Parkersburg, IA tornado rated EF5

[Scott Weberpal]

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=dmx&storyid=14909&source=0

 

[Brandon Sullivan]

No Surprise There..

Thoughts and Prayers to all of those People.

 

[Scott Lincoln]

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/cases/080525/dmx_parkersburg_damage/

NWS damage survey pics.

 

[Will Tinder]

There is one aspect of the damage survey that confuses me... the Des Moines NWS map of the path says the tornado crossed the Buchanan County line and exited the county warning area, but the text says the tornado lifted before crossing the county line... to those in the know, which one is it?

 

[Scott Lincoln]

(quoted from the other Parkersburg thread, now closed)

I heard a few people who took shelter in basements were killed from this tornado. Is that true?

Yes, I believe a few people who died were in their basements at the time. I believe it was from large falling debris that was able to get down into the basement once the entire structure was swept away.

 

[Scott Lincoln]

There is one aspect of the damage survey that confuses me... the Des Moines NWS map of the path says the tornado crossed the Buchanan County line and exited the county warning area, but the text says the tornado lifted before crossing the county line... to those in the know, which one is it?

The tornado may have been still on the ground when it left the DMX area. This damage survey from DVN mentions at EF3 tornado that started "near Fairbank" which is where the DMX map shows the tornado ending.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=dvn&storyid=14898&source=0

 

[Kem Poyner]

Parkersburg

I grew up near Parkersburg. Went to school in Dunkerton. When I was a kid a huge F5 tornado hit Charles City Iowa. That is North of Parkerburg not too far. It is strange but they get alot of tornados through that area. My family lost everything we owned when a tornado destroyed our mobile home court. That was a couple miles from Dunkerton. Yes we were in the trailer when it went flying!

 

[Scott Lincoln]

Detailed damage survey info starting to come out from DMX about Parkersburg tornado rating. They say more is to come, but this document shows some explanations behind the rating and shows the locations in town with the most intense damage.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dmx/parkersburg/Parkersburg-Storm-Damage-Survey.pdf

 

[Joel Wright]

Detailed damage survey info starting to come out from DMX about Parkersburg tornado rating. They say more is to come, but this document shows some explanations behind the rating and shows the locations in town with the most intense damage.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dmx/parkersburg/Parkersburg-Storm-Damage-Survey.pdf

Those pictures are truly amazing. Hats off to DMX for doing a very good post-analysis writeup for the public to see.

 

[Eric Wind]

Pretty scary video of the tornado from a bank cam;

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=886_1212464033

 

[Derek Weston]

Few more videos of the tornado I haven't seen posted:
(this tornado *was* quite visible early on as it approach Parkersburg -- radar grabs support this)

I wonder if our videographer knew the significance of the video she was taking? Never mind the shaky camera work and the music selection -- look at that tornado!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc2ofFLxaWE

Video capture from cell phone showing similar structure -- amazing looking. Imagine some high quality stills on this storm at this moment... the meso above was beautiful carved out above this EF5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjRvw1ejGNQ&feature=related

Bit from the weather channel I hadn't seen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42WfIYY-tnY

 

[Kem Poyner]

Parkersburg

Here are a couple stills a friend of mine shot from her basement window of the Parkersburg Iowa tornado.

 

[MatthewCarman]

From photo's I have seen it looks like most of Parkersburg was wiped out. I could be wrong though. I will continue prayers for the people affected by the Parkersburg tornado.

 

[Brian Stertz]

Looks like the Allison TX tornado from June 8, 1995. Thanks for sharing the pics Kem. Is that a baseball hailbomb laying on the ground left the of the large rock ?? Wicked looking RFD blast on that second pic.

 

[Kem Poyner]

Parkerburg

Yes, that is a hail stone. They had alot of roof and siding damage from the hail. I have attached one more picture of the Parkersburg tornado that shows the stone alittle clearer. The tornado really looks evil in this shot. I think the only other tornado picture that made the hair on my neck stand up was the Spencer SD tornado.