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Tornadoes and devastation — Parallax Forums

Tornadoes and devastation

Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
edited 2012-03-03 07:31 in General Discussion
Counting my blessings - there were many tornadoes that hit all around Louisville. At least 5 deaths and many homes and businesses leveled.

Reports of tennis ball sized hail and winds over 100 200 mph.

I took my dog to the basement and prepared a closet with food, water, flashlights, etc but the front split and went north and south.

Whew!
Authorities reported the three deaths in southern Indiana, where Clark County Sheriff's Department Maj. Chuck Adams said the 1,900-person town of Marysville is "completely gone." Extreme damage was also reported in the nearby town of Henryville, home to about 2,000 people.

Aerial footage from a TV news helicopter flying over Henryville showed numerous wrecked houses, some with their roofs torn off and many surrounded by debris. The video shot by WLKY in Louisville, Ky., also shows a high school with much of its roof torn off and tractor-trailers tossed on their side at a truck stop.
The rural town about 45 miles north of Louisville is known as the home of Indiana's oldest state forest and as the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken Founder Colonel Harlan Sanders.

Tornado Video http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120302/NEWS02/303020073/1025/rsslink

Comments

  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2012-03-02 16:32
    Glad you made it Ron. I tell ya, I was a tad peeved about the whole situation after Katrina, but earthquakes and tornadoes really put hurricanes in perspective. I was at least able to see the hurricane coming with time enough to run for my life.
  • Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
    edited 2012-03-02 16:53
    localroger wrote: »
    Glad you made it Ron. I tell ya, I was a tad peeved about the whole situation after Katrina, but earthquakes and tornadoes really put hurricanes in perspective. I was at least able to see the hurricane coming with time enough to run for my life.

    Thanks. There is no official count of tornadoes but some had multiple vortexs. One may have been an EF5 (200 mph+).

    They found an infant in the middle of a field and flew it to Louisville's Kosair Childrens Hospital.
  • Martin HebelMartin Hebel Posts: 1,239
    edited 2012-03-02 17:06
    My thoughts go out to you all in that area. Last Wednesday's EF4 that leveled much of Harrisburg, IL came from a cell that passed my home just 30 minutes before spawning the tornado at Harrisburg. The destructive forces and suddenness of a tornado is devastating, but "luckily" they don't cover the land area an earthquake or hurricane does.

    Martin
  • Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
    edited 2012-03-02 17:16
    Martin Hebel wrote: »
    My thoughts go out to you all in that area. Last Wednesday's EF4 that leveled much of Harrisburg, IL came from a cell that passed my home just 30 minutes before spawning the tornado at Harrisburg. The destructive forces and suddenness of a tornado is devastating, but "luckily" they don't cover the land area an earthquake or hurricane does.

    Martin

    These tornadoes were long-lived - stayed on the ground longer than usual

    Raw video from helicopter http://www.wlky.com/video/30596760/detail.html

    Check out the size of this hail - lots of cars damaged I'm sure!

    attachment.php?attachmentid=90213




    Attachment not found.
  • Martin HebelMartin Hebel Posts: 1,239
    edited 2012-03-02 17:23
    My!! What big, er, hail you have! They bust window or dent cars? Woke up Wednesda at 4:30 to hail from that cell (along with continual lightening), but by the time I got in motion it was done. Sounded like rocks hitting the windows, not stones like yours are!
  • Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
    edited 2012-03-02 17:27
    Martin Hebel wrote: »
    My!! What big, er, hail you have! They bust window or dent cars? Woke up Wednesda at 4:30 to hail from that cell (along with continual lightening), but by the time I got in motion it was done. Sounded like rocks hitting the windows, not stones like yours are!

    Those were posted on one of the local TV station web sites - not sure what town. One news reporter said cars were driving past with the windows shattered or missing.
  • Martin HebelMartin Hebel Posts: 1,239
    edited 2012-03-02 17:29
    I can image. Going to be a rough Spring I think.
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2012-03-02 17:30
    Weatherdude, the weather guru at mostly political site dailykos, has been updating his liveblog there pretty frequently with radar images and ground scenes as they come in. Some of those radar images are like GRAR. Looks like you've got a few flat towns up there and maybe more to come. Last year I had to visit Tuscaloosa not long after they got torn up and that was some scary scenery.
  • Beau SchwabeBeau Schwabe Posts: 6,568
    edited 2012-03-02 19:16
    Ron Czapala,

    I'm glad that you are ok ... We were supposed to get some really nasty weather out of that same storm on Tuesday night, but we ended up not getting a drop. Just a lot of wind. Unfortunately, the local NEWS in our area really hyped it up, which I am glad that they do, but sometimes they get it really wrong or go way overboard. I'm afraid what happens as a result, is that the next time around when we have bad weather, people don't take it as serious and lives end up getting lost.

