THE DOGRUN

I recently took a trip home and visited some of the sites that were devastated by May's round of tornadoes. The most talked about tornado struck Moore May 20th, moving about 200 miles per hour and spanning 1.3 miles wide.  The day before, a tornado touched ground in Shawnee.  May 30th and 31st experienced another round of tornadoes which hit Broken Arrow, El Reno and Oklahoma City.  The El Reno tornado was moving at 300 miles per hour and was 2.6 miles wide - the widest tornado recorded in U.S. history. It is a surreal experience to walk around the aftermath of these huge storms.  The disaster has lead to heated discussions about how to make sure affordable storm shelters can be available to residents.  There is currently a 6 month backlog for storm shelters in Oklahoma (which start around $2,500). If you would like to help the cleanup/recovery effort, the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, AmeriCares, Operation USA and Feed the Children have all been working hard to help our friends in Oklahoma.