4/24/10 REPORTS: MO/AR/LA/MS/AL/TN

[Joshua Nall]

Here are a few photos I took in and around Yazoo, MS today. Some seemingly well built buildings destroyed. I did see some concrete slabs, but I think most of them were shops or out buildings.
I started the day in Pine Bluff, AR where I spent the night. Woke up and headed towards a tornado warned storm to the south at about 7 am. That storm, and other storms that kept me busy in southeast AR for a while never really amounted to much. I knew at some point I needed to head south if there were storms forming in LA. At one point I was wondering if they were going to get going as they weren't even severe warned... ended up waiting too late to make it down and cross the Mississippi on I-20 which is what I should have done. Noticed the southern most storm intensifying and I had to cross the river on hwy 82 instead. The next hour was spent trying to beat it to the hills that line the Mississippi river valley. Yazoo, MS is located right on the eastern edge of what I call the flat land... mostly farm land. Anyway I came in to Yazoo from the north about 10 minutes or so after the tornado had passed...the rain was just letting up on the back side of the storm. It was pointless to pursue so I snapped a few pictures as I drove through town to highway 3 and started home. Down highway 3... the tornado traveled down that highway for a ways and paralleled it for a while. Great visibility along there. NWS in the tornado emergency statement said spotters had confirmed a large wedge tornado heading for Yazoo, and most likely they were traveling this highway. Would have been my choice had I made it down in front of the storms in time to cross on I-20... shows how one or too decisions can change everything....OK I'm not whining or anything

Lot's of damage in Yazoo, then down highway 3. I also found where it crossed the highway that runs along the E side of the Mississippi... and where it crossed I-20 on the W side of the Mississippi, overturning a semi. That span alone from the I-20 crossing to Yazoo, if indeed it was on the ground the entire time, is 60 miles or so. And by the looks of the reports was on the ground for a ways after it tore through Yazoo.

Edit: I just noticed I need to change my date on my picture copyright stamp or whatever you call it... Oh well, not so professional, haha...

 

[Gene Moore]

We had a very long day in Mississippi today intercepting at least four tornado warned supercells. The were all poured from the same mold, after the gust front an inflow tail would form where it wrapped back into the storm. This would be followed by a brightly lit couplet on radar. Perhaps Yazoo City was different, maybe the meso and tornado was visible for a while. I saw video of the tornado and swirling debris cloud on TV in a Jackson MS Catfish joint, what ever the TV weather girl was seeing in this "rare" footage I missed. Looked similar to the rain wrapped mass we saw with very strong horizontal motions....but no actual tornado for us. Our biggest thrill was going through a "tunnel of trees" on the way into Yazoo City, many of them coming apart as the inflow winds increased to about 50-60 knots. We were right in front of the arching gust front as it swung back into the storm and we were sure the tornado was close. When we tried to backtrack a pine tree fell completely across the road and we had to drag it out of the way with a jerk strap....that took too much time and we lost the storm. That said, we tried to catch it for over and hour before letting it go near Columbus AFB. All the other tornado warned supercells had great looking couplets and good inflow but no visible tornado. One near Macon had a great horn of plenty inflow cloud, but again only heavy rain in sight.

I had a hard time putting together the tornado track on a map, maybe more than one associated with what appeared to be a huge mesocyclone. Where the tornado crossed #55 south of West, MS the tree damage was extensive over a half mile. Northeast of there and north of Poplar Creek on #407 the damage was not as intense, but the path was much wider, could have been close to two miles, quite impressive if only EF-O to some EF-1. At that point some mobile homes survived in the worst of the path.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

Yesterday was one of those chase days that I will remember for quite some time, in a sad way. I began the trip (early, at about 7:30 AM) from near Texarcana and tried my best to get ahead of the convection, targeting western Mississippi, across the river and in the clear air ahead of the southern end of the convection. This tail-end charley storm became the one that struck Yazoo city.