    I live in Oklahoma just West if I-35 ... and usually we get the brunt of storms as the warm Gulf moisture mixes with the Cold air coming over the Rocky mountains. This also is right about where the Jet stream decides to take a dip every now and then which can add fuel to the fire if the conditions are right.

    Again, glad that you are ok.
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2012-03-02 19:23
    I've said this before, so I'll say it again: I wish one of you electronics gurus would come up with a system that can parse out the National Weather Service weather warnings so that the home alarms can distinguish between tornado warnings and other kinds of warnings. When you live atop a windswept hill, it sucks to be repeatedly awakened by the NWS sky alert only to find out it's a warning for a flash flood in a creek 40 miles away. What the masses cry out for is a system that allows you to set your preferences for what kind of warnings you want to be alerted to. It's the worst feeling in the world to be awakened in the middle of the night by a tornado.

    Also irksome: why does the NWS use up valuable air time giving tidal reports when the local region is under a freakin tornado warning? When you're in your basement, huddled under the stairs, trying to listen through the static at the robotic voice telling you to take cover, and you're not sure they mentioned your town or not because of the static, but here comes the blippity bleep tidal report for the next 24 hours.... geeez!

    Get off your butts, boys! You, too, Bits! Solve this problem and make some money!
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2012-03-02 19:52
    Ron Czapala wrote: »
    Counting my blessings - there were many tornadoes that hit all around Louisville. At least 5 deaths and many homes and businesses leveled. ....

    Glad you're Ok. Condolences for the families of the people lost.
    God bless.
  • Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
    edited 2012-03-02 20:19
    So far the death toll is 14 in Indiana and 5 in Kentucky.

    One guys house was flung 100 yards from his foundation...

    Pretty scary stuff.
  • lardomlardom Posts: 1,659
    edited 2012-03-02 20:21
    It's hard to imagine that wind has that much power. YouTube and tv can't really capture it. (I do believe storm chasers are a bit off center.)
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2012-03-02 21:56
    lardom wrote: »
    It's hard to imagine that wind has that much power. YouTube and tv can't really capture it....


    Even when it happens to you in real life your brain can't quite grasp what it sees. Once upon a time I was about 1000 feet from the tip of a tornado and I saw it rip fully grown trees up out of the ground and swirl them in the air like a flock of birds. I stood there dumbfounded for perhaps 30 seconds or so before I ran for cover. During that half minute I was simply unable to grasp what was really going on. The most uncanny thing about it was that the air around me was completely still and the tornado itself was completely silent.

    What really freaks me out, however, are earthquakes. Tornadoes leave behind a relatively narrow path of destruction, so people from outside the zone of devastation can still rush to the rescue. In a major earthquake, on the other hand, all at once and in the blink of an eye everyone for miles around, including the fire department, gets buried alive and set on fire.
  • Erik FriesenErik Friesen Posts: 1,071
    edited 2012-03-03 07:00
    My wife and I saw the funnel on this one, along with the 2 1/4" hail. It was mostly straight down, so the damage here was restricted to my new shop roof, and a little damage on my work van top. Lots of other folks didn't fair so well, as this same track likely went on to hit henryville.

    I lived on the west coast for 25 years, and never felt an earthquake until I moved east!

    One thing I like to do, is track these storms using weather underground, they have a really nice google map with and overlay, and you can pinpoint your own position in relation to the storm tracks. If you are in the purple triangle path, watch out!

    Another thing, the NOAA station did their job here, they stated in strong language that this was a likely outcome.
  • Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
    edited 2012-03-03 07:31
    Here is a picture of the Henryville High School in southern Indiana - look at the twisted steel beams

    attachment.php?attachmentid=90243


    Henryville High School.jpg
    Henryville High School.jpg
    634 x 394 - 106K
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