07/30/09 NOW: AR, MS, TN

[Jeff Duda]

Tornado warned storm just moved right over downtown Memphis. Haven't heard of any reports yet, but I have noticed several tornado warned storms go up within the last hour from storms that were really just disorganized convection earlier in the afternoon.

 

[Steve Miller]

Here is a live news stream - damage reports starting to trickle in; nothing major: http://bit.ly/3UgXt0

 

[Steve Dedman]

Pretty well-defined hook with a nasty couplet in NE DeSoto Co. in MS. Looks to be about 5 mi SE of Olive Branch along US 278. Moving toward Collierville, TN pretty quickly.

EDIT: The Memphis TDWR return is impressive on this storm.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

There are a lot of reports coming out of the Memphis metro now of a confirmed tornado that was on the ground in the city including significant damage in the Wolfgang (sp?) area. One spotter has reported that a gas station has been "taken out." Not sure what that means as they didn't elaborate on the news.

EDIT: The Kohls in German town is now missing a wall and part of its roof according to the public. The cars have been pushed around all over the place as well.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

11,000 people in the Memphis area are now with out power and down in DeSoto County, MI there are numerous reports of a brief tornado including ones of cars being flipped by the tornado. Below is a radar grab of the DeSoto storm when the reports were made.

 

[Scott Taylor]

There are a lot of reports coming out of the Memphis metro now of a confirmed tornado that was on the ground in the city including significant damage in the Wolfgang (sp?) area. One spotter has reported that a gas station has been "taken out." Not sure what that means as they didn't elaborate on the news.


EDIT: The Kohls in German town is now missing a wall and part of its roof according to the public. The cars have been pushed around all over the place as well.

Yes, that's the Wolfchase area in Germantown, and the Kohl's there has had the entire front of the store ripped away.

There's a small image of the tornado that did damage in the Germantown area on WMC TV5's site...
http://www.wmctv.com/global/story.asp?s=10821958

 

[Bart_Comstock]

Here is a photo of the Kohls that was hit in the Memphis area and the tornado as it was moving towards the store.

The Shoguns near the Kohls also looks like it has alot of damage to it and the area in front of the building is littered with debris.

 

[S. Goodwin]

I have family that lives in Cordova, TN. so I am paying close attention to this. I can't get through with the phones.

I found this article online: Memphis Tornado

 

[Hnsmith]

Live coverage of what's happening in memphis right now

http://www.wreg.com/

 

[Bart_Comstock]

Here is some more damage in close proximity to the Kohls.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

Emergency Managers in DeSoto County, MS are reporting that 8 homes have been destroyed and at least 50 homes have been damaged near Bethal Road and US HWY 78 in the Collage Park subdivision which is 4 miles SE of Olive Branch.

Here is a radar grab of the storm when it was impacting this community.
http://img207.imageshack.us/i/desototornadoes.png/

Back in the Memphis area it looks like the NWS is saying that via a preliminary survey the tornado's path was 250 yards wide and 5 miles long and it was a EF-1 with winds of 80 to 90 mph.

Bolivar, TN also is reporting that it had trees down and power outages in its limits. It had a decent couplet pass over it in the book-end vorticity of a bowing segment.

 

[Brett Adair]

Prelim results for the Olive Branch tornado are at high end EF-1 and Cordova at EF-0. I wonder how 8 homes are destroyed in an EF-1.....must have been very poorly constructed.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

Prelim results for the Olive Branch tornado are at high end EF-1 and Cordova at EF-0. I wonder how 8 homes are destroyed in an EF-1.....must have been very poorly constructed.

I'm not sure, I took that info from the LSR posted by the local WSO on GRlvl3 via the Allison House subscription I have. That report seems to have been removed and replaced by the one stating the preliminary survey.

 

[Jason Bolt]

I used to live less than a mile south of Kohl's on Germantown Parkway. Really, the path the tornado took right along I-40 was probably the best case scenario damage wise. A little north and it is on the interstate, a little south and it goes through neighborhoods and apartments. From Germantown Parkway to the west there really isn't anything on the south side of I-40.