Prairie Dog Premium Jigsaw Puzzle

My prayers go out to all the people in Oklahoma, this was a tragedy of unbelievable proportions. As a child I always wandered what we would do in case of a tornado since no one has cellars or basements. (thank you wizard of oz)

Yes scary stuff: tornado, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, wars, etc. I hope you/everyone has inner strenght to deal with all of that and a solid believe with God. As I went to the Memorial at the Copley Sq. and at the bomb site itself on Sun. in the city of Boston I thought of ALL of you here on the site and we all get by with a little or a lot of help from our friends. Love you all and may God give you His peace and comfort.

With so many disasters taking place all over I have started praying each night for the catastrophes to pass the family and you puzzlers by. This last tornado is the worst I remember seeing on the news. We were looking at areas to move in Oklahoma and also near Joplin MO. I'm glad we stayed put.

I remember the tornado that hit Zaneville, OH when live there. Scared the wits out of me. I have a high respect for them. When ever I hear of one, I think of all of the damage they can do.
Basinda, you are a year younger than I am.

Basinda, I am a year younger than you. I remember a hurricane that hit when I was about 5. It was a minor storm( I've been through a lot worse) but I will never forget the few days of storm weather. We lost a barn and two cows, but everyone was safe.
I always feel for the kids when I hear of disasters. They don't understand what is going to happen until it hits..

Yes and they tend to have it always with them, I still have nightmares of tornados and sometimes when I was little in these nightmares, there would be a tap at my window and I would look out and it was a big dark swirling cloud and it would growl at me. then as I got older the dreams were more of tornadoes and me rushing my children to safety but finding no safe place. a reality for so many.
I never was in a hurricane but oh my gosh that is like a tornado too only much much bigger. and instead of a vacuum sucking things up it is blowing them down.

At least with a hurricane there is usually a few days warning. We have time to prepare. I just can't imagine earthquakes or tornadoes. One minute you're fine and the next......

The tornado in Moore, OK was about 1/3 of a mile from us, we have been thru 6 here since we moved here in '83. This one was south of us and
the other F-5 was about 1/4 or less to the north of us. This was the worst for us, the two older 19 & 20 were here with us, but my daughter teaches at one of the HS that was near the path, and our youngest granddaugter was in school at Plaza Towers. We also knew our daughter's house was gone, from the radio. Our granddaughter is fine, had a small bruise on her arm and lots of debris in her hair, it was also her birthday. It was early evening, before she and her mother finally arrived at our at our home, both with separate people, but both fine and well.
This was the longest day I have lived thru. We were without power, water, and phones until yesterday afternoon after, and I finally of internet service after noon today. We are thanking GOD for taking care of our family. I needed to relax some after all that has gone on so signed to do some puzzles and get away for awhile.

Dear Catlady OKC:
I am so glad you are all okay. How you can stand to live in areas with that kind of threat hanging over you -- your faith must be iron clad! I will also thank God you are all safe.

So far all of them have missed, and we have terrific weather coverage from all our major TV, and radio stations, also we have a weather radio. We will be putting in a shelter (our house was built in 1970 and has never been hit), not sure which type, but my husband also has to walk with a crutch and even then not well. He had a C5, 6 fracture to his neck in a vehicle accident and they had told him that he would never walk again, but he worked hard enough, and with God's care he was able to leave rehab on two bearing crutches after almost 4 months of rehab. We will need a type he can get into easily.

Why don't towns in flat areas make berms and plant them with something to hold them down, then put shelters in them all around town? That way they wouldn't flood but people would have a safe place when the tornadoes come.

Some smaller towns do, but Moore is over 50, 000 people. There is a town in SW Kansas that has been rebuilt as a green town, but it was a much smaller town. Also part of the area shown on TV is actually in OKC. It depend which side of the street which city you live in. These are average or below average homes and $3000 up for a shelter gets expenisve. This year & last year one of the local stations have given away 40-50 shelters each year, but that was in the viewing area and that covers about 2/3 of Oklahoma State. Most of the homes in the area and the schools were actually build in the 70's before the safe room, they came about later.

PS the town in Kansas, is Greensburg. You can find out information about it online.

