-
While Stormtrack has discontinued its hosting of SpotterNetwork support on the forums, keep in mind that support for SpotterNetwork issues is available by emailing [email protected].
5/25/08 DISC: TX/OK/KS/NE/AR/MO/IL/IA/MN/WI/CA
- Thread starter Jonathan Whitehead
- Start date
Heidi Farrar
EF3
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2007
- Messages
- 217
Here's evidence of snapped rebar, from the link Scott provided. Astounding damage there:
http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/cases/080525/dmx_parkersburg_damage/IMG_2011.JPG
Fabian Guerra
EF1
I don't have any arguments either way on what the rating should or shouldn't be but, for what it's worth, I will share a little of my experience on Sunday...
We were on SR-14 flanking this storm on the backside of the hook at the time of the tornado. CR-57, on the south side of Parkersburg, was our planned east turn. It would have been a perfect road to flank the tornado eastward for as long as it would have allowed but as fate would have it we got stuck in the damage path in Parkersburg. They had not closed the town off yet and it looked like a war zone...mass chaos and destruction. Every road option to 57 was blocked with trees, power lines, and all sorts of scary debris covering and blocking the roads. It eventually took us 35 minutes to get out of town and needless to say we could never catch up with the cell again. I think it was hard for us to even comprehend the damage we were looking at and, speaking for myself, it didn't really sink in until Monday morning after I got home from a long week of chasing. There were homes that were completely obliterated...reduced to concrete slabs. When we saw this I knew it was a significant tornado but its weird how I couldn't bring myself to say or even think it was an EF-5.
Last year I witnessed the Greensburg tornado for 40 minutes and although there was plenty of damage on the outskirts I never actually entered the town to see destruction first hand. Sunday was the opposite in the respect that we got very, very close to seeing this tornado but only witnessed its devastation. Both chases were very sobering experiences.
On a side note of sorts I want to say how good I feel that so many of the tornado warnings this year seem to be directly linked to chasers calling in and emailing storm reports while in the hunt. I would say without a doubt that many lives have been saved because of this. I hope this trend continues.
We were on SR-14 flanking this storm on the backside of the hook at the time of the tornado. CR-57, on the south side of Parkersburg, was our planned east turn. It would have been a perfect road to flank the tornado eastward for as long as it would have allowed but as fate would have it we got stuck in the damage path in Parkersburg. They had not closed the town off yet and it looked like a war zone...mass chaos and destruction. Every road option to 57 was blocked with trees, power lines, and all sorts of scary debris covering and blocking the roads. It eventually took us 35 minutes to get out of town and needless to say we could never catch up with the cell again. I think it was hard for us to even comprehend the damage we were looking at and, speaking for myself, it didn't really sink in until Monday morning after I got home from a long week of chasing. There were homes that were completely obliterated...reduced to concrete slabs. When we saw this I knew it was a significant tornado but its weird how I couldn't bring myself to say or even think it was an EF-5.
Last year I witnessed the Greensburg tornado for 40 minutes and although there was plenty of damage on the outskirts I never actually entered the town to see destruction first hand. Sunday was the opposite in the respect that we got very, very close to seeing this tornado but only witnessed its devastation. Both chases were very sobering experiences.
On a side note of sorts I want to say how good I feel that so many of the tornado warnings this year seem to be directly linked to chasers calling in and emailing storm reports while in the hunt. I would say without a doubt that many lives have been saved because of this. I hope this trend continues.
Darrin Rasberry
I thought that Parkersburg was accepting volunteers to help, so I arrived the next morning at eight and was told "oh, all you guys are over there!" when the officer asked me what I was there for (I said that I was a storm spotter and was on the storm the night before). "Over there" was a lot that I eventually found out was for media, so apparently this guy thought I was with them, I guess.
Before I figured out that I wasn't supposed to be there, I talked to a family sifting through the rubble and helped them sort for a while. They were using their bare hands, so I gave them the four pairs of workman's gloves I'd been keeping in my trunk for a few months just for this purpose. They were very nice people, and asked plenty of questions about the storm as we were digging (they'd been away on vacation before they heard the news). I ended up talking with a few guys from the Des Moines Register and taking some snapshots with them.
Here's a view from Legend Trail. There's nothing I have much different from what Scott Lincoln has already posted, but this one is from a neighborhood in development on the golf course right past the far eastern edge of the town.
I talked to the owner of this development (Legend Estates) and it was designed to be an "upscale neighborhood" built around the golf course present in the area. She reported that ten houses had been completed and residents were in them. They were well-constructed and bolted (if you'd believe the person selling them, but I'd take it at this point she'd have nothing to gain elsewise) and she reported that seven out of ten of the homes had been blown entirely off of their foundations - no debis left, nothing. She also reported that a shed with all of the course's golf carts had been hit directly. There is zero evidence, she said, of the shed ... or of any of the golf carts, for that matter. Who knows where they went?
