Tornado Shelter

Photo credit: Weather Tech Shelters

 

This is not a paddling post, unless you view it as something to keep us around long enough to paddle another day. I’ve waffled for several years, since moving to and building in Oklahoma, on whether or not to make the expenditure for a tornado shelter. The devastation in Moore has been a jolt that makes spending several thousand dollars more a bit easier to swallow. Oklahoma has had seven EF-5 tornadoes, the strongest on earth. This puts Oklahoma and Alabama in a tie for generating the world’s strongest winds. We have had a couple occasions requiring us to duck and cover in the closet, but the Moore storm proved that unless one is comfortable with really long odds, a closet is not worth betting your life on. Like buying a liferaft when we were ocean sailing, it’s money you deem as prudent to invest, but hope you’ve wasted, in light of the fact that you hope to never get to use it. But, like the liferaft, if you do need it, there are zero alternate options. A couple other considerations also weighed on this decision.

One is that the town no longer has a municipal storm shelter. The shelter the town had been using, and a couple alternatives they had considered, have all proven unsatisfactory. We either shelter in our home, or not at all. Two, we also have to consider the safety of kids and grandkids when they are visiting.

We’ve spent the last couple days weighing the number of different types of shelters, and drew upon friends that have also had to face this issue. We found very quickly, again just like with liferafts, that capacity ratings represent the number of very intimate people that can be pushed into the smallest possible space. However, there is a difference in how long you expect to be in the box. You may spend a month in a liferaft, but assuming you have the shelter location registered or make family aware of where it is, one shouldn’t have to spent more than a day or two locked in the box under even the worst circumstances. For most of the survivors, their voluntary incarceration didn’t exceed minutes. So, we placed the order today, and delivery and installation should occur in about a month.



Oklahoma Tornadoes

For some local perspective for those watching the horrifying destruction in Moore, OK, this has been a three day weather event. We had packed for a paddling trip, but the forecast indicated it was best to hold in place. Even today conditions are still unstable enough that tornadoes are possible a bit more to the south, where we were headed. And SE. On day one, we were dead center of the high-risk area, but the cap held all day, so the storms never had a chance to go vertical.

On day two, the threat moved a bit east, but the dry line was still just west of us, leaving us under a slightly reduced threat. We went to Enid for our grand-daughter’s dance recital. We were anxious to get back, as the threat included the risk of hail of tennis ball and baseball size, with occasional potential grapefruit-sized hail stones. As we came back home, we could see the storms going vertical just SE of us. As soon as we turned on the TV, we learned of the tornadoes touching down in Shawnee.

On day three, a cold front was driving the system just a bit more SE. Then, the storm went through Moore. The storm was so devastating, that nothing was left. Even the grass was ripped out of the ground. The death toll was 51 when we went to bed last night, but 91 this morning, however the situation is still so fluid, that they caution that the toll may be lower, closer to 24, since in the confusion some victims may have been counted twice. The area of destruction was 30 square miles, and identifiable items from Moore were found falling in Branson, MO, 300 miles away. The good news was that 100 people had been pulled alive from the wreckage overnight. The search will continue today, with the school still being searched for missing children.

For readers in the local area, we just returned from the firehouse, and donations are being accepted at door 10 at the rear of the firehouse, in the alley between the fire bays and the civic center. They are looking for bottled water, sunscreen, Gatorade, wipes or hand-towels, diapers, baby formula, individually wrapped snacks, leather work gloves non-perishable foodstuffs, and shovels. Since they do not want people driving to Oklahoma City or Moore, they will collect the items and make arrangements to move everything in one vehicle. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims of this disaster.

Road Tripping the North Canadian River

We went out for another road trip to explore the North Canadian River. I wanted to see if there was enough water to canoe the river. I had met a woman who said she had canoed the North Canadian at some point in the past. That was a shock on two fronts---that there was another person in NW Oklahoma that had ever been in a canoe, and that they had paddled this river. The North Canadian flows into Canton Lake. Since it’s rare that there’s water in the lake, how could there now be water in the feeder stream? The problem with the lake is that Oklahoma City has an insatiable thirst for water, and they are shameful stewards of the water. So since they waste all they get, there’s always the need for more. I have nothing to base this assertion on beyond a sense of the obvious, but someone had to get paid off for this agreement. According to newspaper reports, Oklahoma City has a contract with the Oklahoma Water Resources Board that permits them to take water any time they want, in any

One of the best sections of the road, but pretty, with lots of chittering birds.

