Thursday, May 26, 2011 5:18:02 AM
You Tube: As close as you want to be to a tornado
Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:41 AM
May 25, 2011
If you haven't seen these two videos of the F-5 tornado that struck Joplin, Mo. Sunday, you should take a few minutes to watch. If nothing else, they will teach you the importance of listening to tornado watches and warnings, and having a safe place to take shelter.
These folks sought protection in a convenience store as the warnings went off. They eventually retreated to what appears to be a beer cooler, where they rode out the storm. Somehow, they all survived, but the second video shows how fortunate they really were. The beer cooler protected them, but by daylight it's apparent it was a close call. It had collapsed, and left them a pretty narrow escape route.
Thanks to Eric the Red for sending me the links. Here's how he describes the scene:
"If you haven't seen this video of the Joplin tornado, it is a must see. Actually, it's more of a must-hear, cos you really can't see anything. But you will note a few things...
- The power being out adds to the surreal feeling.
- The waiting had to be excrutiating; the tornado doesn't arrive til 2:00 into the video.
- The glass blowing out from the windows denotes the outer portions of the tornado's wind field, but not the core of the tornado.
- After they all safely get into the Walk-In, you will hear what sounds like machine gun fire; that is the debirs being hurled at the exterior of the "box" they now find themselves in at incredible speeds (200 mph plus). Also puts to rest the idea of the movie "Twister" showing the couple strapped to a pole as an F5 goes overhead and surviving. Throw a pebble thru the air at 200 mph at your head, and you won't be around to talk about it."
Copyright 2011 Tribune Interactive, Inc.
http://weblogs.marylandweather.com/2011/05/you_tube_as_close_as_you_want.html [with comments]
===
Mo. Woman Dies When Told of Father's Tornado Death
A 54-year-old Missouri woman has died after suffering a heart attack when told of her father's death in the Joplin tornado.
Posted: 10:33 PM May 24, 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) -- A 54-year-old Missouri woman has died after suffering a heart attack when told of her father's death in the Joplin tornado.
Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges says the woman who died Tuesday didn't immediately learn of her father's death in the historic storm that has killed more than 120 people.
He did not know her father's age or the circumstances of the man's death.
Bridges identified the woman as a school teacher and resident of nearby Webb City who attended church in Joplin.
The coroner said the death is considered a storm-related casualty even though the woman was not directly killed by the tornado.
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press
http://www.wtvy.com/home/headlines/Mo_Woman_Dies_When_Told_of_Fathers_Tornado_Death_122549809.html
===
Hope fades for boy's survival in Joplin, Mo.
By Jess Rollins, Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader
May 25, 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. — A 12-year-old boy last seen in the family's bathroom before the monster tornado pounded this city remains missing, his family holding on to hope that he may still be alive.
The boy's stepfather, Tony Niederhelman, had checked on Zach to make sure he was prepared for the storm. As the storm sirens whaled, Zach spoke with his mother, Tammy, one last time.
"He said 'Mommy, I'm so scared," Tammy Niederhelman said as tears began to streak down her face. "I told him I loved him and that everything would be fine."
Their house is now only a concrete foundation.
As the day wore on, news appeared grim. Although she has received no official word, a neighbor told Tammy Niederhelman that a boy who looked like Zach was found dead near her home Sunday shortly after the tornado ripped through the city.
Tony Niederhelman was injured in the storm himself. After checking on Zach, he went to the back sliding glass door and opened it. He said he saw small trees doubled over by wind and realized the storm was severe.
He started to shut the door but before he could get it all the way closed the front windows blew in and the force threw him out onto the back patio, he said.
He clung to the foundation of the home, watching as the house was blown apart. At some point he was knocked unconscious.
He woke up dazed in the bed of a pickup truck near the front of the home.
Shaken and with a gash in his head, he scrambled to find his son.
A passing motorist stopped and took him to get treatment for his head and cuts all over his body, he said.
"For us, until we find him, we're gonna perform like he's alive," said Nick Swainston, a squad leader for Oklahoma Task Force One. The group is an urban search and rescue unit.
"We've got just as much hope as they do."
Swainston and 34 others searched for Zach for two hours Tuesday morning. No hospital has confirmed that Zach is there.
"I just want to hold him," Tammy Niederhelman said Tuesday evening. "Even if he's gone. I want to hold him."
© 2011 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-05-25-joplin-boy-missing_n.htm [with comments]
===
After Missouri Tornado, Grim Search for Missing
Kyle and Alicia Gordon lost their home in Sunday's tornado in Joplin, Mo. Hundreds of people are still missing.
Eric Thayer/Reuters
Volunteers look for victims of a devastating tornado in Joplin, Mo., on Tuesday.