Here's a grain barn up the road. It collapsed inward. The picture doesn't grasp the true devastation and emptiness this site presented. An Amish settlement near this bin remained mostly intact, thankfully.
Before I figured out that I wasn't supposed to be there, I talked to a family sifting through the rubble and helped them sort for a while. They were using their bare hands, so I gave them the four pairs of workman's gloves I'd been keeping in my trunk for a few months just for this purpose. They were very nice people, and asked plenty of questions about the storm as we were digging (they'd been away on vacation before they heard the news). I ended up talking with a few guys from the Des Moines Register and taking some snapshots with them.
Here's a view from Legend Trail. There's nothing I have much different from what Scott Lincoln has already posted, but this one is from a neighborhood in development on the golf course right past the far eastern edge of the town.
I talked to the owner of this development (Legend Estates) and it was designed to be an "upscale neighborhood" built around the golf course present in the area. She reported that ten houses had been completed and residents were in them. They were well-constructed and bolted (if you'd believe the person selling them, but I'd take it at this point she'd have nothing to gain elsewise) and she reported that seven out of ten of the homes had been blown entirely off of their foundations - no debis left, nothing. She also reported that a shed with all of the course's golf carts had been hit directly. There is zero evidence, she said, of the shed ... or of any of the golf carts, for that matter. Who knows where they went?
Here's a grain barn up the road. It collapsed inward. The picture doesn't grasp the true devastation and emptiness this site presented. An Amish settlement near this bin remained mostly intact, thankfully.
rdale
EF5
Unless they've specifically called for volunteers, there's never anything good from showing up at the scene and throwing your name into the hat. One of the hardest parts of EM at a disaster is handling self-deployed volunteers. If it's something that you are interested in - let the Red Cross know, or see if your state has a volunteer registry.
Doug Mitchell
EF2
Too bad Project Parkersburg isn't as marketable as a town with "Green" in its name. Maybe the media then would give a two diddly about these people.
Josh Richardson
EF4
Yeah Darrin, Rdale is right. As a matter of fact their Monday morning press conference had noted that they actually wanted people to stay away as of right now unless your bringing some sort of special equipment to help remove all the rubble. Right about now the only thing you can do is donate money through the Red Cross.
Jason Harris
EF5
EF-scale for concrete silos?
Hello, I've been skimming through the very long pdf file for damage that the NWS makes available and it's unclear to me what would be equivalent to a "concrete silo" on the scale. Since major destruction of institutional concrete structure lowbound is 178 and expected is 210 and upbound is 268, I suppose that the concrete construction of a silo must be very shoddy in comparison to come up with the figure of 160 to have "cleanly snapped off two concrete silos"? This is regarding the second major incarnation of the Parkersburg wedge that was rated an EF-3 rather than an EF-5. Is a warehouse building (131/158/186 for destruction of large section) (page 79) closer to what a concrete silo is as of now considered? Or was that factor not really integrated because not enough study yet on concrete silos, I notice on page 19 of the EFscale.pdf document, this:" Research is currently underway to identify additional damage indicators and to obtain estimates of the wind speeds to cause defined damage. Of particular interest are damage to various crops, farm equipment, silos, grain storage facilities and irrigation equipment. These indicators can be incorporated as DIs in the EF Scale as reliable data become available."
Anyway, here' s the news article:
--
This is a printer friendly version of an article from www.gazetteonline.com
To print this article open the file menu and choose Print.
Article published: May 27, 2008
Tracking of tornadoes saved lives in Hazleton
HAZLETON This town would be a blank spot on the map if the tornado that struck it Sunday evening had hit it dead center, Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Wolfgram said.
As it was, the tornado that hit the town's south edge destroyed more than 10 homes and damaged more than 40 others, according to Hazleton Mayor Roger Carson. It also destroyed 50 of the 56 homes on the lot of Horkheimer Custom Factory Built homes, as well as several buildings and semi tractor-trailer rigs at Paul Michels' trucking company, both on the south edge of Hazleton,
The tornado, believed to be a continuation of the one that killed four people in Parkersburg and two in New Hartford, struck at 6:15 p.m.
"It was huge and black," said Assistant Hazleton Fire Chief Mike Foland, who activated the town's outdoor alert siren about three to five minutes before it struck.
Jerry Horkheimer, proprietor of the 40-year-old modular home business, said the storm left him with little to salvage.
Across a field strewn with shattered bits of 50 modular homes, Horkheimer's friend, Paul Michels, directed the cleanup Monday of his obliterated home and trucking business.
Michels, who rode out the storm in a grease pit beneath his truck maintenance shed, said he lost his house, maintenance shed, three grain bins and at least four semi-tractors and six trailers.