I could NOT get ahead of the supercell storm, and encountered extremely strong SE winds (near 70 MPH) NW of Yazoo County and saw scud nearly to the ground to my south at around 11:45 AM or so. The damage path was encountered in Yazoo City along Highway 49.

Above: Damage in Yazoo City.

Chase mode quickly changed to stop and help as I was one of the first people coming into the "fresh" damage area, mainly helped with clearing roads and such for a few hours. This is when chasing becomes "personal" ;-(

 

[Brandi Davison]

Dora, AL

I took my first tornado "chase" yesterday in Alabama...except I wasn't planning or prepared for my first tornado chase!

Day started out with some small hail around 8:45AM CDT. The largest I saw was about penny-sized with most being pea-sized.

http://jbkdavison.shutterfly.com/833

http://jbkdavison.shutterfly.com/834

Various storms passed over throughout the day, but it really didn't get going in my area until evening. A few storms passed to my North that were given tornado warnings and had some fairly nice couplets, and one (the Cullman Co. storm) came fairly close to my location.

Just when I was thinking about heading to bed around 9:30 CDT a cell Southwest of Tuscaloosa catches my eye. I watch the cell track up my way and explode around 10PM CDT. Tornado warning was issued and shortly thereafter a tornado emergency for Walker Co. Unfortunately, it was so dark and despite incessant lightning there was no hope of seeing a thing in this storm.

Bad quality vid of the incessant lightning from before the storm passed over here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb9j9ZPApsE

Thankfully the supposed tornado (from what I have heard, it hasn't been confirmed yet, but is being assessed this AM) tracked just to my North by about 2-3 miles. Too close for my comfort with my 7 year old in tow. She was so upset by the storms she was sick

I plan to go out to the Sumiton area just a few miles away and possibly take some damage photos to share later. I surely wasn't ready to take my first "chase"...I'm still trying to soak up all that I can so that I can safely do so, but it was an interesting night here in Dora, AL nonetheless

EDIT: Hear there was a fatality from this particular storm in Walker Co. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[Jeff Piotrowski]

French Camp, MS Tornado Damage

Kathryn Piotrowski, Jeff Piotrowski and Terry Schenk drove through the tornado damaged community of French Camp, MS. I went there to drop of toys and blankets at the command post of French Camp for project storm relief. What we saw their was Grief, Loss and unimaginable saddness 5 persons lost their lives in that community 2 adults and 3 children. I have posted a video clip on You Tube with photos at the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuDeLDA710c

 

[Jeff Piotrowski]

Yazoo Tornado

We nearly missed getting mowed over by the brutal Yazoo Tornado. As the tornado was 15 miles to our SW we had 60 mph inflow and all we could see was a rapidly rotating white fog bank just a white mass cloud coming on the ground with a black background something I had never seen before. I am sure the rapid dropping pressure and the temp dewpoint being near saturation created one of the most incredible things we have ever seen. You can see a video clip on the homepage of TwisterChasers.Com and on the TwisterChasersF5 Channel on You Tube.
We also were trapped on the SW side of Yazoo by debris on the road and chasers from Mississippi helped clear the path.

 

[Zack Hargrove]

This was my first major organized chase. Myself and 11 other ATMS students from University of North Carolina Asheville left the school at 5 AM and made the long drive to Huntsville, AL. We quickly realized we had to get down to central/norther MS as fast as possible. We predicted that AL would be a bigger late afternoon/evening threat so we focused on trying to intercept these training super cells as they moved into far Eastern MS. We intercepted the Yazoo storm just North of Columbus, MS but as most of you probably already know... that storm collapsed right about then and we just got caught in the massive inflow. We got under about 8 other hook regions throughout the day but we got no photographs of actual tornadoes. We saw a few ragged wall clouds, a possible funnel cloud, and a few saw a debris cloud in a field but there was only one vantage point of it between massive trees so before we could confirm it was gone. We also hit a pretty scary storm after dark in a little town, Samantha, AL. The storm collapsed right around the time the hook passed over us, but this was the storm that later recycled to produce the possible Walker/Dekalb County EF-4 which did massive damage.

