Baghdad, Mogadishu, Chernobyl, Oklahoma City...

Top 10 Places To Not Visit (http://information.travel.aol.com/discovery/places-to-not-visit?ncid=AOLCOMMtravdynlprim0334&icid=100214839x1201186138x1200047261)

haha.

Natural disasters?! How about those cities that suffer from earthquakes? I'll take a little twister any day over the earth undulating under my feet.

the reviewer must have come from a state where our football team kicked their &#@% !!!

Wow, the '99 tornado devastated most of the city? Journalistic license I guess.

That sure is a beautiful photo of one of the worst natural disaster places to live. i agree w/ sonnerfan. This has to be a joke.

Whew! I was worried when I saw all of these articles raving about the city. This balances things out nicely and keeps us from tempting fate so much. ;)

No, it was a real article written for askmen.com and the title was Top 10: Hells On Earth.

What a bunch of crap. Because you know, we've had so many high rises knocked down by high winds. :rolleyes:

The "OKC Reviews" link at the bottom is filled with people upset about this, from all over the country. "Unjust, Unfair", and other similar comments.

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/6524/downtownpk2.jpg


Unfortunately, even this picture is better than the one Forbes Magazine used in their #1 list. Well....kinda....anybody else notice the clouds that look like smoke from an explosion? Think: OKC bombing. A little subliminal dig in the picture.

What a moron. I just can't stand people that think that articles like this are funny and cute, all the while, destroying tourism and spreading false rumors about a city they probably have never been to.

How about freaking New Orleans?

Sheesh, that hurricane and aftermath makes our tornadoes look mild.

Oh great, Maggie Carlo is talking about it on the news .. the only American city on the list. ugh.

Do we have blizzards?

No.

I think he meant to say Detroit.

Well we all have to agree that OKC does get some wicked weather. However OKC shouldn't be bashed by that fact. As a result of our wicked weather we have some of best (if not the best) weather prediction, meteorologist, and weather schools in the world, which in return protects other people and not just Oklahomans.

What are your chances of visiting OKC and getting in the middle of a tornado? I would have to say pretty slim. Now what are you chances of ending up in the bad neighborhoods of Detroit, North Little Rock, Memphis, or Compton and getting shot or mugged? That has to be higher chance being involved in a tornado in OKC. I could be wrong.

Some comments found here: View all Reviews for Oklahoma City Oklahoma - AOL Travel (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/Oklahoma+City-Oklahoma-United+States:273-destination-review-all)


OKC is a great place to visit!

This is ridiculous. Having been there to watch our son compete in the rowing Olympic Trials just weeks ago, I can tell you it is a great city with much to do. Thriving downtown, great bars and restaurants, we didn't know what to expect and were very impressed!


totally unjust

My kids and I were in OKC while my husband was at a convention and we loved it. The zoo was great, there were wonderful parks. I would definately go back. So much for us to do while he was tied up in meetings.


I'm a proud Texan who moved just north of OKC last year, and I am also offended that OKC would be compared to the crap holes of the third world.


WOW

This writer is an idiot....I grew up in OKC and had to move away when I was 14. I have been back several times since and am considering moving back now. I live in Michigan now and the economy and weather are horrible. The cost of living is lower in OKC and there are many jobs available right now. As far as the tornadoes....Some of my best childhood memories are of me and my family hanging out in the storm shelter eating hotdogs and telling stories. I wish me and my kids had some of that together time now....:)


The inclusion of Oklahoma City in this list is unjust, unfair and unwise. I lived near Dulles, Virginia, home of AOL's corporate office, for 10 years. I chose to leave that area and return to Oklahoma City, a wonderful community and a great place to live. Why should those of us in Oklahoma City send our resources to an institution that insults us?


Obviously the author of this article has never been in Oklahoma City. Is it possible that this idiot is from Seattle?


You actually have a clean, middle-America, middle-class city rated more dangerous than Chenobyl, Somalia, Bangladesh, and Iraq!!! Are you out of your mind? Just because there's an occassional tornado that makes it more dangerous than radiation poisoning, war, murder, and disease? And, ranked only a little safer than Pyongyang, North Korea! What kind of idiots do you have working there?