You would think the federal government would initiate a program for this instead of letting it happen and then doling out for a catastrophe. They would save lives and money that way. It should be required of the city planners and not left to developers who put houses on unstable land and anywhere they can make a buck. Sorry. A pet peeve of mine!

There are some grants etc. for schools and individuals, also driving any where is really unsafe, the warning time varies storm to storm, depending on how fast they are moving and many states have tornadoes. We have several people neighbors that have them. Most were put in after the '99 tornado. The safe rooms also work well it they are put in with new construction, the add on's not so well. They are considering some changes in the laws here. More people are killed with cars in accidents and guns than in tornadoes. Not all people will evactuate in a hurricane or fire area. We also continue to build in flood areas and earthquake areas.

CatLadyOKC
This is late but so thankful your family is safe

Thanks so much. We are starting to get back to normal, just need to relax now.

Praying that you can relax and breathe in and find peace :-) Arms are around you, close your eyes and lean back into them.

CatladyOKC, you are right. Many people will be fool hardy no matter how hard others try to protect them. Also the land in the better places (safer? ) may not be a possibility because of job location and price so folks get stuck and can't move. However I do think there should be a certain standard of safety applied to an area b4 builders put up a development, Not that all contingencies can be foreseen of course. Nature is always there to remind us how insignificant our efforts are against its power. I hope you are still doing fine after this last round of storms. We even got tornado warnings a few days ago and we are no where near any "zone". Praying you stay safe.

Well we stayed safe last night, but did have a yard full of limbs on the maple trees & our 30" Fir hit the dust, missed the house by about 5 ft. Didn't even lose any of our utilities. Spend most of today cleaning up the front yard & our son and my husband worked on the pine in the back. Hope this is it for a while now, but may not be. Thanks for thinking of us.

Glad the pine missed you. We have several large ones in the back and a clump of silver maple. Every time there's a high wind I pray it doesn't cause any to fall on the neighbor or us.

I too lived thru 3 Palm Sunday tornadoes. They reversed and went thru town 3 different times. It jumped the church and leveled the VA hospital. We didn't have a HS gym built at the new school yet but the Coleseum worked just as well. My mom collected hail stones the size of baseballs and kept them in the freezer to show family and friends. I never want to have to go thru that again. Every time I hear of a community that has been hit by a tornado, I stop and send my prayers for them. Happened recently in central/southern IN. The town was just gone. How does that happen?

Not looking forward to this spring! We have no public shelters in Moore. The 2 schools are being rebuilt and will have shelters in both of them. The Jr High is getting a new gym & shelter. They hope to have shelter at all the schools here as soon as they can. Thanks to many donations especially Toby Keith and the Thunder NBS Team and many, many others. It is amazing to see how fast they are getting the area rebuilt & most homes are getting shelters. They are building a new 5 story Hospital and until it is done we have a temp emergency one, also the Post Office is up and running again. The recovery seems to be much fast than the one in '99, but we are a larger city now than we were then.

That is GOOD News I mean the funds are there to rebuild. I hope that everyone will be much safer now.

It helps, but it will take time. It is a city of over 60, 000 and has 3 High Schools, 5 Junior Highs, 23 elementry, and 1 alternative school.

Hi Catlady:
Any chance of moving someplace safer? I pray this will be a quiet season and give you all a break. God bless your rebuilding efforts, too.

Not soon and will not be far we own the house & would have to sell it, also as we are retired we have to live on our investments, but we would like to move into a smaller one floor home will less yard to take care of in the next few years.

Will should read with. My computer is just like yours, doesn't know how to spell & also some way all my keys on the keyboard get rearranged overnite!

Any chance of using your big house (present one) as a rental unit and moving out? You could rent it furnished on a seasonal or yearly basis.

No way! I've seen to much problem with the rental! No I will go thru things when we find what we want and get rid of the rest, I have 2 children that some of the things. We are just in no hurry have lived here since 82 or 83 and never been hit also we hope to get our shelter as soon as they can get to it. We did lose 1 piece of siding in a wind storm, and they are still waiting to get it done, all the good contractors are booked up for now. Don't really know of anyplace in Oklahoma that is any safer!