Will link a couple of the better photos when I get them up on my site.

Zack

 

[Dick McGowan]

What was at first an exciting day quickly transitioned into a sobering experience for a lot of storm chasers in Mississippi yesterday. Jesse Risley, Brad Goddard, Kevin Crawmer, Joel Taylor, Reed Timmer, Chris Chittick and many others are nothing short of heroes. They were the first on the Yahoo City, MS aftermath scene and rescued several people from their homes by digging through debris to get to them and keeping them alive until EMS arrived. The storm chasing community should be extremely proud of these individuals for their efforts.

Below is a small picture of the "Yazoo City Wedge" approximately 5 minutes before it would hit the town.

Much more to come at some point.

 

[Justin Pullin]

Like many others, my chase partner and I had a close call with the tornado on Highway 61. We lost radar about 10 minutes before the tornado crossed the road, but some excellent nowcasting helped me to get just far enough south of the tornado to get some stills before getting slammed by the RFD. After the intercept, I followed another chaser to Eagle Bend to assist with EMS and cleanup efforts. I then revisited the area where the tornado crossed Hwy 61 and took pictures and conversed with the owner of the Cotton Gin that was obliterated before heading back to Yazoo City on Hwy 3 and doing damage assessment there.

Tornado crossing Hwy 61 1 mile to my north. This was my 1st tornado ever.

Damage in Eagle Bend, MS

 

[Connor McCrorey]

As many already know, we got hit by the Yazoo City tornado about 30 miles before it hit the town. THIS WAS NOT INTENTIONAL. Call it whatever you want, but we just screwed up yesterday and didn't realize certain factors that led to us getting too close too late. It wasn't for the money shot, it wasn't for adrenaline, so please people, quit whining. We screwed up and I take full responsibility for that.

That said, here's the youtube link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJxV3Y5Rzv0&feature

 

[Kevin Crawmer]

Still not easy to talk about this one....very bizarre day from the start as we were on our first tornado warned storm at 7:30am. Jesse Risely, Brad Goddard, and I stayed on this storm until we decided to let it go since it was flying away. We spotted some storms in LA moving into some incredible, insane, scary, insert your superlative here dynamics. I think we knew what was going to happen, but didn't expect to see what we did. We started what was over an hour journey southwest to make an intercept at Yazoo City. An intercept is what we got...unfortunate for the people of Yazoo City. We drove south through the town several minutes after the Tornado Emergency was issued. It was surreal hearing the NWS guys breaking in and giving the Tornado Emergency announcement in real time while no one seemed to care or know what was going on inside the city. Business as usual. Afterward we had various reports of sirens only being heard only a couple minutes ahead of time. Anyways, after passing south through the city we knew that we wanted no part of messing with this storm. We got well south and inched north as we felt was safe/appropriate. We got some pictures and video, but to be honest fight or flight kicked in and we spent most of the time telling people to turn around and eventually stopping traffic all together on Hwy 49. After it passed we ventured into town and that video can be seen on Convective Addiction's website. Reed, Joel, Chris, etc had just arrived on the scene as we were looking for anywhere to help. My hat is off to those guys because they put everything on hold and went into full search and rescue mode. Very refreshing to see this and the public needs to realize how much these guys care. We all helped dig people out and with my medical background I was able to backboard several people including a guy with a suspected broken back/paralysis and a woman with a shattered pelvis. Both were life flighted out of the area, but only after we had to carry them for what had to be a half mile through fallen trees and obstacles of powerlines and other debris. There were many others that were injured including elderly and infants. Completely heart breaking. What was amazing and still brings tears to my eyes is not a one of them gave any indication that they realized they had just lost everything. Very sad. My group helped for three hours and at that point several other communtities had pitched in and we felt more in the way than an aid. My prayers go out to those people and I hope we have some fundraisers to help the state of MS (Storms of???).

