The Weather Notebook: Clean-up Time

Clean-up Time
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Aerial photo of tornado track. Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management.

A big weather disaster can push other news off the front page for a day or two but what happens afterwards? Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow for the Weather Notebook.

It was a year ago today that Oklahoma and Southern Kansas had their worst tornado outbreak ever. More than 60 twisters prowled the region over a six hour period. They caused 48 deaths and almost a thousand injuries. On top of that more than 10,000 buildings were damadged or destroyed. It's bad enough to lose your home, but what do you do with the mess that's left behind.

Last year the Army Corps of Engineers came in to help the residents of Oklahoma. Over 6 days the Corps hauled off thousands of tons of bricks, wood, glass and other remnants of where people once worked and lived. And that was only part of it. It's estimated that the total wreckage, some of it was left behind, would have filled over 4 million trucks. There were some unique hazards in this job, too. Many Oklahomans kept guns at home. So, the crews had to be careful not to set off any firearms hidden in the rubble.

Several injuries occurred days after the storm as residents and workers poked themselves on jagged bits of glass or metal. A year later many cities, like the hard hit town of Moore, Oklahoma are well on their way back with construction stretching for miles. Many of these new homes include stormcellars or solidly constructed saferooms. But, even now you can find piles of trash and chunks of concrete here and there. Remnants of homes left behind. Just like the human toll; the physical mark left by these tornadoes isn't going away soon.

The Weather Notebook is funded in part by NOAA.