Memorial Day weekend traditionally marks the start of the summer travel season. Don’t tell that to the folks in the tri-state area who found themselves making a snowman as 34 inches of white powder blanketed Whiteface mountain in the Adirondacks on Sunday. As our nation honored our troops, an unseasonable visit by Frosty wasn’t the only sign of extreme weather.

California had the coldest spot in the nation on Saturday. Bodie State Park recorded a low of 15 degrees F, according to Accuweather.com. 

The most extreme weather was in San Antonio, Texas. Two women lost their lives as they were swept away by flood waters on Saturday. A 17-year-old boy was also reported missing.

“It was pretty crazy,” Gera Hinojosa, a downtown valet, told the AP. “It was pretty unexpected. We hardly got any warning about it.”

Saturday saw more tornadic weather activity. Storms produced golf size hail as they moved through the northern Plains. A tornado was spotted on the ground just northeast of Victoria, Texas near Larkspur and Narvarro.

All of this comes off a week that saw an outbreak of tornadoes throughout the Midwest. This includes a monster EF-5 that resulted in mass destruction in Moore, Oklahoma on Monday and caused 24 fatalities. 

 More extreme weather could be in our future, especially on the eastern seaboard. Next Saturday, marks the official start of Hurricane season and  NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center is forecasting an active or extremely active season this year.

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Moore, Oklahoma has a difficult road in front of them. Monday’s EF-5 tornado caused staggering destruction. The fatality count is at 24, including 10 children. At least 324 were injured. An undetermined number of pets and animals were killed or injured. A lot of families were displaced with 12,000 to 13,000 homes damaged or destroyed. The financial impact could top $2 billion.  

However, the iconic images of Moore will not be of  war-zone like rubble. They are of the love, compassion, and heroism the community of Moore has shown each other.  Often these images revealed an interracial cross section of humanity embracing.

May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education found state-supported segregated schools unconstitutional. Oklahoma had their struggles, but became an early leader of the integration movement. Regardless of racial differences, Moore has now emerged as a community that are there for one another.

Jim Routon and his daughter Sheyna ran to Briarwood Elementary immediately following the storm.  They knew the school had just been demolished. Jim feared the worst for his basketball buddy, first-grader Hezekiah Darbon.

When the Routons arrived, they discovered Hezekiah standing outside. He immediately jumped into Jim’s thankful arms.

“I ran up to you,” Hezekiah said recalling the events to Erin Burnett on CNN’s Out Front. “I just jumped on you. I knew you were going to pick me up, so I just jumped. You picked me up and I just started hugging you really hard.” 

Jim also retold the story. “I feel like I needed that hug as much as he did at that time. It was just so much chaos and it was so chaotic, we just weren’t sure. The school was pretty much devastated and mostly destroyed and we just weren’t sure if anyone was going to come out alive. To go over and see one of my favorite neighbor’s child emerge was awesome. It was an amazing feeling. It was awesome!”

Fortunately there were no casualties at Briarwood. A different story played out at Plaza Towers Elementary where seven children perished.  

All of Rhonda Crosswhite’s fourth grade class survived. She brought her students into a restroom and laid on top of them as the tornado leveled the school.

“I was in a stall with some kids and it just started coming down,” Rhonda told NBC’s the TODAY Show. “I laid on top of them and one of my little boys kept saying, ‘I love you. I love you. Please don’t die with me. Please don’t die with me.’”   

Damian Britton is not one of Rhonda’s students. However, he ended up in the stall with her because he was visiting his brother’s classroom when the storm hit. The two tearfully reunited on-air. “I told you we were going to be OK,” Rhonda said.   

Damian thanked her for saving his life. The two now have a forever bond.  

Meanwhile, the bond between Jim and  Hezekiah has grown stronger. “He is a special little man,” Jim said. “This will enrich our relationship.”   

Jim is thankful for the media attention Moore has received, especially the stories of the strength the community has derived from brothers helping brothers.   “It helps us through the healing process. It helps us learn and to see that we have to depend on one another to get through these type of things. We are Oklahomans and that is the Oklahoma spirit. We will get through this. By the grace of God, we will rebuild, clean up, and move on.”

Related read: Why Moore Must Rebuild

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Rebuilding is part of who we are as American’s. Somewhere in our DNA there is a driving need to build bigger, stronger, and in the exact same location of where disasters tear apart our lives. It’s our collective way of throwing up a middle finger and saying, “If that’s your best shot you S.O.B., we’re still standing!”

But is rebuilding the right, and safe choice for Moore, Oklahoma?

 It would be easy to argue, “No.”

Monday’s EF-5 was the third large tornado to strike the same community in 14 years. It caused at least 24 fatalities, over 100 were injured, portions of the town were completely demolished, and thousands of families were displaced.

No doubt, many have thought, “You couldn't pay me to live there!”

They, however, don’t call Moore their home.

In October 2003, the Cedar Fire destroyed over 400 houses in a three mile radius from the home where I grew up. The fire was devastating for the community of Crest, located in San Diego’s east county.

