Helen, It is good to hear that you are OK. So often, these afternoon/evening thunderstorm lines cross OK into AR and cause trouble. I'm glad y'all didn't get hit by any of them last night. Carol, I am watching live footage shot from a helicopter above Lone Grove and the destruction is stunning. If you look at the KXII website later, they may have it up in the video section. The ground is bare. No grass. No weeds. No shrubs. Many trees, especially Eastern Red Cedars remain standing. A lot of the taller, older deciduous trees lost tons of limbs, though, even if they are still standing. It looks like someone took a vacuum cleaner and sucked up all the plants out of the ground. All you see is brown soil for as far as you can see as the helicopter's camera pans the area. I think I saw the granddaughter on the Today Show. She was still emotionally devastated and perhaps a little in shock, speaking of how everything familiar is "just gone". DH just came in, exhausted after 8 hours of search-and-rescue in heavy firefighter bunker gear. He says the destruction is widespread. The trailer park he searched may be the one you're thinking of--it had about 60 trailers and every single one of them is gone. They did not locate any further survivors or victims there. DH is not an expert, but thinks it was most likely an F-3 and possibly an F-4. Time will tell. We did have good warning last night. KXII, the local CBS affiliate, had a storm spotted named Doug Drace on the ground in Lone Grove BEFORE the tornado hit, as it was making its way from Montague County, TX, across the Red River at the Tayovayas (sp?) Bridge at Leon/Courtney, over Courtney and Orr with a brief touchdown perhaps in Orr where two homes were destroyed. When the tornado was coming down to the ground, Doug Drace was telling us live...it is descending....it is on the ground....Lone Grove take cover now. He did a great job, and anyone listening knew it was serious and knew to seek shelter. Based on what we were hearing on TV and on the fire radios, I believe most people had 15-20 minutes advance warning to seek shelter. The NWS had issued watches and then warnings in advance of the tornado, the weather radios sounded, the fire and police pagers sounded, the media tracked it and publicized it. If you didn't know it was coming, you just weren't paying attention! The official death toll remains 8 with 14 seriously injured, and two of them airlifted to Parkland Memorial in Dallas. I believe the two that were airlifted were related to the elderly man who died in his home last night. I don't remember his name, but I have seen footage of his family members searching through the rubble of his home and they seem completely shellshocked and stunned. Now watching live press conference with Gov. Henry. Here's what they are saying: Path of tornado through Lone Grove about 4 to 5 miles long and at times up to a half-mile wide. Devastation is "just incredible, it takes your breath away" according to Gov. Henry. Gov. Henry says only 8 fatalities and only 2 are still on the "missing" list and no one knows if they have left the area or if they are truly missing. Gov. Henry asked that everyone pray for all those impacted as they have been through a devastating time. Carol, After seeing the aerial footage, all I can say is that you and your family have been blessed, truly, truly blessed. For you to have had that many family members survive this horrific weather event is truly amazing and a reminder of the Good Lord's grace. I know Lone Grove faces a long, slow recovery but the support and assistance are pouring in and I am sure this strong community will rebound and will rebuild and will take this opportunity to pull together, love one another and help one another. It is a beautiful, sunny afternoon here in southern OK and the clean-up has already begun. I am watching John, the furniture store owner on Fox News live from Lone Grove, and he's holding up very well, considering the devastating loss he has suffered. He's had a lot of volunteers (many of who he does not even know, they said) show up to help him salvage what he can. He is devastated, though, and I saw him wipe away a couple of tears as he spoke. My heart and prayers go out to him and to all affected persons. Dawn

Carol, I was thinking of you and your family and the Lone Grove tornado when I left the house for the tornado shelter because the first report of a tornadic circulation was at Petersboro in Montague County--virtually the same spot that the storm which produced the Lone Grove tornado also first appeared on radar before it crossed into western Love County and headed for Lone Grove. I followed the storms from the tornado shelter via the radar on my laptop (I lost reception, though, when I closed the steel door), a fire radio set on the Love County repeater station, and a weather radio. If the storm had followed the typical tornado pattern of moving from the southwest to the northeast, we would've been hit somewhere between Burneyville and Thackerville, and spotters in both areas did report tornadic circulation that never came down to the ground, thankfully. This storm, though, headed due east, hooked a little southeast once or twice, then corrected back to due east. We had two major cells move east from Montague County (baseball sized hail and a tornado touchdown) to Cooke County (rain, wind, hail, possible tornado) to Grayson County (golfball to baseball sized hail, tornado near the airport) to Fannin County. I am grateful they went east, and mostly through lightly populated areas. For a while we thought Gainesville was really going to get pounded. Robert, LOL I don't know. That would be an interesting thing to figure out. Maybe they described them in terms of inches? I wonder if there are a lot of historical reports of large hail? I can remember very large hail dating back to the late 1970s when I was in high school/college, but I don't remember any prior to that, although I am sure there was some. Dawn

