Managing Disaster: 20 May 2013 Central Oklahoma Tornado

A new report is available on the emergency management response to the 20 May 2013 EF-5 tornado that struck central Oklahoma. The event provided a unique opportunity to learn how communities in the area dealt with what could be considered a repeat disaster. Two other violent tornadoes took very similar paths across central Oklahoma in recent years: an F-5 on 3 May 1999 and an F-4 on 8 May 2003. SCIPP researchers at the University of Oklahoma studied the perspectives of city, county and medical emergency management officials and a non-profit organization involved in planning and preparing for and responding to the 20 May 2013 tornado disaster. All but one of the study participants were involved in managing and responding to previous tornado disasters in the area. The event provided the opportunity to see how well the planning, preparedness and response efforts that were implemented after previous disasters worked and what might be improved should another disaster of this magnitude occur in the area.

The full report is available here, on the SCIPP Documents page. Choose the Severe Storms hazard filter to narrow the search results.

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