2011-05-22 Joplin, MO tornado thread

[Jordan Hartley]

For the record I ment 2000 not 200. Now, I was as shocked as all of you are by this. This was 3 rd person info and we all know how something like this can get blown way out of context. It was not official information. And that's just too damned high of a number. The only reason I haven't just thrown it out is the media and government has shown time and time again that the only info that they want out is all we get. This ruined my night really and because of my connection with ST it was therapy to share it with you all. I hope and pray I end up looking like a fool on this one.

 

[Mike Moore]

...and 9/11 was an inside job.

I have no doubt the count will continue to climb, but I'll go out on a limb and say the city of Joplin isn't hiding 1800 bodies waiting for identification.

 

[Jeff Wright]

Only a handful of missing, as communication is had between family members. Reading Tom's big Green book some time ago, I was struck with some damage paths as were drawn on the map. Some were long track as you might expect--as in my home state of Alabama--but some of you who have Grazulis' book will no doubt remember much shorter paths but were quite wide.

The fact that the tornado became intense but stayed on the ground over a short track might allow more detailed inspection that very long track events make more difficult. In Tuscaloosa, our hospital almost suffered the same fate. I have heard of descriptions where people were supposedly suched through walls, or that large 200 pound main pulled through a window, but no confirmation. I don't know why but Grand Island and the 1985 Barrie event popped into my mind... I wonder if there may be any relationship...

length to width
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/users/brooks/public_html/papers/lengthwidth.pdf

 

[Fred Dearborn]

Just spoke with my brother a bit ago and is a police officer and is headed over to Joplin to relieve other officers for about four days and was told to expect to find/see "body parts" as they have already confirmed finding things like this today and yesterday.I did not want to post this,but thought i would share a bit on this terrible deal.

 

[rdale]

I have heard of descriptions where people were supposedly suched through walls, or that large 200 pound main pulled through a window, but no confirmation.

The hospital confirmed that nobody was sucked out of a window.

 

[Andrew Burnett]

I was listening to the radio all day today.

one lady called in and wanted to thank a storm chaser to applied a tournaqete(ugh) who her husbands arm(I think that's what she said). She said the docs said that saved his arm and he will now have use of both. If anyone here did this work I would call Zimmer radio in Joplin and let them know. She seemed like she wanted to personally thank whoever it was.

 

[Scott Vanzandt]

Great job to the fellow chasers out there who assisted in helping the people of Joplin.

 

[hazelmaryjackson]

Interesting photo of skies at start of Joplin tornado

Looking up something quite different, I came across an interesting account of the onset of the Joplin tornado by local resident Mary Jo Deisler Barrett, who lives in Joplin and was driving home with her husband along interstate 1-44 just before the tornado struck. The article, which includes her photo of "clouds like cotton wool balls stuck on paper" that she saw in the sky, is here:

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2011/05/former_saginaw_resident_near_j.html

 

[John Vandehei]

I just saw a video (warning, some NSFW language) of some storm chasers evading the Joplin tornado. While this video is not much different from other chaser close call videos, I did take note of the various people out and about in their cars as chasers were fleeing. I noted several at gas stations while the tornado was bearing down. I'm not sure if they were gassing up, or if they were taking shelter under the canopy from the hail, but they were likely unaware of the danger approaching. Just have to wonder how many of these people in their cars became statistics.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

I just saw a video (warning, some NSFW language) of some storm chasers evading the Joplin tornado. While this video is not much different from other chaser close call videos, I did take note of the various people out and about in their cars as chasers were fleeing. I noted several at gas stations while the tornado was bearing down. I'm not sure if they were gassing up, or if they were taking shelter under the canopy from the hail, but they were likely unaware of the danger approaching. Just have to wonder how many of these people in their cars became statistics.

What's crazy is that they decided to head east on I-44 and that monster tornado actually ended up taking a turn and went right over I-44. They got very lucky.

 

[Alan Smithton]

What's crazy is that they decided to head east on I-44 and that monster tornado actually ended up taking a turn and went right over I-44. They got very lucky.

Yeah, that is one absurdly lucky group of chasers. Without a timestamp it's not clear exactly when this video was shot, but they're clearly heading south on Range Line a maximum of a couple minutes before the tornado struck that area. They're passing through 20th and Range Line as the video begins, and if the camera was pointing east instead of west we'd be able to see the Home Depot that was about to be destroyed.

Then, as you say, they appear to get on I-44 eastbound and just miss crossing the tornado's path again, since it crossed the interstate (albeit at reduced intensity) about 3 miles east of Range Line and caused damage to some truck stops at an exit there.

I was also struck by the fact that even though there's a 3/4 mile wide EF-5 tornado probably less than a mile to their west, and the camera is pointed in the right direction, there's really nothing that "looks" like a tornado until about 1:20 where you can see the contrast difference between the edge of the funnel and the clouds/rain behind it. It's not till that point that the passengers in the van really seem to spot the tornado either. I wonder if more than a few people simply did not realize what was coming.

 

[Jeff Duda]

I was also struck by the fact that even though there's a 3/4 mile wide EF-5 tornado probably less than a mile to their west, and the camera is pointed in the right direction, there's really nothing that "looks" like a tornado until about 1:20 where you can see the contrast difference between the edge of the funnel and the clouds/rain behind it. It's not till that point that the passengers in the van really seem to spot the tornado either. I wonder if more than a few people simply did not realize what was coming.

That was the tornado? I thought that was the sheath of rain masking it. I don't think you could've actually seen the tornado itself - maybe just the insanely wrapping rain bands? I don't know. I wasn't there, so I could be wrong.

 

[Kevin Walters]

I wonder how many people were killed in their automobiles. In that video you see many people out and about in their cars seemingly unaware of the imminent danger.

 

[Alan Smithton]

That was the tornado? I thought that was the sheath of rain masking it. I don't think you could've actually seen the tornado itself - maybe just the insanely wrapping rain bands? I don't know. I wasn't there, so I could be wrong.

I assumed the rain-wrapping was the precipitation they drove through as they were getting on the interstate, but you could definitely be correct...I wasn't there either. I guess either way there was a massive but mostly not-visible tornado just up the road.

 

[MClarkson]

" I thought that was the sheath of rain masking it."

That was my assumption as well.