Frozen Moments

April 27,2010

Norman

To Chandra Mohan anna,

Oklahoma was a hot spot receiving frequent tornado in the past. So they installed tornado alarms 15 years back on every street in every 50 feet. Also in every room of our apartment and every building we have tornado alarms. We are advised to get into bath tubs and cover with a mattress when we hear intense beep sound from the alarm. All the radios will repeatedly announce the direction and strength of tornado once it happens. Until the radio announces every thing is okay, we should not come out from the tub. There are some brave teams called "Tornado Watchers", whose job is to follow the tornado by car and inform the direction to radio stations. 

In past 15 years there were no tornado in Oklahoma, but still the alarms are working well and the maintenance guys check them every month first Friday. 

Oklahoma is also special for unpredictable weather. I saw, for example, heavy rain last night, 35 degree C this morning, freezing wind in the afternoon and snow fall tonight. Weather changes withing hours. So we should always keep our eyes on weather forecasts. We have emergency telephone posts (like small lamp post) in every 50 feet on streets with blue fluorescent light. Everybody knows that pressing tthe red button in the post will link us to OUPD (Oklahoma University Police Department). 

Frozen Moments

Last December, you might have seen news in Tamil Channels and The Hindu news paper about the Christmas Storm in Oklahoma. It was a day before Christmas, a heavy and sudden snow fall occurred for 20 inches and broke the record of a snow fall in 1940s. That day morning, it was so clam. One of my friends was suppose to catch a flight to India. So Robinson, and other 3 Tamil friends casually started from here Norman by a car to the Airport in Oklahoma City, half an hour distance. I avoided the trip since the car has no room for me.

When they reached Airport, snow fall started and all the flights were cancelled. They laughed at it and went to an Indian restaurant before returning to home. When they started from the restaurant, it turned heavy snow fall with unimaginable freezing and speedy wind. Thiru, who was driving his $4000 car that he bought a week before, was unable to control the car on the slippery ice road.  When he was on a 30 feet hight road without safety walls, hit another car on its back and let the front feel of his car slipped down the road. There were 30 feet down slopes on both sides of the road. He couldn't pull the wheel back, since the ice unfavored the reverse motion. So they were simply sitting inside the car until getting a help. 

But suddenly a third car hit their car from back. Since no diver could see beyond 3 feet, one after another, cars were continuously hitting and blocked the whole road. My friends got sacred and got down from their car and was standing down hills beside the road. There were more then ten cars on the road. It was snow fall and freezing storm. They neither had a jacket nor a building nearby in the deserted area. They used all their energies to keep themselves warm for 10 minutes. But the fast flying ice crystals hurt them severely. For another ten minutes they were just alive and can't even move, almost frozen. The snow on surface rose to their knee level. Suddenly a huge truck with all its power and speed hit all the ten cars and pushed them down from the road. The truck did not stop to hear anybody's scream. Then our friends changed their place before another truck roll the cars on them. When they call 911 emergency number, they replied "we got more than 100 calls from different places, please manage the situation by yourself, and call us back only if there is any problem of losing life". 

Finally an American who was familiar with this calamity helped my friends by giving his car for shelter. And after 4 hours people from all the cars grouped to clear the situation. My fiends came home alive around 9 at the night with the car hanging in a crane. Thiru had to spend $2000 to repair his car.

Nature never bother us, if we don't bother it.

Saravanan Ramasamy