Well we all have to agree that OKC does get some wicked weather.

Yes, but the worst city for natural disasters? NO. NOT EVEN.

I want to comment but then I'd have to register with AOL and I don't want to... you can comment anonymously on AskMen.com - Free Men's Online Magazine (http://www.askmen.com) .... search Oklahoma

Probably some ex OKC AOL Call Center employee that got a raise right before it shut down.

Maybe the person who wrote this article is a Seattle Sonic fan. I think this is worth some kind of investigation and punishment at the end of it. There is no way in he** OKC is even close in the top 100, much less top 10! I'm telling ya, ther is some kind of conspiracy against our GREAT city. Somebody owes Oklahoma City a huge apology.

Yes, but the worst city for natural disasters? NO. NOT EVEN.

No! Not the worst for sure. I just meant that we get some pretty significant weather. Just like Karried said what about New Orleans. I can't ever remember a tornado flushing out 3/4 of OKC population.

Does anybody think it was a coincidence that the picture of the skyline (shown in my post about ten posts up) included a single cloud puff that makes it look like smoke from an explosion? A not-very-cute reference to the 1995 bombing? Maybe I'm wrong, but that's awfully strange looking. Makes me think of subliminal advertising years ago.

The text on AskMen.com is even worse:


While it may be all hunky-dory on the musical front, Oklahoma City isn’t the kind of place you’d want to hang out in for too long if you like to keep your feet on terra firma. The weather is frighteningly unpredictable, with blizzards often descending on the city and winds that could knock a high rise clean off its feet. It is, after all, located in the direct path of “Tornado Alley.”

The worst time to visit would be from March to August, when The Day After Tomorrow-style weather is pretty much expected. In fact, the severe weather season makes Dorothy’s Kansas look positively calm, with Oklahoma City being the city worst affected by tornadoes in the United States. One of the most powerful tornadoes on record -- an F5 with wind speeds of 320 mph -- devastated much of the city in 1999, rendering it a place on our list of hells on earth

Does anybody think it was a coincidence that the picture of the skyline (shown in my post about ten posts up) included a single cloud puff that makes it look like smoke from an explosion? A not-very-cute reference to the 1995 bombing? Maybe I'm wrong, but that's awfully strange looking. Makes me think of subliminal advertising years ago.


Very interesting?

It's obvious some dufus at AOL had the bright idea to include Oklahoma City for personal reasons (or so it seems anyway), because of course by the same token, other cities never get hit-Salt Lake City, Nashville, Kansas City, Miami, and now Atlanta. Nevermind the fact that if you look at natural disasters, you can include all cities along the Atlantic coast from the mid-Atlantic down to Miami, then all the Gulf coast cities and then pretty much all Cali cities from the coastline to about 30 miles inland (for earthquakes-which are really predictable, right?). Granted, the weather here may be unpredictable at times but if the guy writing this piece did some research first, he would find out that Denver's weather can get just as fickle. 68 degrees one day, 34 and snow the next (it has happened before, many times). And Denver has been hit by tornadoes as well.

Way to go AOL...

A diamond in the rough I guess...

It figures the day this article comes out, we have a huge storm with hail and tornadoes. ugh

Obviously, this is a schlocky, poorly designed, and poorly researched article. First, it ranks cities from one to ten, but each one is selected based on one criterion. There's really no control or context, just an arbitrarily organized list. Second, it makes some really irresponsible claims and generalizations, i.e. "some places just don't function as cities in the modern world".

And most importantly, it's credibility is completely undone with the inclusion of Oklahoma City on many levels. Not only did it grossly exaggerate the effects of the May 3rd tornado specifically, but also made an unexplainable judgment by including it based on the relative risk of "Natural Disasters" in Oklahoma City. (To be fair, though, OKC’s weathermen have been working hard to get it included on such a list for this very reason ;) )

In just a few minutes one can easily look at both the probability of and the damaged caused by common natural disasters in the Unite States and quickly come to the conclusion that Oklahoma may not even rank as high as 5 in it's own country based on risk due to natural disaster alone (see below).

