In my opinion it is the end of my world if I am faced in a situation where there is no way out, no solution other than burying myself in my own grave that people in the mid west call a bunker. Dig a hole in the ground and dive in it as soon as the winds pick up and ultimately pick up my home and all that means anything to me on earth while alive, my stuff.

I like to report about firsts. Lately it has all been about the first gay person to come out somewhere. Today it is about the first tornado to wipe out so many people in an area that it broke the width record. This is serious stuff worth thinking about. It is not about the comfort of one’s sexuality it is about the safety of all of us and how we should be preparing to survive the increasingly devastating natural disasters happening everywhere.

The killer tornado that struck neat Oklahoma City last Friday set a new mark as the widest ever recorded and was upgraded Tuesday to an EF5, the strongest kind, with winds that neared 295 mph. Nothing can hold up to that kind of wind power. There is nowhere you can run to get away from that kind of power. The National Weather Service said the twister reached a width of 2.6 miles.

The National Severe Storms Laboratory said the tornado blew up from 1 mile to 2.6 miles wide in a span of 30 seconds. Ok at this point if you don’t believe in God you start begging someone or something to stop the wrath. We humans are considered the top of the food chain and the best thinkers on the planet but we are very fragile beings. The width of this storm leaves us no where to run. Two and a half miles is to far to go even in a car in under 30 seconds. So, get out of your Ferrari sports car, you won’t make it out fast enough even in that thing.

 

For more perspective, Manhattan is 2.3 miles wide at its widest point near 14^th street. An average tornado is about 125 yards wide or 375 feet. The tornado, which carved a path 16.2 miles long near El Reno, Oklahoma surpasses a 2.5 mile wide F4 tornado that hit Hallam, Nebraska in 2004. Most tornado paths cover less than a mile so you do have time to get out of your flimsy trailer and run out of it’s path if you are skinny and in great shape.

At this point be smart. Don’t live in these states where within seconds some tunnel can swoop down on top of you and kill you. Why don’t the governments at least ban trailers and flimsy wooden houses being rebuilt year after year in the same places where families have been torn apart and children killed by a wide severe wind. Only brick or cement housing with steel roofs should be allowed to be erected in those places. Make bunkers large enough to even include some comforts like food and water for awhile. I am sick and tired of hearing about some young mother using her body to shield her children by hiding in a bath tub. Usually one of her kids die anyway. We need to be better prepared.

An EF5 tornado, the highest number on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, is any tornado that has wind speeds of 200 mph or higher. On average, one out of 1,000 United States tornadoes each year might be an EF5, according to the National Climatic Data Center. I don’t care if it is only one. No one can survive that one tornado.

Nineteen people were killed in the tornado including three professional storm chasers. There is an obvious change happening all around us in the environment. We all need to observe and do what we can to survive and preserve our way of life.