Eric Thayer/Reuters
Lacy Tasker salvaged what she could from her mother's house on Tuesday after it was destroyed by the tornado that struck Joplin, Mo.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
More Photos - http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/05/24/us/20110525_TORNADO.html
A volunteer paused while looking for survivors in Joplin, Mo., late Monday.
Eric Thayer/Reuters
Tornado's Toll
A tornado that ripped through Joplin, Mo., on Sunday evening damaged as much as 30 percent of the town.
Interative Map
The Deadliest Years
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/04/28/us/tornado-deaths.html
Interactive Feature
Map of the Tornadoes Across the South, Day by Day
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/23/us/0523-tornado-tracker.html
By A. G. SULZBERGER and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
Published: May 24, 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. — The sun shone for the first time in days on this devastated city on Tuesday, illuminating the full extent of the damage as rescue workers performed the grim task of searching for survivors and victims in buildings leveled by the United States’ deadliest tornado since modern record-keeping began.
At least 122 people died, a number that seems likely to rise. An additional 1,500 people remained on the official list of those who remained unaccounted for, which ballooned in a flood of worried phone calls but is gradually shrinking as the names of the living and the dead are scratched off.
The police said two people were found alive Tuesday, in addition to seven found on Monday.
Because cellphone service was knocked out by the storm on Sunday and remained spotty two days later, many residents were unable to contact friends and relatives who may still be alive. Residents’ frustration and fears grew as officials declined to share the names of the dead and the missing, and they have turned to local radio and Facebook.
Meanwhile, bands of workers and volunteers — armed with crowbars, sledgehammers and chainsaws — continued to dig through the debris of wood, metal and plastic that blanketed the city. Their mission was still officially one of rescue, but those doing the digging worked urgently, with the knowledge that their task could soon turn to just recovery.
While much of Tuesday provided a respite from the nearly unrelenting rain and wind that had hampered rescue efforts, more challenging weather was in the forecast.
The Sunday tornado — whose classification was upgraded by the National Weather Service on Tuesday to the most severe level, with winds exceeding 200 miles per hour — was the deadliest in a season in which twisters have killed more than 480 people.
The Joplin tornado damaged nearly a third of the city. But workers were particularly concerned about a busy strip of big-box stores and densely populated apartment complexes that included Hampshire Terrace, where Becky Carithers returned Tuesday morning to the wreckage of her apartment. The site was now a bare slab of concrete and wood, and she found that the winds had stripped her of nearly all her possessions.
Ms. Carithers screamed in astonishment and joy when a man emerged from a car down the street. Her neighbor was alive. She cried aloud to him — “You lived!” — then repeated it more softly to her companion. Then she wept.
“I’m so glad he’s O.K.,” she said. She fell into her companion’s arms, her chest heaving against him.
“Oh, my God,” she said.
The sobs deepened and continued for a long time before she spoke again, her voice heavy with revelation: “We lived. We lived.”
Most of the Hampshire Terrace buildings had already been searched once and marked by a spray-painted “X.” But they were now being searched more thoroughly. A crew of 50 firefighters from St. Louis planned to spend the day sifting through the wreckage in the rubble of the two-story buildings in the horseshoe-shaped complex.
The cadaver-sniffing dogs they requested had not arrived, and high-tech cameras and listening devices could do only so much, so the work was slow and back-breaking as they moved boards and bricks one at a time.
“This is one of the last areas where they don’t have a firm, clear picture of what happened,” said Ed Beirne, an assistant fire chief in charge of the group.
He took pains to manage expectations. “We’re always hopeful, but we briefed the guys to plan for the worst,” he said. “Anyone who was injured in here is probably expired by now.”
The residents of the 100-unit complex used the break in the weather after days of continued rain, hail, lightning and tornado warnings to search for salvageable possessions — a child’s favorite toy, a lost wedding ring, the flag that had been draped over a father’s coffin. Some wondered where they would put these waterlogged keepsakes, pointing out that they needed to find a place to live.
The biggest discoveries were of each other. Neighbors shared tearful embraces and recounted harrowing episodes of riding out the storm.
One elderly woman climbed into her wheelchair when she heard the warning and was pinned under debris until she was rescued by her daughter. A couple hid with their son and grandchild under the staircase. A few doors down, a family fled the complex as soon as they heard the sirens, worried that the building would not withstand the hit.
They wondered about neighbors they had not yet seen or heard from.
“I keep hearing the count go up, and I keep praying it stops,” said Jessica Blackwood, 22, who lived in an apartment with her 2-year-old son and whose grandmother lived in another apartment. Both were away when the tornado struck. “I’m so scared one of these times I’m going to hear a name I know.”