Tragic as they were, the tornadoes that hit Parkersburg and New Hartford, both in Butler County, generated media coverage that probably saved lives in Black Hawk and Buchanan counties, according to the counties' emergency management coordinators.
"The forewarning was huge. Their tragedy gave us the heads up we needed to take shelter and avoid injuries," said Buchanan County Emergency Management Director Rick Wulfekuhle, who estimated that the tornado damaged at least 100 homes in the county, along with comparable numbers of farm outbuildings and vehicles.
The path of the storm could be easily traced Monday by the fresh white scars of snapped-off trees and the trail of debris littering freshly planted crop fields.
The tornado traveled east from Hazleton, destroying several homes and farmsteads along County Road C57, including the home of Dean and Angela Tournier, who took shelter with their two daughters in the basement.
"It was a massive wall of black with flying stuff coming at you. It was so wide you couldn't see the edges. It didn't look like a tornado," Angela Tournier said.
Dean Tournier said the tornado picked up the family horse and put it down half a mile away. "The horse was banged up but basically OK," he said.
Tournier himself was banged up enough to require treatment for cuts and bruises at Mercy Hospital in Oelwein.
The storm seemed to rage for at least five minutes "with stuff flying and banging overhead," while he and his family huddled in the basement, Tournier said.
Farther east on 130th Street, the tornado destroyed a dairy barn and cleanly snapped off two concrete silos at the home of Dan and Diane Sperfslage.
Darryl and Becky Wunder were hosting a party at their 130th Street acreage when Darryl Wunder saw "this black wall coming" and told everyone "to hit the basement."
"We could hear windows breaking and trees cracking," said Becky Wunder, 54, whose family home was destroyed by a tornado 40 years ago in Oelwein. Darryl Wunder estimated damage to their home at $100,000. "We're stubborn. We'll stay in it while we fix it up," Becky Wunder said.
Marc Russell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Des Moines, said last night that the tornado that traveled through Butler, Black Hawk and Buchanan counties was "basically one super cell that may have had some satellite tornadoes."
An assessment team that spent Monday in the area will return today to finish its work, he said.
The tornado was accompanied by heavy rains ranging from 5 to 7 inches along its course.
Flash flooding damaged roads and bridges and caused extensive soil erosion and damage to recently planted crop fields.
Flooding also forced the closure Monday of Backbone State Park near Dundee in Delaware County.
Backbone Park Ranger Dave Sunne estimated that more than half of the park was under water Monday afternoon. The park also will be without electricity for at least the next two to three days, he said.
Scores of crews worked Monday in Buchanan County to replace utility poles snapped off by the tornado.
Worth A Look
According to the National Weather Service two tornadoes hit Buchanan and Delaware counties on Sunday.
Here are the preliminary reports from survey crews on each.
The first tornado:
went on a 32.4 mile line from near Fairbank to near Oneida.
struck during an approximately 65-minute time period from 6:05 p.m. to 7:10 p.m.
injured three people.
had an estimated wind speed of about 160 miles per hour.
was about 0.7 miles wide.
had and intensity consistent with an EF3 tornado.
destroyed three homes, numerous farmsteads and outbuildings, trees and power poles. Many homes had roof damage. Several non-anchored mobiles homes at a dealership near Hazelton were destroyed.
The second tornado:
went on a 6 mile line in Delaware County south of Petersburg for about 10 minutes between 7:30 p.m. and 7:40 p.m.
caused no injuries.
was approximately 250 yards wide
had an intensity of an EF1 tornado.
damaged trees and numerous farm outbuildings.
Hello, I've been skimming through the very long pdf file for damage that the NWS makes available and it's unclear to me what would be equivalent to a "concrete silo" on the scale. Since major destruction of institutional concrete structure lowbound is 178 and expected is 210 and upbound is 268, I suppose that the concrete construction of a silo must be very shoddy in comparison to come up with the figure of 160 to have "cleanly snapped off two concrete silos"? This is regarding the second major incarnation of the Parkersburg wedge that was rated an EF-3 rather than an EF-5. Is a warehouse building (131/158/186 for destruction of large section) (page 79) closer to what a concrete silo is as of now considered? Or was that factor not really integrated because not enough study yet on concrete silos, I notice on page 19 of the EFscale.pdf document, this:" Research is currently underway to identify additional damage indicators and to obtain estimates of the wind speeds to cause defined damage. Of particular interest are damage to various crops, farm equipment, silos, grain storage facilities and irrigation equipment. These indicators can be incorporated as DIs in the EF Scale as reliable data become available."
Anyway, here' s the news article:
--
This is a printer friendly version of an article from www.gazetteonline.com
To print this article open the file menu and choose Print.
