From The Archive: Moore Tornado

FROM THE ARCHIVE: This image is a decade old this week. I made it in the aftermath of the massive EF5 tornado that blew through Moore, Oklahoma for 40 minutes on May 20, 2013, leaving 24 people dead along a 14-mile-long path of destruction. The storm was huge, over a mile wide. Less than a week later, the largest tornado ever recorded, the 2.6-mile-wide El Reno tornado touched down 31 miles west of Moore.

?I was born in Oklahoma. One of my oldest memories is of my grandfather walking me out onto the porch of my great-grandparent’s home. Their farm was the highest point in the county. From the house, you could see for miles in every direction. My grandfather pointed out a tornado on the horizon. He held my hand as we stood there and watched it move across the field. I don’t remember any sound, I remember it being quiet and calm, then I felt the air change. He tugged my hand back towards the house and told me it was time to get to the basement.

Growing up in Tornado Alley I was never really afraid of tornados. I was always taught to respect them. I think that is how it is for most Oklahomans, they have a well-earned caution of them, but understand them to be part of life in the Sooner state.??

As I explored the extreme damage in Moore I kept thinking that certainly more people must’ve died. But as I met people in the debris, they would all tell me their stories, how as soon as they heard the sirens they headed for a storm shelter, or the women in one insurance office showed me how they all huddled under one massive wooden table in their office and it was the only one not smashed during the storm. Another man showed me the doorway in the center of his home where he barricaded himself as the house collapsed around him.?

It would be easy to dismiss all of these situations as examples of luck in action. That is partially true, but many of the people I met said (and I also believe this is true) growing up there, you always expect this to happen, so when it does happen, you’re just a little bit more prepared than someone who has never seen a tornado. That’s the only thing that I can come up with to explain the difference in casualties between the 2013 tornado in Moore and the 2011 tornado in Joplin, Missouri, where 161 people died. You can see some of my photos from Joplin here.

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