President Obama, on a visit to Britain, said that he was monitoring the federal response to the tornado and that he planned to visit Missouri on Sunday “to talk with folks who’ve been affected, to talk to local officials about our response effort and hopefully to pray with folks and give them whatever assurance and comfort I can that the entire country is going to be behind them.”
Leaders of the recovery effort here, who have established a perimeter restricting access to the affected area as well as the makeshift morgues, declined to discuss the list of people who remain unaccounted for. Some emphasized that they expected their ranks to include many people who fled the tornado or who have now sought shelter elsewhere.
As the days have passed, those still searching for loved ones adopted a more desperate tone.
“Ok people I’m looking for a JEFF MASSEY,” Lacy Letts wrote on a Facebook page set up by The Joplin Globe. “If anyone knows anything, please let me know asap. We were just told he was dead.”
Another sought information about Will Norton, who was returning from his high school graduation on Sunday with his father when he was sucked through the sunroof of his SUV.
His family said they had heard reports that he was taken to a hospital, but no hospital in the area seems to have a record that he was there. “The family is looking for anyone who has actually SEEN Will,” another Facebook page says. “All prayers are greatly appreciated.”
Jennifer Preston, Sarah Wheaton and Timothy Williams contributed reporting from New York.
© 2011 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/us/25tornado.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/us/25tornado.html?pagewanted=all ] [comments at http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/us/25tornado.html ]
===
Extreme weather hits Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas (photos and videos)
05/25/2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/oklahoma-kansas-and-arkansas-affected-by-latest-extreme-weather-photos-and-video/2011/05/25/AGrHPGBH_blog.html [with comment]
===
Bodies, Destruction Found After Tornado Outbreak
Images: Okla. Storm & Tornado Damage Pics (May 24)
http://www.koco.com/slideshow/weather/28008643/detail.html
Trooper Says Discovered Bodies 'Unrecognizable'
POSTED: 2:31 pm CDT May 25, 2011
UPDATED: 11:22 pm CDT May 25, 2011
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A violent storm system rumbled through Oklahoma on Wednesday, spawning tornadoes that turned homes into splintered wreckage.
Several tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma, killing at least nine people and injuring at least 70 others, authorities said. Among those killed was a 15-month-old boy, and searchers were looking for his missing 3-year-old brother.
The storms killed two people in Kansas, four in Arkansas and possibly one in Texas.
The twisters killed six people in Canadian County, two in Logan County and one in Grady County, said Cherokee Ballard, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's office. A weather-monitoring site in El Reno recorded 151 mph winds.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said three of the people killed in the state were found north of Interstate 40 and near abandoned vehicles.
OHP Capt. Chris West said the bodies found by troopers on Tuesday were stripped of clothing and more than 300 yards north of the interstate in El Reno.
West said it's unclear if the victims were sucked out of their vehicles as the tornado crossed the interstate or if they were trying to seek shelter from the storms.
West said the medical examiner's office is working to identify the victims. He says the bodies were "unrecognizable."
West said several unattended vehicles believed to belong to the victims were found "tossed around" near where the bodies were found.
[embedded tornado videos]
A tornado almost completely destroyed two subdivisions in Piedmont, 20 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, throwing vehicles around like toys tossed from a stroller.
Mayor Valerie Thomerson said searchers were looking for a 3-year-old boy whose 15-month-old brother was killed and whose mother and another sibling were seriously injured.
"My husband and I were driving around yesterday and went past a house and there was a vehicle in the pond in the front yard. The only way I could tell it was a vehicle was I could see four wheels above the water. It was a crushed ball," Thomerson said Wednesday.
"We have anything from houses that have shingles blown off, to half the house missing, to the house being completely wiped out, gone," Thomerson said.
Some residents said they had been warned about the impending weather for days and were watching television or listening to the radio so they would know when to take cover.
"We live in Oklahoma and we don't mess around," Lori Jenkins said. "We kept an eye on the weather and knew it was getting close."
She took refuge with her husband and two children in a neighbor's storm shelter in Guthrie. When they emerged, they discovered their carport had been destroyed and the back of their home was damaged.
U Local community member Curt Sherrick submitted this video of the twister in Washington to our website:
[video embedded]
Homes were damaged and trees are down on the city's west side, where Sandee White and her 5-year-old son Tommy were preparing to remove debris from the yard of her husband's home.
White called the damage "unbelievable," pointing to what she said are 100-year-old pecan trees that had been uprooted by the storm.
At Chickasha, a 26-year-old woman died when a tornado hit a mobile home park where residents had been asked to leave, Assistant Police Chief Elip Moore said. A dozen people were injured and hundreds were displaced, he said.
