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Chinese ship sinks on Yangtze River, may have been hit by tornado

John Farley said:
A ship with 458 on board, mostly Chinese tourists, has sunk on the Yangtze River. It may have been hit by a tornado/waterspout.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/01/asia/china-yangtze-river-ship-sinks/index.html

Here is a report from Chinese television:

http://english.cntv.cn/2015/06/02/ARTI1433216330477568.shtml
Click to expand...
I was slightly perplexed when I first heard this report. That initial report mentioned a cyclone being the cause of the capsize, which seemed odd, given the Yangtze is a river. Then I heard the river was huge at this point and thought maybe it was close to the coast and a cyclone had gone inland. But a tornado/waterspout makes more sense.
 
The Eastern Star looks to have been a good sized boat.
ChinaStar.jpg


I wouldn't think that wind could generate dangerous waves on a shallow river.

The ship, like many cruise boats, doesn't look terribly sea-worthy. Depending on how water-tight the lower deck windows are, even a modest wind-induced list might allow water to enter...
 
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FWIW, the Chinese Meterological Center says the ship was hit by a tornado. A surviving passenger reports that the wind hitting the ship was so strong that rain water came in through closed windows, and that the ship quickly tilted over sharply. So wind, not waves, was the likely cause of this disaster. I would love to see a comment from anyone who may have any information/insight on the meterological conditions in China when this happened. Last night on a Denver TV station there were pictures of a tornado that overturned a tourist bus in China (fortunately no fatalities in that incident); not sure if that was the same weather system/date or not. The bus incident was in daylight; the ship one was at night. A couple more recent news links:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/02/asia/china-yangtze-river-ship-sinking/index.html

http://m.chinadaily.com.cn/cn/live/shipsinks.html
 
The Chinese Meteorological Center also reported that the tornado was "less than 1 km" (0.62 mi) in width, lasted about 15-20 minutes, with winds of Beaufort Force 12 (80+ mph).

If these figures are accurate, that would seem to indicate a large, slow-moving (or nearly stationary) but weak tornado of EF-1 intensity hit the ship.

A similar passenger vessel disaster caused by a weak tornado occurred on Lake Pomona, Kansas, in 1978: http://www.weather.gov/top/1978_WhippoorwillTornado

Only 14 of 456 people on board the Chinese ship have been rescued and the odds of saving anyone else are dwindling. This could end up being one of the deadliest tornadoes in recorded history anywhere, killing more people than any U.S. tornado other than the Tri-State.
 
Sitting here attm in the Limon, Colo. Holiday Inn Express's breakfast room at 6:30am, naturally the "s--t" fountain" aka the "television" in the room was tuned to the morning propaganda channel (GMA) and blaring loudly. The cookie-cutter / leggy hostesses in short skirts propped up on high chairs and highly coiffed talking head men continued milking the tragedy.....making the announcement that the poor ship has been righted and they've upped the death count even more. Being that I've literally almost drowned 3 separate times in my life.... most recently 2yrs. ago in Costa Rica when the morons who operated the river-rafting tour overcrowded our raft and we flipped in level-5 rapids....I can promise you that drowning is a horrible way to lose your life. This is because often you're fully conscious and are aware of everything that is taking place as you fight for your life. I didn't realize, according to GMA, that the Captain of the ship and some of the crew were actually in Police Custody in China. Why would this be? If this truly WAS a tornado that flipped this ship, what more could the crew have done? I'm not arguing against the lockup of the Captain and crew.....I don't know the accusations against them. GMA stated that only 14 people have survived this debacle so far. Can you imagine being one of the elderly passengers on this cruise?? One moment you're enjoying the high life.....laughing, eating the most extravagant foods, slamming down cocktails, gambling + dancing.... (not my things, but we're talking cruise ships).....and in seconds you're hearing screaming winds unlike any you've ever heard....then feeling the ship list over and turning your entire world literally upside down. Sighhhhh....such is life on our planet.
 
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