 

 amount they want, for as long as they want, in total disregard of the consequences for communities up stream. There is no expiration date for the contract, no oversight, and no review, and according to the report, an act of Congress would be needed to reverse or modify the agreement. The only limiting factor is they have to stop stealing water from Canton Lake when the lake bed is dry.

A small alligator gar.  The largest captured was 215 lbs, and

the largest in Oklahoma weighed in at 153.1 lbs.

 

We crisscrossed the river at a number of bridges, and headed back into a protected area where we felt we would find the most pristine conditions. The road kept getting more and more primitive. Finally it degenerated into a grass path where we found a sign saying the road was closed from November 1 to February 15. We negotiated ruts, mud wallows, and ridges, places obviously better suited for a Jeep or Landrover than our Nissan. The lane finally ended abruptly at the south bank of the North Canadian. While we watched young gar swimming about, and enjoyed the placid scene, it was doubtful there was the 6” we would need to stay afloat.

A very shallow North Canadian, currently

discharging only 40 cfs.



 

One Little Did

This poem by Shel Silverstein is the whole foundation of paddle-trip planning---in seven little lines. It should be tattooed on our foreheads, so we see it every time we look in the mirror.

Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda

All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas

Layin’ in the sun,

Talkin’ ‘bout the things

They woulda-coulda-shoulda done…

But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas

All ran away and hid

From one little did.

Bison & Twisters

The area around the lake south of here was beautifully forested until swept by a tornado a couple years ago.  The gnarled remains of the trees still offer testimony to the intensity of the storm.  In just a few seconds numerous square miles of forest and the nearby Canadian Campground were gone.

I had camped there just a couple months before.

 

Now only this remains.

 

The Cheyenne- Arapaho tribe ranch bison both to repopulate the plains and for commercial use.  The buffalo is reportedly much better suited to ranching on the plains than cattle, create less bio-waste, less damage to the soil, and graze in a way to allow the native praire grasses to return and thrive.  While still small in herd size, bison are making a come back in many areas of the plains.

 

A local Cheyenne-Arapaho bison.

 

In South Dakota, for example, the Lakota Sioux are raising bison herds for commercial use, and buy only from other Native American tribes to support other communities.  They have produced a high-protein buffalo jerky and cranberry energy bar that is based on a Native American pemmican recipe called wasna.  It is great for anyone seeking a stable, high-energy food, such as runners, backpackers, climbers, paddlers, and training athletes.  For this reason, this small Native American company was able to place their protein energy bar with REI, the national outfitter, as well as Costco, Amazon, and of course may be purchased directly from tankabar.com.  It is heart-friendly, having the lowesr saturated fats of all communcial meats, the lowest calorie and cholesterol counts, while being high in iron, protein, and vitamin B.  Some childcare facilities have reportedly even replaced the children's sugary afternoon snack with Tanka Bars and Bites.

 

A shy group of bison find a comfortable spot at the edge of a grove of trees.

 

 

Here's a 7 1/2 minute You Tube video on the company.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaxEcizfURc

 

 

View From a Country Road

Whenever we go anywhere, I mark the trip route on the map with highlighter.  As much as possible, we pick a different route each time.  One thing that doesn't change from one road to the next is the array of abandoned homes and farms, some of which must date to close to the time of the land rush.  I can't help but begin to wonder how it came to pass that one day the family would just walk out the door and never return, leaving decades of backbreaking work to decay, rot, and termites.

Canola

Most living near-by know canola when they see it, but others may not recognize their cooking oil in its natural state. Canola was developed at the University of Manitoba from rapeseed, and thus the “can” in canola stands for Canada.

The “ola” was just added to help the word roll off the tongue, like Mazola and Ricola. The word “rape” in rapeseed comes from the Latin for turnip, so some of canola’s relatives are the turnip, cabbage, rutabaga, Brussels sprout, and mustard. Besides human and livestock consumption, canola can also be used as a biofuel. Hundreds of years ago, rapeseed oil was already used as a lamp oil in Europe and Asia. 

 

An advantage to it being used as a crop on the plains is its great drought resistance. Ninety percent of the nation’s canola is grown in North Dakota, but each year it appears more like Oklahoma farmers are wanting to challenge their dominance in its production.