I certainly wouldn't be surprised if Oklahoma (the entire state) was a top place in the world for severe weather. And if this was a list about weather, I probably would have no problem with it as long as it was more accurate in reporting the actual risk to property and person the weather presents. However, this is a list of "Hell's on Earth", or bad places to visit due to extreme forces that present a risk to life in those places and Oklahoma City was selected at number 5, seemingly because it is the worst place for "natural disasters" in the world. That's just ridiculous, really, especially when you consider the following:


Wikipedia stats to compare OKC's “big one” specifically referenced in the article to that of other major natural disasters in the US:

May 3 tornado: 48 Dead $1.1 Billion in damages

Hurricane katrina: 1,836 Dead $81.2 Billion Dollars

Loma Prieta Earthquake: 67 Dead $6 Billion in damages

Northridge Earthquake: 57 Dead $12.5 Damages

Some general probabilities related to the type of events above:

Chances of being hit by tornado at any given point over a period of 50 years in Midwest region of US: 1% (News from University of Missouri Extension (http://agebb.missouri.edu/news/ext/showall.asp?story_num=3702&iln=61))

Chance of magnitude 7 quake (Loma Prieta was 6.9, Northridge was 6.7) within 150 miles of San Francisco in the nest 20 years: 25% (BAY AREA / Computer puts big quake odds at 25% within 20 years (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/11/BAGB4F6L2I1.DTL))

Average probability of experiencing hurricane force winds (74 mph and above, which equals F1 tornado and higher) during a hurricane season dating back 155 years for selected cities (http://www.hgtvpro.com/hpro/nws_dstr_huric_torndo/article/0,2624,HPRO_26522_4729604,00.html):

New Orleans 12.74 %
Jacksonville 6.88 %
Miami 15.77 %
New York 4.36 %
West Palm Beach 15.87 %

----

So, it's easy to see that Oklahoma City is at least no worse at risk from natural disaster than many major population centers in the United States, let alone the world. Frequency and scope must be considered, but there is nothing to support that Oklahoma City's natural disaster risk is the worst in the world, let alone that the risk that does exist makes it more dangerous or a worse place to visit than Baghdad, Dhaka, Yakutsk, Mogadishu, and Chernobyl.

The inclusion of Oklahoma City in the context of this list based on the criteria presented was clearly not based on any kind of objective reasoning or extensive research. It may be that the author or authors have an irrational fear of inclement weather that created a bias against the consideration other natural disasters or simply didn't state their criteria correctly or accurately. Either way, the result is bizarre at best and completely irresponsible at worst.

BDP,

Please, please send your above post to the putz's at AskMen.com - Free Men's Online Magazine (http://www.askmen.com) & aol travel site.

If we don't speak up, no one will ever believe otherwise.

Damage is done I fear - a rebuttal blip at the end of the page doesn't ever help.. but still, they need to know how inaccurate their irresponsible 'journalism' really is.

Whatever. Someone who put this thing together had a personal vendetta.

That's like arguing with Mens Health that you didn't get a huge chest in just 5 minutes a week. I'm pretty sure these guys could give a rats ass - they're too busy coming up with the next list because, as you know, these lists are so hot right now, not unlike Hansel.

That's it I'm moving............

I'd be curious to see if this guy has ties to Seattle.

You know, it strikes me as odd that OKC has never been on any of Discovery Channel's "Mega Natural Disasters" shows! This guy is just looking for attention & every one of us are giving it to him! But with good intent. I won't let anyone bash my city like this. I especially loved the part about high winds knocking our buildings down.

The part about the blizzards was the best. I rarely leave the house anymore for fear of them.

I love this:

We Are All Going To Die » The Lost Ogle (http://www.thelostogle.com/2008/05/02/we-are-all-going-to-die/)

My favorite:


Oh. Maybe these people don’t exactly know what they’re talking about. Perhaps I should put Mogadishu back on my list of potential vacation spots after all.

You know, it strikes me as odd that OKC has never been on any of Discovery Channel's "Mega Natural Disasters" shows! This guy is just looking for attention & every one of us are giving it to him! But with good intent. I won't let anyone bash my city like this. I especially loved the part about high winds knocking our buildings down.

