Tornadoes hit home --Again!

We've been through this before, and we're starting to know the routine. Experience has brought some order to the usual chaos after a natural disaster. Emergency personnel immediately move in to check for people injured and trapped in destroyed homes. They mark the house with a large red spray-painted "X" when their search is complete. Wounded people are taken to shelters at local churches where medical triage is performed. Perimeter security points are set up that require homeowners to show ID's to enter their destroyed neighborhoods. Debris is hauled to the curb -- twisted garage doors, broken glass, and any random thing that doesn't belong to you but ended up in your yard.

South Oklahoma City and Moore, OK were hit for the second time in five years by an F4 tornado on May 8, 2003. Parts of the damage track, which was approximately 10 miles north of NSSL, coincide exactly with the damage path from the F5 tornado that struck on May 3, 1999. Historically, the immediate Oklahoma City area has been struck by 112 tornadoes and nine violent tornadoes (F4 and F5) since 1893. Another round of tornadoes including an F3 struck the Oklahoma City area the very next day, May 9.