Article published: May 27, 2008
Tracking of tornadoes saved lives in Hazleton
HAZLETON This town would be a blank spot on the map if the tornado that struck it Sunday evening had hit it dead center, Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Wolfgram said.
As it was, the tornado that hit the town's south edge destroyed more than 10 homes and damaged more than 40 others, according to Hazleton Mayor Roger Carson. It also destroyed 50 of the 56 homes on the lot of Horkheimer Custom Factory Built homes, as well as several buildings and semi tractor-trailer rigs at Paul Michels' trucking company, both on the south edge of Hazleton,
The tornado, believed to be a continuation of the one that killed four people in Parkersburg and two in New Hartford, struck at 6:15 p.m.
"It was huge and black," said Assistant Hazleton Fire Chief Mike Foland, who activated the town's outdoor alert siren about three to five minutes before it struck.
Jerry Horkheimer, proprietor of the 40-year-old modular home business, said the storm left him with little to salvage.
Across a field strewn with shattered bits of 50 modular homes, Horkheimer's friend, Paul Michels, directed the cleanup Monday of his obliterated home and trucking business.
Michels, who rode out the storm in a grease pit beneath his truck maintenance shed, said he lost his house, maintenance shed, three grain bins and at least four semi-tractors and six trailers.
Tragic as they were, the tornadoes that hit Parkersburg and New Hartford, both in Butler County, generated media coverage that probably saved lives in Black Hawk and Buchanan counties, according to the counties' emergency management coordinators.
"The forewarning was huge. Their tragedy gave us the heads up we needed to take shelter and avoid injuries," said Buchanan County Emergency Management Director Rick Wulfekuhle, who estimated that the tornado damaged at least 100 homes in the county, along with comparable numbers of farm outbuildings and vehicles.
The path of the storm could be easily traced Monday by the fresh white scars of snapped-off trees and the trail of debris littering freshly planted crop fields.
The tornado traveled east from Hazleton, destroying several homes and farmsteads along County Road C57, including the home of Dean and Angela Tournier, who took shelter with their two daughters in the basement.
"It was a massive wall of black with flying stuff coming at you. It was so wide you couldn't see the edges. It didn't look like a tornado," Angela Tournier said.
Dean Tournier said the tornado picked up the family horse and put it down half a mile away. "The horse was banged up but basically OK," he said.
Tournier himself was banged up enough to require treatment for cuts and bruises at Mercy Hospital in Oelwein.
The storm seemed to rage for at least five minutes "with stuff flying and banging overhead," while he and his family huddled in the basement, Tournier said.
Farther east on 130th Street, the tornado destroyed a dairy barn and cleanly snapped off two concrete silos at the home of Dan and Diane Sperfslage.
Darryl and Becky Wunder were hosting a party at their 130th Street acreage when Darryl Wunder saw "this black wall coming" and told everyone "to hit the basement."
"We could hear windows breaking and trees cracking," said Becky Wunder, 54, whose family home was destroyed by a tornado 40 years ago in Oelwein. Darryl Wunder estimated damage to their home at $100,000. "We're stubborn. We'll stay in it while we fix it up," Becky Wunder said.
Marc Russell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Des Moines, said last night that the tornado that traveled through Butler, Black Hawk and Buchanan counties was "basically one super cell that may have had some satellite tornadoes."
An assessment team that spent Monday in the area will return today to finish its work, he said.
The tornado was accompanied by heavy rains ranging from 5 to 7 inches along its course.
Flash flooding damaged roads and bridges and caused extensive soil erosion and damage to recently planted crop fields.
Flooding also forced the closure Monday of Backbone State Park near Dundee in Delaware County.
Backbone Park Ranger Dave Sunne estimated that more than half of the park was under water Monday afternoon. The park also will be without electricity for at least the next two to three days, he said.
Scores of crews worked Monday in Buchanan County to replace utility poles snapped off by the tornado.
Worth A Look
According to the National Weather Service two tornadoes hit Buchanan and Delaware counties on Sunday.
Here are the preliminary reports from survey crews on each.
The first tornado:
went on a 32.4 mile line from near Fairbank to near Oneida.
struck during an approximately 65-minute time period from 6:05 p.m. to 7:10 p.m.
injured three people.
had an estimated wind speed of about 160 miles per hour.
was about 0.7 miles wide.
had and intensity consistent with an EF3 tornado.
destroyed three homes, numerous farmsteads and outbuildings, trees and power poles. Many homes had roof damage. Several non-anchored mobiles homes at a dealership near Hazelton were destroyed.
The second tornado:
went on a 6 mile line in Delaware County south of Petersburg for about 10 minutes between 7:30 p.m. and 7:40 p.m.
caused no injuries.
was approximately 250 yards wide
had an intensity of an EF1 tornado.
damaged trees and numerous farm outbuildings.
Last edited by a moderator:
