Editor's note: Nathan Gunter is the managing editor of Oklahoma Today magazine, the state's official magazine. A graduate of Westmoore High School in Moore, Oklahoma, he holds degrees from Wake Forest University and the University of Oklahoma.
(CNN) -- Oklahomans have a special relationship with the sky. We know how to look up. On the prairies of western Oklahoma, the skies are so big, and so full, it is easy to feel you may begin to fall upward, or even fly. To live underneath this unbroken expanse of heaven can be at once inspiring and terrifying.
Every Okie has seen those skies turn scary, and every Okie accepts that atmospheric instability is a part of our legacy. In school and from our trusted local meteorologists, we learn from an early age what to look for in a sky, in a radar map and in a safe place.
Green-tinted clouds are never a good sign; a hook echo on a radar -- the telltale swirl at the edge of a storm pattern indicating strong rotation -- means take cover. Underground is best, in a basement or storm shelter. But a small, ground-floor room with no exterior walls will do if the tornado isn't too strong. Cover up with a mattress or thick blanket to avoid debris; don't open all the windows in the house, contrary to now discredited advice; don't hide under an overpass.
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Air Force Airman First Class Justin Acord sifts through the rubble of his father-in-law's home on Tuesday, May 21, after a massive tornado ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, on Monday. The tornado was estimated to be at least 2 miles wide at one point as it moved through Moore, in the southern part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, KFOR reported. It was part of a tornado outbreak that began in the Midwest and Plains on Sunday, May 19. View more photos of the aftermath in the region. People recover belongings from the rubble of a home in Moore. People sort through a leveled home in Moore on May 21. Headstones stand amid debris in the Moore Cemetery on May 21. Workers clean up the Warren Movie Theater in Moore, on May 21. Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett surveys damage in Moore on May 21. Piles of debris lie around the north side of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore on May 21. As dawn breaks, storm clouds roll in over a devastated neighborhood in Moore on May 21. Members of the Oklahoma National Guard look for survivors in rubble in Moore on May 21. A National Guardsman assists in the search for victims on May 21. A rescue worker leads a horse from the wreckage of a day care center and barns on Monday, May 20, in Moore. Men tie an American flag on debris in a neighborhood off Telephone Road in Moore on May 20. Children wait for their parents to arrive at Briarwood Elementary School in south Oklahoma City on May 20. Teachers carry children away from Briarwood Elementary School on May 20. Teachers lead children away from Briarwood Elementary School on May 20. A fire official drives through the rubble of Moore Medical Center on May 20. Abby Madi, left, and Peterson Zatterlee comfort Zatterlee's dog, Rippy, on Monday, May 20, in Moore. A woman is treated for her injuries on May 20 at a triage area set up for the wounded. Two girls stand in rubble in Moore. Rescue workers help free one of more than a dozen people who were trapped at a medical center in Moore on May 20. Oklahoma City firefighters check on Gene Tripp on May 20 as he sits in his rocking chair where his home once stood. A nurse helps an older man who suffered a head injury on May 20 in Moore. Cars marked with an orange X, meaning they have been checked for occupants, are piled up in front of the entrance to the damaged Moore Medical Center on May 20. A teacher hugs a student at Briarwood Elementary School in Oklahoma City on May 20. People look through the wreckage of their neighborhood after a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20. Dana Ulepich searches inside a room left standing at the back of her destroyed house in Moore on May 20. Residents look through the debris in Moore on May 20. A man looks through the remains of a home after the massive tornado struck Moore on May 20. A woman is transported on a stretcher after she was rescued from the damaged medical center in Moore on May 20. A woman walks through debris in Moore on May 20. A man is taken away from the IMAX Theater in Moore that was used as a triage center on May 20. A girl wraps herself in a blanket near the Moore Hospital on May 20. A nurse walks by the destruction at a Moore hospital on May 20. Destroyed cars scatter the landscape in Moore, Oklahoma, where hundreds of homes and buildings were put to ruin on May 20. A woman with an arm injury is helped on May 20 in Moore. Extensive damage from an EF4 tornado destroyed cars and demolished structures in Moore on May 20. Onlookers stop to view a portion of the destruction left behind on May 20 in Moore. Overturned cars are among the rubble from the tornado that hit Moore on May 20. A woman is comforted after the May 20 tornado in Moore. A shredded tree stands amid debris in the aftermath of the storm in Moore on May 20. A shopping center parking lot is covered with debris and damaged cars on May 20. Law enforcement officers block a roadway in Moore where there was extensive damage from the tornado. A massive tornado approaches Moore on May 20. The storm first touched down to the west of the city near Newcastle, Oklahoma. Visit CNN.com/impact for ways to help the victims. Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area HIDE CAPTION << < 
People recover belongings from the rubble of a home in Moore. 
People sort through a leveled home in Moore on May 21. 
Headstones stand amid debris in the Moore Cemetery on May 21. 
Workers clean up the Warren Movie Theater in Moore, on May 21. 
Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett surveys damage in Moore on May 21. 
Piles of debris lie around the north side of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore on May 21. 
As dawn breaks, storm clouds roll in over a devastated neighborhood in Moore on May 21. 
Members of the Oklahoma National Guard look for survivors in rubble in Moore on May 21. 
A National Guardsman assists in the search for victims on May 21. 
A rescue worker leads a horse from the wreckage of a day care center and barns on Monday, May 20, in Moore. 
Men tie an American flag on debris in a neighborhood off Telephone Road in Moore on May 20. 
Children wait for their parents to arrive at Briarwood Elementary School in south Oklahoma City on May 20. 
Teachers carry children away from Briarwood Elementary School on May 20. 
Teachers lead children away from Briarwood Elementary School on May 20. 
A fire official drives through the rubble of Moore Medical Center on May 20. 
Abby Madi, left, and Peterson Zatterlee comfort Zatterlee's dog, Rippy, on Monday, May 20, in Moore. 
A woman is treated for her injuries on May 20 at a triage area set up for the wounded. 
Two girls stand in rubble in Moore. 
Rescue workers help free one of more than a dozen people who were trapped at a medical center in Moore on May 20. 
Oklahoma City firefighters check on Gene Tripp on May 20 as he sits in his rocking chair where his home once stood. 
A nurse helps an older man who suffered a head injury on May 20 in Moore. 
Cars marked with an orange X, meaning they have been checked for occupants, are piled up in front of the entrance to the damaged Moore Medical Center on May 20. 
A teacher hugs a student at Briarwood Elementary School in Oklahoma City on May 20. 
People look through the wreckage of their neighborhood after a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20. 
Dana Ulepich searches inside a room left standing at the back of her destroyed house in Moore on May 20. 
Residents look through the debris in Moore on May 20. 
A man looks through the remains of a home after the massive tornado struck Moore on May 20. 
A woman is transported on a stretcher after she was rescued from the damaged medical center in Moore on May 20. 
A woman walks through debris in Moore on May 20. 
A man is taken away from the IMAX Theater in Moore that was used as a triage center on May 20. 
A girl wraps herself in a blanket near the Moore Hospital on May 20. 
A nurse walks by the destruction at a Moore hospital on May 20. 
Destroyed cars scatter the landscape in Moore, Oklahoma, where hundreds of homes and buildings were put to ruin on May 20. 
A woman with an arm injury is helped on May 20 in Moore. 
Extensive damage from an EF4 tornado destroyed cars and demolished structures in Moore on May 20. 
Onlookers stop to view a portion of the destruction left behind on May 20 in Moore. 
Overturned cars are among the rubble from the tornado that hit Moore on May 20. 
A woman is comforted after the May 20 tornado in Moore. 
A shredded tree stands amid debris in the aftermath of the storm in Moore on May 20. 
A shopping center parking lot is covered with debris and damaged cars on May 20. 
Law enforcement officers block a roadway in Moore where there was extensive damage from the tornado. 
A massive tornado approaches Moore on May 20. The storm first touched down to the west of the city near Newcastle, Oklahoma. Visit CNN.com/impact for ways to help the victims. Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area HIDE CAPTION << < 
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43 > >> Photos: Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City area If this liturgy of weather preparedness is part of the Oklahoma psyche, so, unfortunately, is devastation. Fourteen years ago this month, one of the worst tornadoes in history roared through Moore, Oklahoma, taking dozens of lives and hundreds of homes.
Long after the initial cleanup was completed, the disaster was everywhere apparent.
The branches of trees were gnarled by the winds into unreal shapes, their leaves growing close to the bark as if for protection. Neighborhoods that once were thick with homes seemed almost to revert to the fields from which they'd sprung. For those who lost homes, it took months, sometimes years, to become whole. For those who lost loved ones, that never happened.
That is why for the people of Moore, what happened on May 20 feels impossible. It is impossible that this happened here again. It is impossible to reduce the suffering to a number: lives lost, homes destroyed, damage expressed in dollars. For many, it must feel impossible to know where to begin to carry on.
Inside a tornado-ravaged school
How does a community make sense of destruction on the level carried out by Monday's storm?
In Moore, it began almost as soon as the tornado touched down. Teachers at Plaza Towers and Briarwood elementary schools threw their bodies over their students to protect them from debris. Survivors flooded the streets helping to dig their neighbors out from under collapsed homes. Trucks filled with supplies raced to the scene.
We help. That is how we begin. It's what we know how to do. Word just came from Red Cross Oklahoma that Oklahoma City Thunder star forward Kevin Durant has donated $1 million to disaster relief efforts; Devon Energy, headquartered in Oklahoma City, donated $2.5 million. Thousands more from all over the country have donated what they can.
For Okies, this is what home is about.
The "Oklahoma Standard," exhibited to the world after the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, after the May 3, 1999, tornado, and today, is who we are. What is on display before the world's eyes is not only a community's response to a disaster but an exhibition of something essential to the Oklahoma character.
We make sense of disaster by showing up and doing what we can. We find meaning in a bottle of water, a rescued pet, a family reunited, an act of selflessness. These things -- and not disasters -- are what define home for us.
Home, to borrow a phrase from the Bible, is where we live and move and have our being. It is not only where but who we are.
Our identity is in softly rolling prairies giving way to forested hills, in long stretches of horizon that make you feel like you could see almost to eternity, and in big skies stretched tight above it all. We have learned to watch those skies -- for blessings, for rain, for sunshine, for wind and for signs of danger.
And we have learned to help. It's in our bones, like red dirt and big skies. It's what we will do now.
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