It's petty hard to find a safe weather place these days. Those tornadoes are hitting most of the states and the ones they don't hit get other stuff.
I know what you mean about the rentals. You need a realtor you can trust to really screen the applicants. We used to rent a house in Long Beach, NY for the school season at a very reasonable price. The renters liked us because we made sure we never damaged anything. We stayed 3 years or so
until my husband got a job upstate near the house we bought and we could move. That was our first house so we did not have the headache of selling first. The selling to buy domino effect can really backfire. BTDT. :-(

You are the first one I've heard from who lived thru those exact tornadoes. I'm so excited. I lived in Marion, Ind and went to church that night. I was 14. We had 3 tornadoes go thru town, reverse, hit again and repeat. 3 tornadoes hit us 3 times. The power went off and we lit candles and put them in the windows. The rest of the night was spent in singing praises to God. The tornado jumped over my church and did major damage to the VA hospital grounds a mile away. I saw an angel that night, a real angel. We had a cross in front of the church made out of old railroad ties. The angel was sitting on one of the arms of the cross. I was not the only one to see him/her. Angels are messengers from God. Was the angel sitting there to give us the message that we were safe or is there a group of guardian angels who keep us safe?

I too lived thru those Palm Sunday tornadoes in Indiana. We had 3 reverse direction twice so were hit 9x. It jumped over my church and crushed the largest VA hospital in the state. I literally saw an angel sitting on the rugged cross hanging in front of the church. My best friend saw him, too. God was protecting us. I truly believe this.

Good Morning to you HappyGirl54, are you new?
From another midwest puzzler. Grew up in Ks, and
lived in St.Lous for a few years.

Good morning CatLady
I am fairly new but I really love jigsaw puzzles, Where did you live in St.Louis? I lived in baden and sometimes I really miss it hope to hear from you soon HappyGirl54

Really taxing my brain, was back in the late 60's.
Shewrbury's, then out west in new subdivison near Fenton, then last place was Mansion House apts downtown. Then we moved to Collinsville, Ill for the last couple of years. When we split up I moved back to KS. Remarried and lived in KS, until '83 when his company moved us to OK, still here. I worked for Terminix near Hampton Village when I lived in St. Louis. We live in Moore so I'm very familiar with the tornados, but we have some of the best forcasters in the world here.

My brother and his wife plan to move there soon, Barbratee.

How is your brother doing, Pixi? Washington is a beautiful state. If ever in Seattle go to Pike's Market! It has nearly everything under the sun there. That is the place where they throw the fish. But you have to order the fish in order for them to throw it. Haven't seen them drop one yet and they have been doing it for many years! My daughter took me there a few years ago. I had a great time. Highly suggest going.

Thanks for the tip, Mountainmama. I'll pass it on to my brother. He has come through the entire radiation therapy without any ill effects but will not know if it eliminated the cancer until they check on July 29 so he won't be going anywhere until then.

Pixipixil - Mountainmama mentions the fish throwing at Pike Place Market. It is fascinating! I am now 80 years old and I went to the Market with my grandmother as a pre-schooler. We went very early in the morning when only the vendors were there, to sell the dahlias my grandfather grew to the flower stalls. They were throwing fish then, however it was to fill orders their fellow fisherman might have. Grandma knew everyone and had told them I was coming to visit - thus I received a little gift at each stall...a piece of candy, a ribbon, a pastry, some juice, etc. What a wonderful memory.

Pixi! That is good news about your brother. Hope it has been eliminated for good.

I know what you mean. I've had a bit of a busy day. I can hardly stay awake to do the puzzle and it's only dinner time! I still have evening church before I can go to bed!

Are you in pain, Barbaranne? How are you feeling? Think about you often and keep you in my prayers.

My sister-in-law lives in Missouri and the tornadoes passed close by but did not do any damage to the town where she lives. My mother-in-law also lives in Missouri. She's in a nursing home and the power was knocked out in her town. The home was on emergency generators all day yesterday. Haven't heard reports from there today. I appreciate all of you who prayed and sent good thoughts to them, even if you did not know who your prayers were protecting.

Mountainmama, thank you for your concern, I'm not in any more pain than usual but have been somewhat busy. Thank you for your prayers they are always welcome. God bless you and yours.