 

[Jesse Risley]

This was a difficult chase on many levels, especially the emotional side. I posted a report here: http://convectiveaddiction.com/2010/04/25/yazoo-city-ms-tornado-april-24-2010/

As has already been noted, a number of chasers pitched right in and gave selflessly of themselves to help victims that were injured or trapped.

 

[Alan Switzer]

Prayers go out to all the people that lost their homes and family members in the storm yesterday. I know how they feel having lost my home in the May 3rd tornado (but no family members).

That being said, my chase was not as dramatic as the above, especially after we heard what happened in Yazoo City. We got a late start because my wife had a meeting and we were originally headed for Yazoo City, but realized the tornado was going to beat us there, so we headed north on I-55. Grlevel 3 wouldn't update for us either. The warning box did but nothing else.

We took the Goodman exit as it looked like the storm was about to overtake us. As we exited, about a mile or less to the west was the tornado. Could have seen it sooner if not for all the tall trees. It was impossible to see anything west of the highway. With the tall trees and rapid speed of this storm, it's no wonder cars and trucks were were hit on I-55. Had we not exited, we might have ended up being in one of the cars blown off blown off the road also. At this point we realized it was moving too fast to keep up with and gave it up.

We almost quit for the day but gave one more run to the storms around Philadelphia. I'm glad we did. As we pulled into town, a tornado warning was issued and it was easy to see the rotation. What amazed both my wife and I at this point was the Lear type jet that came out of nowhere and landed not more than a minute or two before this storm rolled by. The storm had rapid rotation and a brief funnel as it crossed the road right in front of us but it did not produce a tornado. This storm was the tail end charlie at this point. It too moved away at such a rapid pace that we did not follow it for long and turned around and returned to Jackson.

 

[Brett Adair]

I caught the tail end of this supercell as it produced the tornado in Oktibbeha County near Starkville, MS along with the tornado at a distance in Clay County just east of the West Point, MS community. I feel for the folks that took the destruction in Mississippi and Alabama.

Just after the tornado struck Parish/Cordova, AL area we arrived on future I-22 to find emergency vehicles at the scene. We pulled up on a vehicle that had been thrown into a rock wall. We found out that there was a family of four in the vehicle as the tornado hit them head on and moved the vehicle. From that point we tried to move into Parish but the town was completely blocked off with trees. Cordova had an entry way that the county officials had blocked off so we assisted in diverting traffic so they could clear the roads and check on folks that had been hit. It was quite an experience and my first real local aid experience when dealing with a strong tornado in our area.

Many people complained of the chase terrain and that is an obvious problem if you don't know the area. Mississippi and Alabama are my territories. I have many positions marked via GPS for good visible views of storms across the areas and know many of them by heart. If you don't scout areas out in this part of the country you will never make it chasing......and in some cases make it out alive. Glad everyone that came to chase in the area came out of things okay and with there lives....not to mention very happy to see everyone come together as a unit and drop the chasing when people were in need....TVN...ChaserTV...SevereStudios.... everyone.

I know there was a tremendous loss of life, but the efforts of everyone here in the field likely saved many more lives.

 

[Jeff Piotrowski]

New aerial video of the tornado path courtesy of the Miss. Civil Air Patrol

Here is a link to the video CAUTION THE FILE SIZE IS 1.4 Gig.
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&send_id=860670883&email=41584d581b5d75b06d197f972f113c3b
After downloading the file add AVI to the end of file to play the file.

The video is about 45 minutes long it starts at the Mississippi River.

Notice in the first three minutes of the video look at the damage path across Eagle Lake. The tornado was very intense a combination of debris & turning up the bottom of the lake produced a scar mark across the Eagle Lake!!

I have ground pictures where the force of the tornado produced a small four foot storm surge on the west facing levy just Westside of Eagle Lake. I will post these ASAP.

This video will only be available for the next 12 days only!!!