Most of my parents neighbor’s houses were burnt to the ground, while their home remained standing. The destruction felt eerily familiar. The Laguna Fire swept through the same neighborhood 33 years prior.

My parents home, for no reasonable explanation, was spared twice. They still feel blessed! The next few years of their lives were spent donating time at the Crest Community Center as they helped the town they call home rebuild.

After the fire, some families for various reasons moved on.

It was a struggle, but ten years later Crest remains a close knit community. Those who rebuilt have beautiful new homes that are the envy of others.

The same will transpire in  Moore. Most of the survivors will roll up their sleeves, sacrifice, and rebuild. Whether that be their homes, or the homes of neighbors.  

Moore and Crest also share a common destiny in that history will likely repeat itself. Residence choose to stay because they know your home is more than the walls you inhabit.

This doesn't mean lessons are not learned from these tragic events. Just as Crest did, Moore will evaluate what they can do better now to prevent the next disaster from being as bad. It’s part of the process of standing up, dusting yourself off, and saying, “Bring it on! I’m ready for your next shot.”

And that’s what makes America great!

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Not that long ago television and radio played a crucial role in keeping the public safe. During natural disasters the mainstream news was where we turned for the dissemination of critical, and often life saving facts. A multitude of tornadoes on Sunday once again proved, Twitter is now the go-to source. 

When television news finally broke out of their regularly scheduled programming, they struggle to catch-up, and frequently only regurgitate what had already been reported on Twitter.   

Many Twitter accounts did an outstanding job providing timely information of where tornadoes were, or soon would be. Among the best were @breakingweather of AccuWeather.com.

Several others, including @NewsBreaker and myself @Planforemergncy, did our best to keep up by aggregating information. Broadcastify was an outstanding source for generating timely unique tweets. Their network of live dispatch lines allowed me to tweet critical updates within seconds of breaking news. 

Their were some standouts in the ranks of traditional media who integrated Twitter with live coverage. The Weather Channel @TWCBreaking was by far the best. Reporter Jim Cantore's @JimCantore was outstanding all day which included the tragic events in Shawnee, Oklahoma. 

The majority of the most fascinating and timely footage was provided through the videos of storm chasers and their use of YouTube.  

Here is just some of the great #tornado video coverage seen on Twitter on Sunday.

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Tornado sirens blared in SW Fort Worth Texas on Wednesday night. Residents were urged to seek shelter from a dangerous storm that had
already wrecked havoc with multiple tornado touchdowns in rural counties surrounding Fort Worth and Dallas.

The evening’s activities started when four inch hail
balls were reported in Wells (155 miles South West of Dallas) and Grandbury (70 miles east of Dallas). 

Minutes later, there were multiple reports of Tornado touchdowns in Sunset (80 miles North West of Dallas).   

Throughout the evening the North Central Texas Fire departments and Emergency Medical Services were kept busy. Requests for dispatch included at least one structural fire and an injury with a victim who had a finger severed when a door was blown shut.


Listen Live: North Central Texas Rural Fire and EMS Live Audio Feed

It’s too early to know the extent of the damage. However, there are early reports of homes being flattened in Grandbury.  There was also a report of a call for a school bus to help transport injured patients in Hood (70 miles West of Dallas).

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The Rockefeller Foundation celebrated their 100-year  anniversary on Tuesday by launching the 100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge, a $100 million effort to build urban resilience around the world.

This generous gift to promote urban welfare coincides with the foundation’s original charter of embracing a set of core values that guide their work to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world.

“Building resilience is about making people, communities and systems better prepared to withstand catastrophic events – both natural and manmade – and able to bounce back more quickly and emerge stronger from these shocks and stresses,” the foundation stated in defining the campaign. 

In the early 20th century, roughly only 10 percent of the world’s population lived in cities. In 2008, for the first time, the world's population was evenly split between urban and rural areas, according to the Population Reference Bureau. Urban density is expected to climb to 75 percent by 2050.

Increased population combined with more densely populated cities creates an ideal storm for health epidemics and natural disasters to rack up much higher causality tolls than just a century ago.

While it is certain each passing year will bring numerous disasters to cities worldwide, it’s nearly impossible to predict the nature of the crisis and when it will happen. Therefore, there is a heightened need to prepare urban centers with technical expertise and financial resources to create and execute resilience strategies on a citywide scale.

Starting this summer, city government officials or major institutions within cities can nominate their city through a formal application process. Winning applicants will receive three forms of support:

• Membership in the newly formed 100 Resilient Cities Network, which will provide support to member cities and share new knowledge and resilience best practices.
  

• Support to hire a Chief Resilience Officer (CRO), a new innovation. The CRO will oversee the development of a resilience strategy for the city.
  

• Support to create a resilience plan, along with tools and resources for implementation. While every city’s resilience journey will be different based on the unique needs of their populations and geographies, building the resilience of our urban places will be critical to face down new challenges and threats, some of which we have begun to imagine and plan for – many we have not.  Our future is undeniably urban. Now is the time for action to ensure our cities remain places of opportunity for the next 100 years.