We are fine. We had some storms on the radar that were SW of us in TX and looking a little scary so we put deer netting over hoops over the tomato and onion beds for hail protection. I don't know how much hail the storms produced, but once when I was checking the radar I saw what looked like a hail core. We could see horrible clouds slightly south of us and could hear thunder on and off for 2 hours, but so far the storms have stated south of the Red River. Our worst weather here, in terms of severity, almost always comes at us from our SW. As I was watching the radar, stopping to check it about every 15 minutes, it looked like we had a tall wall(The Great Wall of Oklahoma?) at the Red River that was making storms just melt away. I'm okay with that! : ) Larry, Thanks. I hope y'all are okay tonight. I got in such a habit of posting these when Diane lived in LeFlore County and the hills around her kept her family's weather radio from receiving the warnings. Now, I just think that it is a good idea to post them in case someone else is outside like I was, and comes inside and sees the Tornado Warning and says "Oh, crap, I didn't know this was happening". Actually my first clue that a watch had been issued was a text message from our county's Emergency Mgmt Director. He's really good about sending us the weather watch and warning news as soon as he gets that info himself. Dr. Forbes has some TorCon numbers posted for our region for later in the week, and I'll be watching those as the most serious weather days approach. Dawn

Ilene, I don't know if you visit the NWS website like I do. Here's their latest warning for the Caney creek. Actually, there are three back to back warnings . I included all three in case there is info in there that is helpful. I am positive something good will come of all of this, even if we lack the wisdom right now to understand what the good may be. Keeping a positive thought in my head, and a prayer in my heart for all affected by this weather. :) Dawn WGUS84 KTSA 011913 FLSTSA FLOOD STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK 212 PM CDT SUN JUL 01 2007 ...MAJOR FLOODING CONTINUES TO BE FORECAST ALONG THE CANEY RIVER AT BARTLESVILLE AND NEAR COLLINSVILLE... OKC147-020312- 212 PM CDT SUN JUL 01 2007 THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE CANEY RIVER AT BARTLESVILLE * UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. * AT 1 PM SUNDAY THE STAGE WAS 16.3 FEET. * MODERATE FLOODING IS OCCURRING AND MAJOR FLOODING IS FORECAST. * FLOOD STAGE IS 13.0 FEET. * FORECAST...THE CANEY RIVER AT BARTLESVILLE WILL CONTINUE RISING... CREST NEAR 21.7 FEET TUESDAY MORNING AND THEN BEGIN FALLING. * WHEN THE CANEY RIVER REACHES 21 FEET AT BARTLESVILLE...VERY SEVERE FLOODING WILL OCCUR FROM DEWEY TO OCHELATA. SOME HOMES AND BUSINESSES IN BARTLESVILLE AND SUBURBAN AREAS WILL BE FLOODED. OLD HIGHWAY 75 WILL BE CLOSED. THIS WILL COMPARE WITH THE FLOOD WHICH OCCURRED ON MARCH 3 1975 WHEN THE CANEY RIVER CRESTED AT 20.90 FEET. $$ OKC147-020312- 212 PM CDT SUN JUL 01 2007 THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE CANEY RIVER NEAR RAMONA * UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. * AT 12 PM SUNDAY THE STAGE WAS 27.8 FEET. * MINOR FLOODING IS OCCURRING AND MODERATE FLOODING IS FORECAST. * FLOOD STAGE IS 26.0 FEET. * FORECAST...THE CANEY RIVER NEAR RAMONA WILL CONTINUE RISING...CREST NEAR 28.9 FEET THURSDAY EVENING AND THEN BEGIN FALLING. * WHEN THE CANEY RIVER REACHES 28 FEET NEAR RAMONA...MODERATE AGRICULTURAL FLOODING WILL OCCUR FROM OCHELATA TO THE NORTHEASTERN TIP OF TULSA COUNTY. SOME RURAL ROADS WILL BE IMPASSABLE INCLUDING THE ROAD BETWEEN RAMONA AND TALALA. $$ OKC131-143-020312- 212 PM CDT SUN JUL 01 2007 THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE CANEY RIVER NEAR COLLINSVILLE * UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. * AT 1 PM SUNDAY THE STAGE WAS 28.0 FEET. * MINOR FLOODING IS OCCURRING AND MAJOR FLOODING IS FORECAST. * FLOOD STAGE IS 26.0 FEET. * FORECAST...THE CANEY RIVER NEAR COLLINSVILLE ROSE ABOVE FLOOD STAGE YESTERDAY EARLY AFTERNOON AND WILL CONTINUE RISING TO NEAR 35.4 FEET FRIDAY BEFORE DAWN. * WHEN THE CANEY RIVER REACHES 35 FEET NEAR COLLINSVILLE...VERY SEVERE FLOODING WILL OCCUR FROM COLLINSVILLE TO POINTS DOWNSTREAM. CONSIDERABLE FARMLAND WILL BE FLOODED. RURAL ROADS NEAR THE RIVER WILL BECOME IMPASSABLE. THIS WILL EXCEED A FLOOD WHICH OCCURRED ON MAY 11 1993 WHEN THE CANEY RIVER CESTED AT 34.40 FEET. $$