Lesson 2

Project 2:  Summarizing and Displaying Property Damage from Tornadoes
 

As background information for this project, our class information provided information about the multiple super-cell thunderstorms that produced many large and damaging tornadoes in central Oklahoma during the late afternoon and early evening of May 3, 1999.  These storms killed people and destroyed significant amounts of property as they moved through the towns of Dover, Perry and Bridge Creek, and the Moore and southern Oklahoma City metropolitan areas.  These tornadoes killed 48 people and injured 795 others.  Farms, homes, and businesses were destroyed throughout the area with damages estimated to be close to one billion dollars. (King, 2005)

Figure 1:  Tornado Intensity and Paths Over Affected Oklahoma Counties by Housing Density

As shown above, the track of the tornadoes covered a number of counties where there was a significant potential for both property and personal damage due to the density of the housing.  As shown in the map above, a major, Fujita scale level 5, tornado moved through the counties of Grady, Cleveland, Pottawatomie, and Oklahoma, all in the southern suburbs and southern side of the Oklahoma City.

 

Figure 2:  Housing Units Damaged by County

Figure 2 shows the counties that suffered the most damage to housing units due to the May 3rd tornadoes.  Oklahoma and Pottawatomie suffered the highest levels of damaged housing units as one would expect due to the severity of the Level 5 tornado moving through those counties.  However, the counties of Canadian, Kingfisher and Logan suffered a significant number of destroyed housing units as well from the tornadoes of just slightly lesser intensity that hit those counties.

 

Figure 3:  Housing Units Destroyed by County

Tracking closely with the number of housing units damaged, Figure 3 shows the counties that suffered the most numbers of housing units destroyed.  Again, Oklahoma County suffered the most severe damage followed closely by Pottawatomie County and then Canadian, Kingfisher and Logan Counties.

 

Figure 4:  Counties Suffering the Greatest Dollar Losses

When viewed in terms of total dollar losses, Figure 4 shows that Oklahoma County tops the list as suffering the greatest loss.  However, Cleveland and Canadian Counties, both suburbs of Oklahoma City suffered significant dollar losses as well.  Perhaps representing the rural area radiating away from Oklahoma City as well as the nature of the severity of the tornadoes, the counties farther from Oklahoma City experienced less total dollar losses.

 

Try This

 
In an effort to look more closely at the level of potential destruction, housing density by census tract data was obtained from the U.S. Bureau of the Census and provided for as a part of this lesson.  The tornado path information was overlaid to show the areas that would have experienced the most destruction.  Further, I added the tornadocounties shapefile provided for in the Lesson exercise in order to pull the county information for those counties affected by the tornadoes, outlining and labeling the counties for clarity.  From this exercise, we can see that the most severe tornado tracked right up the southern suburbs and sections of Oklahoma City.
 

Figure 5:  Try This, May 3, 1999 Oklahoma City Tornado Paths by Housing Density for Census Tracts and County
 

Sources

Beth King, Geography 483 Lesson 2, 2005.  http://www.e-education.psu.edu/courses/geog483/L02_compiled.html  Accessed April 19, 2005.