Holly Bailey

6th Street (Moore OK)

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:14:39 -0400

6th Street (Moore OK)

“We Survived” (Moore OK)

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:08:37 -0400

“We Survived” (Moore OK)

10th Street (Moore OK)

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:43:43 -0400

10th Street (Moore OK)

Drive Thru (Moore OK)

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:10:39 -0400

Drive Thru (Moore OK)

OKLAHOMA CITY—Anthony Connel was sitting in traffic off of...

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:20:11 -0400

OKLAHOMA CITY—Anthony Connel was sitting in traffic off of South 149th Street, about a mile from his home, when he saw it happen: A dark black cloud, so ominous and wide that it didn’t even look like a tornado, dropped to the ground—and headed straight for his house.

Connel, a sales manager at Anheuser-Busch, had seen tornadoes before. They are a way of life in Oklahoma—a dangerous, yet fascinating phenomenon of nature considered as normal as the state’s rabid devotion to Sooner football. Here, local meteorologists are considered major celebrities, and everyone has been a storm chaser of sorts at least once or twice, curious about how a cloud so eerily beautiful could also be so destructive.

But there was something different about this tornado, Connel recalled in an interview with Yahoo News.

“It was just this big black cloud on the ground. You couldn’t even tell it was a tornado. And it didn’t seem to be moving. It just keep getting bigger and bigger,” he said. Watching the twister take direct aim at his largely rural neighborhood just east of Interstate 44, Connel realized he was about to lose everything. He knew his neighbors were in his storm cellar (his wife, Virginia, was at work) and believed they would be safe, but he also knew that his home probably wouldn’t survive.

“I just felt totally helpless,” Connel said Tuesday, as he stood alongside the large pile of shredded lumber, brick and steel that used to be his home.

“There was nothing I could do,” he added, his voice thick with emotion. “It was too late. If I’d been here, I could have tried to save some things, but I just had to sit back and watch it happen. I was too late.”

As you probably noticed, I’m in Oklahoma City—just a few miles from where I grew up—covering the aftermath of Monday’s tornado. (via Yahoo News)

149th and May (Oklahoma City OK)

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:34:39 -0400

149th and May (Oklahoma City OK)

Twisted electricity tower (Oklahoma City OK)

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:30:40 -0400

Twisted electricity tower (Oklahoma City OK)

Hot Rod against a tree. Had been in a garage (OKC, OK)

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:20:02 -0400

Hot Rod against a tree. Had been in a garage (OKC, OK)

Mattress impaled on a tree (Oklahoma City OK)

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:15:29 -0400

Mattress impaled on a tree (Oklahoma City OK)

149th and May (Oklahoma City OK)

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:01:09 -0400

149th and May (Oklahoma City OK)

One neighborhood leveled, another fine (Moore OK from a plane)

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:04:48 -0400

One neighborhood leveled, another fine (Moore OK from a plane)

Tornado damage in South OKC via plane

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:51:58 -0400

Tornado damage in South OKC via plane

bygoneamericana: Passengers on a bus. New York, 1963. By Thomas...

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:41:44 -0400

bygoneamericana:

Passengers on a bus. New York, 1963.

By Thomas Hoepker

atlanticinfocus: From Photos of Tornado Damage in Moore,...

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:01:33 -0400

atlanticinfocus:

From Photos of Tornado Damage in Moore, Oklahoma, one of 30 photos. Here, an aerial photo of a neighborhood hit by a massive tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Steve Gooch)

Video of the tornado that struck south Oklahoma City and Moore

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:32:01 -0400

Video of the tornado that struck south Oklahoma City and Moore

A mile wide tornado is hitting just south of Oklahoma City right...

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:29:11 -0400

A mile wide tornado is hitting just south of Oklahoma City right now. Watch live via KWTV

A tornado passing near a giant cross installed outside Metro...

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:31:22 -0400

A tornado passing near a giant cross installed outside Metro Church in Edmond, Okla., on Sunday (via CNN)

“Three years ago, Arne Svenson, a photographer living in lower...

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:26:36 -0400

“Three years ago, Arne Svenson, a photographer living in lower Manhattan, inherited a CT-501 500-mm. Nikon telephoto lens from a bird-watching friend,” writes Raffi Khatchadourian in this week’s New Yorker. “The lens was perfect for shooting faraway egrets or sanderlings, but Svenson, who favors still-lifes, knew nothing of nature photography. ‘I thought, I’ve got to try it out,’ he said the other day at his apartment. He pointed to a building across the street. ‘The logical subject was this.’ ”

The Neighbors (via Photo Booth)

Eating Too Many Baked Beans Is O.J. Simpson’s Worst Vice Aside From Murdering People

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:54:10 -0400

“I gained weight eating all those beans, but just because I can’t get enough fruits and vegetables,” O.J. Simpson tells the Post in a jailhouse interview, referring to the cans of pork-infused baked beans that he purchases at the Lovelock Correctional Center commissary. “My family’s been bugging me to stop with the beans.”

Daily Intel wins headline of the day

Lee Friedlander from The New Cars 1964

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:29:38 -0400

Lee Friedlander from The New Cars 1964