in Oklahoma... have you noticed that in the photos of the homes destroyed... that where the home 'used to be' that there is a cement slab?   That's because the homes are built UP from those slabs... the ground is clay and it is unstable.  There are also rocky areas too- but, mostly the problem is shifting clay soil.   Home structures just can't be built without damage showing up quite soon-- by digging them and placing them in a clay soil.   Also the water table in Oklahoma is pretty close to the surface.

And let's also remember... a tornado is a unpredictable force.   Different parts of the world and the states have different building materials and different building conditions.

Just like the above photo... In Oklahoma, I'd be watching the skies for a possible tornado if I saw a sky suddenly look like that photo... overseas?  Just not something that you think about as being a possibility.   Not that a 'tornado' might not EVER HAPPEN but... it just isn't part of life overseas in any of the locations where I've lived.  None.