Today, will be a sad day for many in Picher, Oklahoma after it was hit dead-on by a devastating tornado that killed 7. Twenty blocks in the southern part of this small northeast Oklahoma town were severely damaged or leveled. This was a EF4 (winds 165-175 miles per mile) which is quite destructive and it was on the ground for 29 miles.
Picher is well-known around Oklahoma for its longtime problems with lead pollution left by mining operations.
Below are a couple of video clips put together of the Picher tornado and the damage.
So far this spring, the tornado activity is above the 10 year average:
Official reports
At least four tornadoes were reported Saturday by trained emergency managers, law enforcement officials or amateur radio operators, the National Weather Service’s Tulsa office reported.
The agency collected the following reports:
5:22 p.m.: Tornado report ed two miles west of McAl ester.
5:32 p.m.: Tornado report ed near Commerce in Ottawa County.
6:10 p.m.: Tornado reported 14 miles southwest of Clayton in Pushmataha County.
6:15 p.m.: Tornado reported in Yanush in Latimer County.
Deaths and serious injuries were reported in only the Ottawa County tornado.
DEADLIEST TORNADOES IN OKLAHOMA HISTORY*
May 3, 1999: Forty-four people died statewide in tornadoes. The Oklahoma City area was hit hardest. Five died in Kansas from the same outbreak. President Clinton declared 16 counties disaster areas.
In Tulsa, four homes were destroyed, 61 were damaged, one mobile home was destroyed and one public building was destroyed. In Sapulpa, three homes were destroyed, 20 mobile homes were destroyed, 32 houses were damaged and one apartment complex was damaged. Four businesses were destroyed, and 42 sustained damage.
June 8, 1974: Eighteen people, including three in Tulsa, were killed when 25 to 30 tornadoes formed in 19 counties.
The storm was called the worst in Tulsa’s history. The same storm system spawned a tornado in southern Kansas that killed six people and injured 220. One person in Tulsa was killed by a tornado, and two drowned.
May 5, 1961: Sixteen people were killed when a tornado followed a path from Reichert to Howe in LeFlore County.
May 5, 1960: Three tornadoes killed 26 people. Sixteen died when a tornado rolled from Wilburton to Keota to southwest of Sallisaw. Five others died in a tornado that stretched from Shawnee to Tulsa, and five were killed when a tornado hit Roland.
May 25, 1955: This tornado killed 114 people, including 20 in Blackwell and 80 just across the border in Udall, Kan., which was leveled.
April 9, 1947: Oklahoma’s deadliest tornado outbreak resulted in the deaths of 184 people — 116 in Oklahoma and 68 in Texas and Kansas.
This giant storm traveled 221 miles from White Deer, Texas, to St. Leo, Kan. It destroyed a large portion of Woodward.
April 12, 1945: 102 people died in Oklahoma in this outbreak of tornadoes. Sixtynine were killed in Antlers, and 13 died in Muskogee, where many of the victims were students and staff members of the Oklahoma School for the Blind. Also, eight died at Tinker Air Force Base; five died in Roland in Sequoyah County; four died near Hulbert; and three died in Latimer County. June 12, 1942: Thirty-five died in an Oklahoma City tornado.
May 2, 1942: Sixteen people were killed in a tornado that traveled from Pottawatomie County to Creek County.
April 27, 1942: Fifty-two people died in a tornado that traveled from Claremore to Pryor.
Nov. 19, 1930: Twenty-three people died and 125 were injured when a tornado hit Bethany in Oklahoma County.
The dead included five students and a teacher at Camel Creek school, which was near Wiley Post Airport.
May 2, 1920: Seventy-one people died and 100 were injured when a tornado hit Peggs in Cherokee County.
The town’s wooden jail was left standing, but a store made of concrete block next door was leveled. Clothing from the town’s residents was found five miles away.
May 10, 1905: Ninety-seven people died when a tornado hit Snyder. It formed about 10 miles southwest of Olustee in Jackson County and moved east-northeast across Jackson, Tillman and Kiowa counties. Ten people died on farms in the area, and 87 died in Snyder.
April 25, 1893: Thirty-eight people died in the 10 Mile Flats area near Norman in the worst recorded tornado disaster of the 19th century in Oklahoma.
May 8, 1882: Twenty-one people died in a McAlester tornado.
*statistics complied by the Tulsa World