U Local community member william31 submitted this video the path of damage left behind in Chickasha:
[video embedded]
A Chickasha man who says he was trying to beat a storm home says he was caught by a tornado that took him off his motorcycle and dragged him 15 to 20 feet across a lawn and pavement.
Twenty-seven-year-old Dan Henson said Wednesday that he suffered cuts and bruises to his back when the tornado caught him as he arrived home Tuesday. Henson said he was aware of the storm, but didn't realize there was a tornado until it hit him.
Henson's home was heavily damaged and the roof of a car wash across the street was ripped off and wrapped around a moving van at the car wash.
On Wednesday morning, Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency for 68 Oklahoma counties.
The declaration includes most of the state, which was battered with tornadoes, straight-line winds, damaging hail and flooding.
[500 photos and 5 videos embedded]
Copyright 2011 by koco.com
http://www.koco.com/weather/28023575/detail.html [no comments yet]
===
Tornadoes take more lives in Oklahoma
Family and friends of Laron Short (above) embraced as they cleaned out the trailer home where she died during Tuesday’s twister in Chickasha, Okla.
(Bill Waugh/ Reuters)
By Kristi Eaton and Chuck Bartels
Associated Press / May 26, 2011
PIEDMONT, Okla. — When three tornadoes marched toward Oklahoma City and its suburbs, thousands of people in the path benefited from good forecasts, luck, and live television to avoid the kind of catastrophe that befell Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Joplin, Mo.
At least 15 people died in the latest round of violent weather. But in Oklahoma, schools and offices closed early, giving many families plenty of time to take shelter. And even stragglers were able to get to safety at the last minute because TV forecasters narrated the twisters’ every turn.
“We live in Oklahoma and we don’t mess around,’’ Lori Jenkins of Guthrie said after emerging from a neighbor’s storm shelter to find her carport crumpled and her home damaged.
The people of Oklahoma City, which has been struck by tornadoes 146 times, more than any other US city, knew the storms were coming. Anxiety was perhaps running higher than usual after last month’s twister outbreak in the South that killed more than 300 people and a Sunday storm that killed 125 in Joplin, Mo.
The Oklahoma twisters proved to be weaker than the other tornadoes. But the minute-by-minute accounts of the developing weather helped thousands of people stay abreast of the danger.
Television helicopters broadcast live footage while the system approached the metropolitan area of 1.2 million people — calling out to specific communities like Piedmont to “Take cover now!’’
In Guthrie, about 30 miles north of the capital city, Ron Brooks was watching when he learned that a tornado was barreling toward him. He heeded the weatherman’s warning, scooped up his two children, and took cover with his wife in their laundry room.
“When they told us to get into the shelter or interior room, we did that,’’ Brooks said. “The first year I moved to Oklahoma, in 1997, I saw a funnel drop out of a wall cloud. Since seeing one, I’ve always taken it pretty seriously.’’
Brooks emerged 20 minutes later, relieved to learn that the tornado passed just north of his home.
In Joplin, the city manager said yesterday that 125 people had died in the storm, raising by three the toll of the nation’s deadliest single tornado since 1950. He said more than 900 people had been injured.
Rescue and recovery work continued, with crews repeating grid searches for any survivors who might still be buried in rubble. Structural engineers were sent inside the ruins of St. John’s Medical Center, which was crippled by the twister, to see if the hospital could be saved.
Back in the Oklahoma City area, at least nine people were killed, despite broadcasters offering live coverage of the storms for two hours before the bad weather actually hit around the evening rush hour.
Across the border in Arkansas, people in the tiny hamlet of Denning didn’t have the luxury of an early warning. A tornado killed at least one person there. Storms left three others dead elsewhere in Arkansas and killed two in Kansas.
The storms arrived in Denning in the darkness, with a warning posted only about 10 minutes before a tornado nearly obliterated the town of 270 shortly after midnight.
Troy Ellison didn’t even have that much time.
He was watching a movie in his mobile home when he switched on the TV news. The tornado was four minutes away.
“We were going to take the work truck and get out,’’ Ellison said. “I looked out the back door with my son and it was coming.’’
He dove under the kitchen table with his wife and two sons just before the tornado hit. “It got that growling sound and the windows popped,’’ he said.
The tornado ripped the roof off his home and collapsed his workshop next door. Somehow, the family escaped unharmed.
Then Ellison went outside and saw the family dog, Jager, his paws splayed out on the ground. The animal “looked like someone stepped on him.’’ Ellison assumed he was dead.
But the dog, a pit bull-boxer mix, turned out to be fine. By yesterday, he was prancing around in the sun as the Ellisons moved belongings out of their home.
“He must have known to stay low to the ground,’’ Ellison said.
© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/05/26/tornadoes_take_more_lives_in_oklahoma/ [no comments yet]
===
(items linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63561428 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63527878 and preceding and following, and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63577984 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63524748
Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:41 AM
May 25, 2011
If you haven't seen these two videos of the F-5 tornado that struck Joplin, Mo. Sunday, you should take a few minutes to watch. If nothing else, they will teach you the importance of listening to tornado watches and warnings, and having a safe place to take shelter.
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQnvxJZucds ]
These folks sought protection in a convenience store as the warnings went off. They eventually retreated to what appears to be a beer cooler, where they rode out the storm. Somehow, they all survived, but the second video shows how fortunate they really were. The beer cooler protected them, but by daylight it's apparent it was a close call. It had collapsed, and left them a pretty narrow escape route.
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-P4P68YyNM ]
Thanks to Eric the Red for sending me the links. Here's how he describes the scene:
"If you haven't seen this video of the Joplin tornado, it is a must see. Actually, it's more of a must-hear, cos you really can't see anything. But you will note a few things...
- The power being out adds to the surreal feeling.
- The waiting had to be excrutiating; the tornado doesn't arrive til 2:00 into the video.
- The glass blowing out from the windows denotes the outer portions of the tornado's wind field, but not the core of the tornado.
- After they all safely get into the Walk-In, you will hear what sounds like machine gun fire; that is the debirs being hurled at the exterior of the "box" they now find themselves in at incredible speeds (200 mph plus). Also puts to rest the idea of the movie "Twister" showing the couple strapped to a pole as an F5 goes overhead and surviving. Throw a pebble thru the air at 200 mph at your head, and you won't be around to talk about it."
Copyright 2011 Tribune Interactive, Inc.
http://weblogs.marylandweather.com/2011/05/you_tube_as_close_as_you_want.html [with comments]
===
Mo. Woman Dies When Told of Father's Tornado Death
A 54-year-old Missouri woman has died after suffering a heart attack when told of her father's death in the Joplin tornado.
Posted: 10:33 PM May 24, 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) -- A 54-year-old Missouri woman has died after suffering a heart attack when told of her father's death in the Joplin tornado.
Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges says the woman who died Tuesday didn't immediately learn of her father's death in the historic storm that has killed more than 120 people.
He did not know her father's age or the circumstances of the man's death.
Bridges identified the woman as a school teacher and resident of nearby Webb City who attended church in Joplin.
The coroner said the death is considered a storm-related casualty even though the woman was not directly killed by the tornado.
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press
http://www.wtvy.com/home/headlines/Mo_Woman_Dies_When_Told_of_Fathers_Tornado_Death_122549809.html
===
Hope fades for boy's survival in Joplin, Mo.
By Jess Rollins, Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader
May 25, 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. — A 12-year-old boy last seen in the family's bathroom before the monster tornado pounded this city remains missing, his family holding on to hope that he may still be alive.
The boy's stepfather, Tony Niederhelman, had checked on Zach to make sure he was prepared for the storm. As the storm sirens whaled, Zach spoke with his mother, Tammy, one last time.
"He said 'Mommy, I'm so scared," Tammy Niederhelman said as tears began to streak down her face. "I told him I loved him and that everything would be fine."
Their house is now only a concrete foundation.
As the day wore on, news appeared grim. Although she has received no official word, a neighbor told Tammy Niederhelman that a boy who looked like Zach was found dead near her home Sunday shortly after the tornado ripped through the city.
Tony Niederhelman was injured in the storm himself. After checking on Zach, he went to the back sliding glass door and opened it. He said he saw small trees doubled over by wind and realized the storm was severe.
He started to shut the door but before he could get it all the way closed the front windows blew in and the force threw him out onto the back patio, he said.
He clung to the foundation of the home, watching as the house was blown apart. At some point he was knocked unconscious.
He woke up dazed in the bed of a pickup truck near the front of the home.
Shaken and with a gash in his head, he scrambled to find his son.
A passing motorist stopped and took him to get treatment for his head and cuts all over his body, he said.
"For us, until we find him, we're gonna perform like he's alive," said Nick Swainston, a squad leader for Oklahoma Task Force One. The group is an urban search and rescue unit.
"We've got just as much hope as they do."
Swainston and 34 others searched for Zach for two hours Tuesday morning. No hospital has confirmed that Zach is there.
"I just want to hold him," Tammy Niederhelman said Tuesday evening. "Even if he's gone. I want to hold him."
© 2011 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-05-25-joplin-boy-missing_n.htm [with comments]
===
After Missouri Tornado, Grim Search for Missing
Kyle and Alicia Gordon lost their home in Sunday's tornado in Joplin, Mo. Hundreds of people are still missing.
Eric Thayer/Reuters
Volunteers look for victims of a devastating tornado in Joplin, Mo., on Tuesday.
