Moore: The Most Tornado-Struck City in America
Near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Moore, Oklahoma sits in what meteorologists describe as a geographic sweet spot for tornado formation, a corridor where cold dry air pushing down from the Rockies collides with warm moist air pushing up from the Gulf of Mexico. No other city in the world has been struck by as many violent tornadoes in as short a time, and three dates define the modern record.
May third, nineteen ninety-nine. An F Five tornado, with winds measured by mobile Doppler radar at three hundred one miles per hour, the highest wind speed ever recorded by radar anywhere on Earth, cut a thirty-eight-mile path from Chickasha through Bridge Creek and into Moore. Thirty-six people died. Damage exceeded one billion dollars. The tornado's width at points surpassed one mile.
May eighth, two thousand three. A second violent tornado, rated F Four, tracked across portions of Moore and south Oklahoma City, following a path alarmingly close to the nineteen ninety-nine storm. Some families returned to neighborhoods they had already rebuilt once.
May twentieth, two thousand thirteen. An EF Five tornado, carrying peak winds estimated at two hundred ten miles per hour, touched down northwest of Newcastle and tracked northeast for thirteen point eight-five miles directly through Moore. Twenty-four people died. Two elementary schools were catastrophically damaged, including Plaza Towers Elementary, where seven children died when a wall collapsed. Damage reached two billion dollars.
Between those three storms, Moore rebuilt three times. Building codes were rewritten. Storm shelters were subsidized. The National Weather Service office in Norman developed warning protocols driven by the Moore experience, giving residents an average of sixteen minutes of warning before the two thousand thirteen tornado arrived.
Moore's population has grown with each rebuild. The town does not leave.