VISIT 100 RESILIENT CITIES CENTENNIAL CHALLENGE

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LAKESIDE, SANDIEGO - Lakeside Fire responded to a brush fire shortly after noon on Sunday. Within an hour the quick acting department had stopped the forward spread of flames, but the damage had been done.

The fire was only a half acre in size when crews arrived on Hwy 8 Business near Olde Highway 80, east of Los Coches Road. Multiple vehicles and at least five structures in a mobile home park, had already caught fire. A women had also suffered critical burns for which she was ultimately transported to UC San Diego Hospital.

Airstrikes, hand crews, and water tenders were immediately ordered to squash the flames which threatened to burn 20 to 30 more acres inhabited by additional structures including businesses.

Lakeside Fire Chief Andy Parr told NBC San Diego that about 10 different agencies helped battle the fire including the assistance of Cal Fire on the ground.

The multi agency effort was unable to prevent damage and injury because the flames had moved quickly due to the existence of Arundo, a highly-flammable bamboo-like plant.

“Arundo burns very readily once it gets going,” said Parr.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. HazMat, however, was called to the scene to investigate unknown materials in the fire area.

Red Cross was requested to aid the victims who were displaced on Mother’s Day. Proving once again, disasters are often untimely and unpredictable.

Sunday also marked the conclusion of Wildfire Awareness Week which was kicked off by California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. last Monday.

 “The fire season has grown over the last 40 years,” Brown said. “It has gotten longer and longer. We have our intermediate wet years, but here it is and we have to be ready for it.”

Lakeside Fire will remain on high alert. The temperature was near 100 degrees when they battled the blaze and are forecast to be even warmer at the start of the week.

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responded to nearly 1,100 wildfires this year, which is over 500 more than average. 

“The fire season has grown over the last 40 years,” Brown said. “It has gotten longer and longer. We have our intermediate wet years, but here it is and we have to be ready for it.”

Low snow fall is a major contributing factor on why this could be an unusually bad fire season.  The state’s final snow survey on May 2, revealed the statewide snow-pack water content is only 17 percent of normal.

Firefighters did a tremendous job over the weekend battling several fires in and around Los Angeles County that resulted in minimal structural damage. Nevertheless, several California’s have felt the pain of loss fire can cause.

“Our hearts go out to the folks that have already been impacted by the fires,” said Mark Ghilarducci of the California Emergency Management Agency. “Many of them thought that it would never happen to them, but these type of situations do. It’s a real situation and in California you can find yourself affected by wildfires in any minute.”

Wildfire Awareness Week gives state agencies an additional opportunity to remind residents of the dangers of wildfires and the simple steps that they can follow to prepare and prevent them

The need to be prepared now was echoed by Chief Ken Pimlott, the CAL FIRE Director. “The conditions right now are what we should be experiencing in June. This year’s dry winter has resulted in a significant increase in fire activity.”  

Pimlott gave actions residents should take. “It’s critical that residents prepare for wildfires by maintaining 100 feet of Defensible Space around all homes. Most wildfires are preventable and we need residents and vacationers to be extra cautious outdoors so we can prevent wildfires from occurring in the first place.”

Ghilarducci hopes we can grow from the losses that have already occurred. “I want to acknowledge those folks who are struggling to rebuild their lives,” he emphasized. “We learn from these tragedies by understanding these fires can grow and spread very rapidly. And by preparing ourselves, our homes, our families through self awareness, reducing the threat of emergency wildfire and having an emergency plan should they occur.”

To learn more on what you can do. Please read: WILDFIRE SAFETY: BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER

For more information visit www.fire.ca.gov or www.ReadyForWildfire.org.

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Are you prepared for a wildfire?

Several government agencies including FEMA and Ready.gov have recommendations for what to do before, during, and after a wildfire. This article combines many of those recommendations into one source.

Before a fire: Ben Franklin was very wise when he said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” His words especially hold true for fire prevention and preparation.

During a fire: There are number of things you can do to protect your property if you have significant warning. The most important thing is protect you and your family from harm. 

If you have time before you evacuate, here are some things you can do to protect your property.

After the fire: You likely made it safely through the fire. Now stay safe!

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Note: Pictures are hyper-linked to their original source.

To really drive home the message, Ready.Gov. could have made a “Day Before” map for nearly every zip code in the country. 

In San Diego, we had two “Day(s) Before” in a four year period. 

October 24, 2003 preceded the Cedar fire which burned 280, 278 acres, 2,820 buildings and killed 15 people.

Still many remained unprepared.

Almost exactly four years later, the next day before came on October 19, 2007. The Witch Creek and Harris fires forced the evacuation of over 500,000 residents as they destroyed 1,246 homes and caused five more deaths.

Even with those two events in our recent past, many are still not prepared for the next inevitable natural disaster. Meanwhile, several fires are currently burning just to the north of us in Los Angeles.

With rising temperatures and high winds, both L.A. and San Diego counties are under a Red Flag Warning that is an effect until late Friday.

Is today, May 2nd, 2013 is our next “Day Before?”

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