Eric Thayer/Reuters
Lacy Tasker salvaged what she could from her mother's house on Tuesday after it was destroyed by the tornado that struck Joplin, Mo.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
More Photos - http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/05/24/us/20110525_TORNADO.html
A volunteer paused while looking for survivors in Joplin, Mo., late Monday.
Eric Thayer/Reuters
Tornado's Toll
A tornado that ripped through Joplin, Mo., on Sunday evening damaged as much as 30 percent of the town.
Interative Map
The Deadliest Years
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/04/28/us/tornado-deaths.html
Interactive Feature
Map of the Tornadoes Across the South, Day by Day
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/23/us/0523-tornado-tracker.html
By A. G. SULZBERGER and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
Published: May 24, 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. — The sun shone for the first time in days on this devastated city on Tuesday, illuminating the full extent of the damage as rescue workers performed the grim task of searching for survivors and victims in buildings leveled by the United States’ deadliest tornado since modern record-keeping began.
At least 122 people died, a number that seems likely to rise. An additional 1,500 people remained on the official list of those who remained unaccounted for, which ballooned in a flood of worried phone calls but is gradually shrinking as the names of the living and the dead are scratched off.
The police said two people were found alive Tuesday, in addition to seven found on Monday.
Because cellphone service was knocked out by the storm on Sunday and remained spotty two days later, many residents were unable to contact friends and relatives who may still be alive. Residents’ frustration and fears grew as officials declined to share the names of the dead and the missing, and they have turned to local radio and Facebook.
Meanwhile, bands of workers and volunteers — armed with crowbars, sledgehammers and chainsaws — continued to dig through the debris of wood, metal and plastic that blanketed the city. Their mission was still officially one of rescue, but those doing the digging worked urgently, with the knowledge that their task could soon turn to just recovery.
While much of Tuesday provided a respite from the nearly unrelenting rain and wind that had hampered rescue efforts, more challenging weather was in the forecast.
The Sunday tornado — whose classification was upgraded by the National Weather Service on Tuesday to the most severe level, with winds exceeding 200 miles per hour — was the deadliest in a season in which twisters have killed more than 480 people.
The Joplin tornado damaged nearly a third of the city. But workers were particularly concerned about a busy strip of big-box stores and densely populated apartment complexes that included Hampshire Terrace, where Becky Carithers returned Tuesday morning to the wreckage of her apartment. The site was now a bare slab of concrete and wood, and she found that the winds had stripped her of nearly all her possessions.
Ms. Carithers screamed in astonishment and joy when a man emerged from a car down the street. Her neighbor was alive. She cried aloud to him — “You lived!” — then repeated it more softly to her companion. Then she wept.
“I’m so glad he’s O.K.,” she said. She fell into her companion’s arms, her chest heaving against him.
“Oh, my God,” she said.
The sobs deepened and continued for a long time before she spoke again, her voice heavy with revelation: “We lived. We lived.”
Most of the Hampshire Terrace buildings had already been searched once and marked by a spray-painted “X.” But they were now being searched more thoroughly. A crew of 50 firefighters from St. Louis planned to spend the day sifting through the wreckage in the rubble of the two-story buildings in the horseshoe-shaped complex.
The cadaver-sniffing dogs they requested had not arrived, and high-tech cameras and listening devices could do only so much, so the work was slow and back-breaking as they moved boards and bricks one at a time.
“This is one of the last areas where they don’t have a firm, clear picture of what happened,” said Ed Beirne, an assistant fire chief in charge of the group.
He took pains to manage expectations. “We’re always hopeful, but we briefed the guys to plan for the worst,” he said. “Anyone who was injured in here is probably expired by now.”
The residents of the 100-unit complex used the break in the weather after days of continued rain, hail, lightning and tornado warnings to search for salvageable possessions — a child’s favorite toy, a lost wedding ring, the flag that had been draped over a father’s coffin. Some wondered where they would put these waterlogged keepsakes, pointing out that they needed to find a place to live.
The biggest discoveries were of each other. Neighbors shared tearful embraces and recounted harrowing episodes of riding out the storm.
One elderly woman climbed into her wheelchair when she heard the warning and was pinned under debris until she was rescued by her daughter. A couple hid with their son and grandchild under the staircase. A few doors down, a family fled the complex as soon as they heard the sirens, worried that the building would not withstand the hit.
They wondered about neighbors they had not yet seen or heard from.
“I keep hearing the count go up, and I keep praying it stops,” said Jessica Blackwood, 22, who lived in an apartment with her 2-year-old son and whose grandmother lived in another apartment. Both were away when the tornado struck. “I’m so scared one of these times I’m going to hear a name I know.”