Uh! Yea. The May 3rd Tornado has been on plenty. I just saw a repeat recently of one of the mega-disasters and there we were proudly. This was like the "Top Ten" Mega Natural Disasters, or something to that effect.

EDIT: Speaking of "TOP TEN," looks like either folks' comment's got to the original "list" poster, or someone higher-up actually read the list and realized how absurd our inclusion was. In any event, as of now, we've been bumped from the list. I guess one of them mega-cyclones came up and swept us away and off the list entirely. It's now a officially a Top NINE places to not visit!

Now it really screams Seattle conspiracy to me!

Relax!! We no longer are on the list. Just checked.

Thats it, our NBA team....The Oklahoma City Blizzards!

Is still included on the original story at askmen.com site.

[URL="http://www.askmen.com/fashion/travel_top_ten_200/226b_travel_top_ten.html[/URL]


Number 5
Oklahoma City, United States
Type of hell: Natural disasters

While it may be all hunky-dory on the musical front, Oklahoma City isn’t the kind of place you’d want to hang out in for too long if you like to keep your feet on terra firma. The weather is frighteningly unpredictable, with blizzards often descending on the city and winds that could knock a high rise clean off its feet. It is, after all, located in the direct path of “Tornado Alley.”

The worst time to visit would be from March to August, when The Day After Tomorrow-style weather is pretty much expected. In fact, the severe weather season makes Dorothy’s Kansas look positively calm, with Oklahoma City being the city worst affected by tornadoes in the United States. One of the most powerful tornadoes on record -- an F5 with wind speeds of 320 mph -- devastated much of the city in 1999, securing its place on our list of hells on earth.

Sorry, I can't seem to get the link to work on the last post.

Post by askmen.com on the original article.


AskMen.com Staff says:
Hello Oklahomans! -- Thanks for all your posts. We certainly admire your quick defense of your capital, and please understand that its place on this list isn't a commentary on it as an economic center, a sports town, or a place to live and raise a family. This article was commissioned and written as a lighthearted travel feature. What guided us in choosing the cities that we did? In seeking out the world's least travel-friendly destinations, we looked for diversity in terms of what characterized each of them as such, hence the reference to "Type of Hell" within each subheader. So when it came time to choose a city that was characterized by natural disasters, OKC -- home to some of the world's most frequent and powerful tornadoes -- was a natural choice.

James Bassil
Editor-in-Chief

So the logical next question is why choose tornadoes as the natural disaster of choice when earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, drought, etc. are far more devastating and general across an area?

Let the cries of Seattle conspiracy continue to ring out!

Im sorry, but i am having a hard time getting over this. This James Bassill response is unacceptable! Can the city do something to sue these people over something like this? They just can not get away trying to ruin our city like this. Does anybody else feel this way, or do i need to just calm down and take it with a grain of salt? We don't have to be on the best 10 places to visit, but this is absurd.

Kudos to AOL for taking the time to read the crap that was given to them by AskMen.com, realize its stupidity - and remove Oklahoma City from such a bizarre list. Too bad the idiot from AskMen can't see the problem and chose to defend it.

Im sorry, but i am having a hard time getting over this. This James Bassill response is unacceptable! Can the city do something to sue these people over something like this? They just can not get away trying to ruin our city like this. Does anybody else feel this way, or do i need to just calm down and take it with a grain of salt? We don't have to be on the best 10 places to visit, but this is absurd.

How about a whole shaker?

In a situation like this, it's best to let sleeping dogs lie. It could even turn out positive in our favor, if we allow it to do so.

Truth be told, my only beef with our inclusion on this list is that they are, in essence, comparing us to places that in many instances are completely void of humanity. Our inclusion really sticks out like a sore thumb here because it is so completely off-base from where the rest of the list is trying to go.

If they wanted to put together a list that says "Top Ten Worst Weather Cities in the U.S." - then hey, we gotta take our lumps where and when we get 'em.

I say let the CVB and City spin docs work their magic and have this work in our favor. Send Mr. Clarke (the author) a packet of promo materials and sponsored airline tickets, plus hotel fare and tickets to other area attractions, bring him on down and let's show him a good ole time!

