stroyed four public buildings, two schools, and five
churches. The estimate of the total property damage
was $1.2 billion.
In contrast to the immense damage, the human
death toll was low. Of the forty-seven fatalities, five
were in Sedgwick County, Kansas, and the other
forty-two were in eight Oklahoma counties. The F5
tornado that began in Grady County and ended in
Oklahoma County claimed thirty-eight lives. As al-
most everyone knew beforehand, mobile homes, as
in Bridge Creek, are death traps in tornadoes. As
many people learned because of this outbreak, over-
passes create wind tunnels during tornadoes and
therefore prove unsafe places for shelter. Three per-
sons who tried to take cover at overpasses along in-
terstate highways in Oklahoma died from their inju-
ries: one each in McClain, Cleveland, and Payne
counties. Along with the high number of injuries,
the number of deaths did have the positive result of
encouraging people in Oklahoma, where basements
are rare, to have storm cellars or safe rooms built at
their houses, and the total of injuries and deaths
should have reminded Oklahomans, Kansans, and
others of the need for solid construction and of the
threat tornadoes pose.
Further Reading
Bluestein, Howard B.Tornado Alley: Monster Storms of
the Great Plains. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1999. A meteorologist’s depiction of torna-
does through text and photographs and a history
of relevant research.
Bradford, Marlene.Scanning the Skies: A Histor y of
Tornado Forecasting. Norman: University of Okla-
homa Press, 2001. Traces the history of tornado
forecasting and the technological advances that
helped improve it.
Grazulis, Thomas P.The Tornado: Nature’s Ultimate
Windstorm. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 2001. A meteorologist’s thorough, statisti-
cally rich account of tornadoes in general, with a
page about the Oklahoma outbreak of 1999.
Mathis, Nancy.Storm Warning: The Stor y of a Killer Tor-
nado. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. A mix-
ture of the stories about meteorologists and tor-
nado victims, with an emphasis on the tornado
that struck metropolitan Oklahoma City in 1999.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-
tion. National Weather Service. Weather Forecast
Office. “The Great Plains Tornado Outbreak
of May 3, 1999.” http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/
storms/19990503/. A short account, with a map
and photographs.
Victor LindseySee also Business and the economy in the United
States; Chicago heat wave of 1995; Global warming
debate; Natural disasters; Perfect Storm, the; Sci-
ence and technology; Storm of the Century. Olympic Games of 1992
The Event The staging of XVI Winter and XXV
Summer Olympiads, international athletic
competitions, held every four years
Date Winter Games, February 8-23, 1992;
Summer Games, July 25-August 9, 1992
Place Winter Games, Albertville, France;
Summer Games, Barcelona, Spain
The 1992 Olympics marked the end of a decade of political
boycotts and the first Games to be held after the Iron Curtain
had come down. They were also the last Olympics in which
Winter and Summer Games were held in the same year.
Albertville, France, had been selected to host the
1992 Winter Olympics out of eight bids, including
Anchorage, Alaska, and Lillehammer, Norway. Lille-
hammer actually staged the next Winter Olympics,
held just two years later in 1994.
Sixty-four nations were represented, fielding
some 1,801 athletes: 1,313 men and 488 women.
Seven sports were included, generating fifty-seven
separate events. The sports included figure skating,
speed skating, alpine and Nordic skiing, and ice
hockey. Freestyle skiing, short-track speed skating,
and women’s biathlon were held as medal competi-
tions for the first time. Curling was included for the
first time as a demonstration sport. Of the fifty-seven
events, eighteen were held in Albertville, the re-
mainder being held at nearby resorts in the French
Alps.
The Games were opened by French president
François Mitterrand in a ceremony featuring danc-
ers and acrobats. The Olympic torch was lit by
French soccer star Michel Platini and a local boy,
François-Cyrille Grange. The Olympic Oath was
taken on behalf of the athletes by figure skater Surya
Bonaly and the Official Oath by alpine skier Pierre
Bornat.636 Olympic Games of 1992 The Nineties in America