Portal:Oklahoma/Cities/14

Moore is a rapidly growing suburb in Cleveland County, Oklahoma and is part of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area. As of July 1, 2006, the city population was 49,277.

Situated next to the northern boundary of Cleveland County, Moore is the second largest city in the county and the ninth largest city in the state. Moore is less than twenty minutes from downtown Oklahoma City, Will Rogers World Airport, Tinker Air Force Base, the University of Oklahoma, the Federal Aviation Administration's Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center, and thousands of businesses, industries, public and private schools, as well as recreational and cultural facilities.

The west side of the city often falls victim to tornadoes, and has been severely damaged by tornadoes on October 4, 1998, May 3, 1999, and May 8, 2003. The May 3, 1999 tornado that hit Moore was rated an F5 on the Fujita scale, and was the strongest and most destructive tornado ever recorded in history. The tornado, which occurred during the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, had an approximate recorded wind speed of 318 MPH, the highest MPH on the first F-Scale, left a swath of destruction over a mile wide at times, and 7 miles long. It killed a total of 36 people in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. This was the deadliest F5 tornado recorded since the Delhi, Louisiana tornado in 1971. (Read more...)