I will also have to say that some of the comments on the AskMen board pretty much fulfilled the stereotype of our being illiterate, redneck hicks, which did little to nothing to enhance our image.

Oh, let's just let it be. The journalist is obviously a moron. Better to rise above it and continue to look at the positive side of things.

Just for the record, from AskMen.com......

"Nick Clarke is a full-time writer who lives and works in Marbella, Spain. He specializes in lifestyle publications, and has a passion for travel, food, design, and luxury. Check out his luxury lifestyle blog at www.gilt-edged.com"

His blog is no longer active, but the WHOIS details show he is in Spain. No wonder.

Administrative Contact:
Clarke, Nick nicholasclarke44@hotmail.com (nicholasclarke44@hotmail.com)
Gilt-Edged
Casa Waterfalls, Calle Palmera
URB Elviria, Santa Maria Golf
Marbella, Malaga 29600
Spain
952 833 450

Truth be told, my only beef with our inclusion on this list is that they are, in essence, comparing us to places that in many instances are completely void of humanity. Our inclusion really sticks out like a sore thumb here because it is so completely off-base from where the rest of the list is trying to go.

If they wanted to put together a list that says "Top Ten Worst Weather Cities in the U.S." - then hey, we gotta take our lumps where and when we get 'em.

Very much agreed.

The editor's response is unacceptable, IMO, but I'm very glad AOL took it down.

AskMen also has us as the #2 extreme weather location. Again, they have a "Most Tornadic", but nothing about Hurricanes.


Most tornadic: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
If you live in Tornado Alley, you probably get around -- more than you like; involuntarily and rather suddenly. Whether it’s ducking for shelter or picking up the pieces afterwards, tornadoes keep you on your toes, to say the least. Weather experts remind us tornadoes can happen practically anywhere, but the U.S. Central Plains states host the most. As for the city that’s been nailed by the most, the honor goes to Oklahoma City. Reportedly, the National Weather Service in nearby Norman recognizes well over 100 events since recording began. Storm chasers, now you know where to house hunt. On second thought…

Woot! They took it down...

I wrote in a few times to the Editor..threatened a few lawsuits.. j/k. But, I did write. It may not be a big thing for most people, but it matters a lot to me.

This is where I choose to raise my children and the last thing I want to read or have other people say about our home is that it's Hell on Earth regardless of the reason.

"Nick Clarke is a full-time writer who lives and works in Marbella, Spain. He specializes in lifestyle publications, and has a passion for travel, food, design, and luxury. Check out his luxury lifestyle blog at www.gilt-edged.com"




Guys,

Forget about it.

The whole thing was created by an elitist, ex-pat author in Europe who just picked a city off the map. If it wasn't us, it was Little Rock or Mobile.

They're all having a chuckle at some pub as we speak giggling and rolling their eyes at our responses and reaction.

Move on. It's nothing.

It's hilarious that the article talks about us having blizzards. I have occasionally read AskMen.com off and on for some time now. They obviously don't do much research, and I guess this article just proves they don't do any. They just print whatever the hell crosses their desk. We don't have blizzards here. That's a pretty easy fact to check, and it is clear that is supposed to be one of the few facts of the story, not part of the 'light-hearted banter' of the article.

How many days do we see tornadoes in OKC? A dozen? Half that which actually touch down here?

There are so many places in this country that suffer from hurricanes, fires, mudslides, earth quakes, rock slides, riots, floods, etc. and that's just southern California! Pretty ridiculous.

After further research, it was a 23-year old, privileged British kid that penned the article. Just threw it together for some laughs. He claims to be an 'expert' on travel writing and topics related to luxury and pop culture.

Don't mind it. It was poorly written and researched. If you should be angry at anyone, it's AOL and Askman.com for sticking it up there.

There is an international fixation with tornadoes seeing as 95% of them occur in the US. And a good chunk of those in Oklahoma I'd imagine. Maybe that's what it is.

This just in....apparently OKC's Keyser Söze himself is behind this!!!! LOL

developing....