President Obama, on a visit to Britain, said that he was monitoring the federal response to the tornado and that he planned to visit Missouri on Sunday “to talk with folks who’ve been affected, to talk to local officials about our response effort and hopefully to pray with folks and give them whatever assurance and comfort I can that the entire country is going to be behind them.”
Leaders of the recovery effort here, who have established a perimeter restricting access to the affected area as well as the makeshift morgues, declined to discuss the list of people who remain unaccounted for. Some emphasized that they expected their ranks to include many people who fled the tornado or who have now sought shelter elsewhere.
As the days have passed, those still searching for loved ones adopted a more desperate tone.
“Ok people I’m looking for a JEFF MASSEY,” Lacy Letts wrote on a Facebook page set up by The Joplin Globe. “If anyone knows anything, please let me know asap. We were just told he was dead.”
Another sought information about Will Norton, who was returning from his high school graduation on Sunday with his father when he was sucked through the sunroof of his SUV.
His family said they had heard reports that he was taken to a hospital, but no hospital in the area seems to have a record that he was there. “The family is looking for anyone who has actually SEEN Will,” another Facebook page says. “All prayers are greatly appreciated.”
Jennifer Preston, Sarah Wheaton and Timothy Williams contributed reporting from New York.
© 2011 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/us/25tornado.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/us/25tornado.html?pagewanted=all ] [comments at http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/us/25tornado.html ]
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Extreme weather hits Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas (photos and videos)
05/25/2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/oklahoma-kansas-and-arkansas-affected-by-latest-extreme-weather-photos-and-video/2011/05/25/AGrHPGBH_blog.html [with comment]
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Bodies, Destruction Found After Tornado Outbreak
Images: Okla. Storm & Tornado Damage Pics (May 24)
http://www.koco.com/slideshow/weather/28008643/detail.html
Trooper Says Discovered Bodies 'Unrecognizable'
POSTED: 2:31 pm CDT May 25, 2011
UPDATED: 11:22 pm CDT May 25, 2011
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A violent storm system rumbled through Oklahoma on Wednesday, spawning tornadoes that turned homes into splintered wreckage.
Several tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma, killing at least nine people and injuring at least 70 others, authorities said. Among those killed was a 15-month-old boy, and searchers were looking for his missing 3-year-old brother.
The storms killed two people in Kansas, four in Arkansas and possibly one in Texas.
The twisters killed six people in Canadian County, two in Logan County and one in Grady County, said Cherokee Ballard, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's office. A weather-monitoring site in El Reno recorded 151 mph winds.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said three of the people killed in the state were found north of Interstate 40 and near abandoned vehicles.
OHP Capt. Chris West said the bodies found by troopers on Tuesday were stripped of clothing and more than 300 yards north of the interstate in El Reno.
West said it's unclear if the victims were sucked out of their vehicles as the tornado crossed the interstate or if they were trying to seek shelter from the storms.
West said the medical examiner's office is working to identify the victims. He says the bodies were "unrecognizable."
West said several unattended vehicles believed to belong to the victims were found "tossed around" near where the bodies were found.
[embedded tornado videos]
A tornado almost completely destroyed two subdivisions in Piedmont, 20 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, throwing vehicles around like toys tossed from a stroller.
Mayor Valerie Thomerson said searchers were looking for a 3-year-old boy whose 15-month-old brother was killed and whose mother and another sibling were seriously injured.
"My husband and I were driving around yesterday and went past a house and there was a vehicle in the pond in the front yard. The only way I could tell it was a vehicle was I could see four wheels above the water. It was a crushed ball," Thomerson said Wednesday.
"We have anything from houses that have shingles blown off, to half the house missing, to the house being completely wiped out, gone," Thomerson said.
Some residents said they had been warned about the impending weather for days and were watching television or listening to the radio so they would know when to take cover.
"We live in Oklahoma and we don't mess around," Lori Jenkins said. "We kept an eye on the weather and knew it was getting close."
She took refuge with her husband and two children in a neighbor's storm shelter in Guthrie. When they emerged, they discovered their carport had been destroyed and the back of their home was damaged.
U Local community member Curt Sherrick submitted this video of the twister in Washington to our website:
[video embedded]
Homes were damaged and trees are down on the city's west side, where Sandee White and her 5-year-old son Tommy were preparing to remove debris from the yard of her husband's home.
White called the damage "unbelievable," pointing to what she said are 100-year-old pecan trees that had been uprooted by the storm.
At Chickasha, a 26-year-old woman died when a tornado hit a mobile home park where residents had been asked to leave, Assistant Police Chief Elip Moore said. A dozen people were injured and hundreds were displaced, he said.
