Oklahoma interoperability newsletter, summer 2013, v.4 no.1

              2013 Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak
Inside this Issue
Shawnee Tornado
Moore Tornado
El Reno Tornado
IOC TTX
APCO Testing
Special Olympics
Upcoming Events
July 11, 2013: Summer SIGB Meeting
September 2013:
COML Committee Meeting
October 2013:
COMU Exercise
OKLAHOMA
President Obama tours the devastation in Moore, Oklahoma following the May 20th Tornado.
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For the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, the last two weeks of May, 2013 were plagued by a string of deadly and destructive tornados ranging from EF1 to EF5 in intensity. The most significant of these storms occurred on the 19th, 20th, and 31st in the towns of Shawnee, Moore, and El Reno. Combined, the three twisters claimed the lives of nearly 50 people and left billions of dollars in damage in their paths.
Photo courtesy of Associated Press/Carolyn Kaster
Interoperability Newsletter
Summer 2013
Volume 4, Issue 1
First responders from all over the state were called into action in the aftermath of the storms. Their ability to effectively communicate with one another is critical to the safety and well-being of all Oklahomans in the event of a severe-weather outbreak or other large-scale incident.
Shawnee Tornado
At approximately 6:00 pm on Sunday, May 19th, an EF4 tornado touched down in eastern parts of Cleveland County and tracked to the northeast through northern sections of Pottawatomie County. The twister created a damage path nearly twenty miles long and was on the ground for approximately fifty minutes. The storm reached its greatest intensity near the town of Shawnee, where a mobile home park was completely destroyed. Two people were killed, several others injured, and over thirty homes in the area sustained serious damage in the wake of the violent tornado.
In the initial half-hour after the storm, the OKWIN system became overwhelmed with a massive influx of users. The system soon became maxed-out with the countless first responders already on-scene, combined with those flooding into the area in the aftermath of the tornado. Don Lynch, Director of the Shawnee/Pottawatomie County EM, described how the situation affected his department: “OKWIN became unusable. We had no operability on our talk group with our spotters in the field and no interoperability with response forces in route to and working in the damage path because of the system busies.” More education and training on the proper use of interoperable radio resources is crucial to ensure that emergency responders can efficiently communicate during a major disaster event.