[NevadaARES] OKLAHOMA TORNADO UPDATE

[Paul Cavnar]

This report comes from one of the Emergency Managers in Oklahoma
who responded to the tornados.  I'm sure glad we don't live in tornado
alley!

73, Paul - NN7B

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Hi Paul,


Got in around 0200 this morning and am bone tired so this will be brief.....
Oklahoma City, Moore, and Choctaw were the hardest hit areas...currently we
have:

1300 homes that were damaged or destroyed
Major plant as you saw in TV photos of was our GM plant....2 injuries only
they had just had their weekly drill 1 hour before it hit...
My State SAR team (TF-1) checked other buildings on Air Depot road and
treated 14 cases....one serious..I remember thinking how amazing it was that
wood could impale someone's body the way it did, on of my victims had 16
pieces of wood impaled on him............

Total number of businesses gone or destroyed 348 and counting....One Denny's
was blown off its foundation and swept down the road about 100 feet........I
found no victims in that rubble.......one bank I checked had collasped on
itself..........again my "amazing" notes to my self....everyone had left the
building when they heard the sirens so there were no injuries........

Total injuries were 138 with NO (AMAZING) fatalities.....

For those Emergency Managers and IC folks couple of problems we
encountered.......
#1. Cell Phone usage was down (my is issued by the State and was supposed to
be state of the art) but due to the volume calling we could not communicate
via them.....more to follow on that....we had to ask local TV stations to
broadcast a plea to the general public to stay off them...this included FD
and PD cell phones as well.....................

#2. While searching the rubble I came across a truck (next to the GM plant)
which was loaded with explosives.....all the folks at the "loading" dock had
gone home so it is unknown what type of explosives and when I saw the
placard I pulled the them outta there.........truck had been blown about 200
yards from the loading dock which was gone....one fire across the street was
burning (we did not have resources to put it out)....it blew around 2000
hours when 6 more tractor trailers went up.........

#3. Transformers which were down were leaking some kind of "fluid" Okla. Gas
and Elec (OG&E) stated it was a HAZMAT situation and would need to be
cleaned up by their techs.....don't know what kind of fluid..........

#4. I had left my placard for the State @ home and hence had trouble @ every
check point (slowed down my reaction time).......getting into the
area........I had not taken a State vehicle since I was in my POV and
heading home @ the time.........

#5. And the worst thing that could happen to anyone when I got back to the
CP last night there was NO COFFEE.......................

Hope this information helps some other folks out there.................

I will send out a better brief as we update the situation today.

Ed Kostiuk, EMT-W
Emergency Manager
Bio-Terrorism Preparedness Division
Department of Public Health