U Local community member william31 submitted this video the path of damage left behind in Chickasha:
[video embedded]
A Chickasha man who says he was trying to beat a storm home says he was caught by a tornado that took him off his motorcycle and dragged him 15 to 20 feet across a lawn and pavement.
Twenty-seven-year-old Dan Henson said Wednesday that he suffered cuts and bruises to his back when the tornado caught him as he arrived home Tuesday. Henson said he was aware of the storm, but didn't realize there was a tornado until it hit him.
Henson's home was heavily damaged and the roof of a car wash across the street was ripped off and wrapped around a moving van at the car wash.
On Wednesday morning, Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency for 68 Oklahoma counties.
The declaration includes most of the state, which was battered with tornadoes, straight-line winds, damaging hail and flooding.
[500 photos and 5 videos embedded]
Copyright 2011 by koco.com
http://www.koco.com/weather/28023575/detail.html [no comments yet]
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Tornadoes take more lives in Oklahoma
Family and friends of Laron Short (above) embraced as they cleaned out the trailer home where she died during Tuesday’s twister in Chickasha, Okla.
(Bill Waugh/ Reuters)
By Kristi Eaton and Chuck Bartels
Associated Press / May 26, 2011
PIEDMONT, Okla. — When three tornadoes marched toward Oklahoma City and its suburbs, thousands of people in the path benefited from good forecasts, luck, and live television to avoid the kind of catastrophe that befell Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Joplin, Mo.
At least 15 people died in the latest round of violent weather. But in Oklahoma, schools and offices closed early, giving many families plenty of time to take shelter. And even stragglers were able to get to safety at the last minute because TV forecasters narrated the twisters’ every turn.
“We live in Oklahoma and we don’t mess around,’’ Lori Jenkins of Guthrie said after emerging from a neighbor’s storm shelter to find her carport crumpled and her home damaged.
The people of Oklahoma City, which has been struck by tornadoes 146 times, more than any other US city, knew the storms were coming. Anxiety was perhaps running higher than usual after last month’s twister outbreak in the South that killed more than 300 people and a Sunday storm that killed 125 in Joplin, Mo.
The Oklahoma twisters proved to be weaker than the other tornadoes. But the minute-by-minute accounts of the developing weather helped thousands of people stay abreast of the danger.
Television helicopters broadcast live footage while the system approached the metropolitan area of 1.2 million people — calling out to specific communities like Piedmont to “Take cover now!’’
In Guthrie, about 30 miles north of the capital city, Ron Brooks was watching when he learned that a tornado was barreling toward him. He heeded the weatherman’s warning, scooped up his two children, and took cover with his wife in their laundry room.
“When they told us to get into the shelter or interior room, we did that,’’ Brooks said. “The first year I moved to Oklahoma, in 1997, I saw a funnel drop out of a wall cloud. Since seeing one, I’ve always taken it pretty seriously.’’
Brooks emerged 20 minutes later, relieved to learn that the tornado passed just north of his home.
In Joplin, the city manager said yesterday that 125 people had died in the storm, raising by three the toll of the nation’s deadliest single tornado since 1950. He said more than 900 people had been injured.
Rescue and recovery work continued, with crews repeating grid searches for any survivors who might still be buried in rubble. Structural engineers were sent inside the ruins of St. John’s Medical Center, which was crippled by the twister, to see if the hospital could be saved.
Back in the Oklahoma City area, at least nine people were killed, despite broadcasters offering live coverage of the storms for two hours before the bad weather actually hit around the evening rush hour.
Across the border in Arkansas, people in the tiny hamlet of Denning didn’t have the luxury of an early warning. A tornado killed at least one person there. Storms left three others dead elsewhere in Arkansas and killed two in Kansas.
The storms arrived in Denning in the darkness, with a warning posted only about 10 minutes before a tornado nearly obliterated the town of 270 shortly after midnight.
Troy Ellison didn’t even have that much time.
He was watching a movie in his mobile home when he switched on the TV news. The tornado was four minutes away.
“We were going to take the work truck and get out,’’ Ellison said. “I looked out the back door with my son and it was coming.’’
He dove under the kitchen table with his wife and two sons just before the tornado hit. “It got that growling sound and the windows popped,’’ he said.
The tornado ripped the roof off his home and collapsed his workshop next door. Somehow, the family escaped unharmed.
Then Ellison went outside and saw the family dog, Jager, his paws splayed out on the ground. The animal “looked like someone stepped on him.’’ Ellison assumed he was dead.
But the dog, a pit bull-boxer mix, turned out to be fine. By yesterday, he was prancing around in the sun as the Ellisons moved belongings out of their home.
“He must have known to stay low to the ground,’’ Ellison said.
© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/05/26/tornadoes_take_more_lives_in_oklahoma/ [no comments yet]
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upon the Right of Election, 1790
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