Catastrophes!: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes, and Other Earth-Shattering Disasters

7 Tornadoes: Funnels of Death

7 Tornadoes Funnels of Death From the far north they heard a low wail of the wind, and Uncle Henry and Dorothy could see where the long grass bowed in waves before the coming storm. There now came a sharp whistling in the air from the south, and as they turned their eyes that way they saw ripples in the grass coming from that direction also. Suddenly Uncle Henry stood up. “There’s a cyclone coming, Em,” he called to his wife. “I’ll go look after the stock.” . . . Aunt Em dropped her work and came to the door. One glance told her of the danger close at hand. “Quick, Dorothy!” she screamed. “Run for the cellar!” —L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz, 1900 “Tornado Alley” Movies like The Wizard of Oz and Twister and national TV weather forecasts have influenced our mental image of tornadoes as associated with the wideopen plains, especially Kansas and Oklahoma. Tornadoes (fig. 7.1) are known to occur in all fifty states, but the central Great Plains of North America have Tornadoes 183 a well-deserved reputation as “tornado alley” (plate 11A). More tornadoes strike the plains states (from northern Texas, through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Missouri, and Iowa) than strike any other part of the United States. The heart of tornado alley is Oklahoma. Every spring and summer, Oklahoma typically has more tornadoes than any other state or any other part of the world. The few days from May 3 to 6, 1999, stunned even veteran tornado watchers and made worldwide news. It was the most prolific outbreak of tornadoes in Oklahoma history, comparable to the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965. May 3, 1999, started out sunny and warm. Weather forecasters predicted only a “slight risk” of tornadoes. By late afternoon, however, big thunderstorms had moved over the region, and the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, had issued warnings of “high risk” of tornadoes in the ensuing hours. Later that evening, tornadoes broke out all over the state, and 66 were Fig. 7.1. One of many tornadoes during the May 3, 1999, Oklahoma, tornado storm, near Anadarko, Oklahoma, that immediately preceded the F3 tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma. (Courtesy NOAA) 184 Catastrophes! reported before midnight. On May 4, tornadoes continued to develop, and over the next two days there were many more tornadoes, resulting in more than 140 over the three-day period. Tornadoes caused almost $2 billion in damage and killed 50 people (plate 11). More than 2,000 homes were destroyed and another 9,000 were damaged. Some small towns, such as Mulhall in central Oklahoma, were utterly destroyed, and Tanger Outlet Center in Stroud was obliterated and has never been rebuilt. The tornadoes even cut a wide swath of destruction through big cities such as Oklahoma City. Other tornadoes from this swarm struck Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Of the 140 known tornadoes from this swarm, the Moore-Bridge Creek tornado was the biggest and most destructive. It struck around 7:30 p.m., on the evening of May 3. It was an F5 event on the Fujita scale of tornadoes (table 7.1), which ranks the largest possible storm, with winds at least 322 km/h Table 7.1. Fujita Tornado Damage Scale, developed in 1971 by T. Theodore Fujita of the University of Chicago Wind Estimate Scale (mph) Typical Damage F0 <73 Light damage. Some damage to chimneys; branches broken off trees; shallow-rooted trees pushed over; sign boards damaged. F1 73–112 Moderate damage. Peels surface off roofs; mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned; moving autos blown off roads. F2 113–157 Considerable damage. Roofs torn off frame houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars overturned; large trees snapped or uprooted; light-object missiles generated; cars lifted off ground. F3 158–206 Severe damage. Roofs and some walls torn off well-constructed houses; trains overturned; most trees in forest uprooted; heavy cars lifted off the ground and thrown. F4 207–260 Devastating damage. Well-constructed houses leveled; structures with weak foundations blown away some distance; cars thrown and large missiles generated. F5 261–318 Incredible damage. Strong frame houses leveled off foundations and swept away; automobile-sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 m (109 yards); trees debarked; incredible phenomena will occur. Tornadoes 185 (200 mph). Winds were clocked at 484 km/h (381 mph), breaking the record for wind speeds ever measured in a tornado. This prompted a discussion about revising the Fujita scale to include an “F6” ranking. The tornado started near Amber, Oklahoma, and traveled in the usual northeasterly trend parallel to Interstate 44, striking Bridge Creek and reaching the southern suburbs of Oklahoma City. It then trended more northerly and hit more of Oklahoma City before striking Moore, Del City, and Tinker Air Force Base. It began to diminish near Midwest City and finally lifted off the ground a short distance to the north. When it was all over, 36 people had died, and more than 8,000 homes had been lost or damaged, causing more than $1.1 billion (in 2009 dollars) in destruction, making it the costliest single tornado in American history . It could have been one of the deadliest, but because of plenty of early warnings, most potential victims were safe in shelters. Those killed had no shelter or were in mobile homes that were picked up and thrown about. Three people died when they sought shelter under a highway overpass, which, despite the urban myths, does not provide adequate shelter (see the following discussion). Kansas “Cyclones” L. Frank Baum’s 1900 book and the 1939 MGM movie The Wizard of Oz associate “cyclones” with Kansas. The term cyclone is an archaic word for tornado , but today, meteorologists apply it only to the tropical cyclones or hurricanes of the Indian Ocean. All spiraling storm clouds in the Northern Hemisphere, whether they are tornadoes or hurricanes, have a clockwise, or “cyclonic,” sense of rotation when viewed from above. In the Southern Hemisphere , spiraling storm clouds move counterclockwise, or “anticyclonic,” because of the difference in the Coriolis effect and the spin of the earth beneath fluid currents like water or air. Baum was not exaggerating, because Kansas has had its share of “tornado alley” storms, second only to Oklahoma. Twenty years before he wrote The Wizard of Oz, Baum was apparently inspired by a truly immense tornado swarm that swept through Kansas on May 29–30, 1879. Newspaper headlines 186 Catastrophes! around the United States printed articles about “The Great Kansas Cyclone,” which became popular usage and a well-known common memory for that generation. The worst tornado of that storm struck Irving, Kansas, on May 30, 1879, and destroyed the town, killing 66 and injuring 60 others (virtually the entire population). According to eyewitnesses, the storm picked up one house and whirled it around like a top (hence the similar events in Baum’s story). The rest of the buildings were destroyed, leaving only foundations. I have only experienced a few tornadoes in my years living in the region (mostly in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Illinois), but I have sought shelter many times during severe storm warnings. I am familiar with the sounds of the warning sirens that every town and city in the Great Plains and Midwest has set up for emergencies. I have never seen a tornado because I head for shelter when sirens sound. My wife’s family is from the Wichita, Kansas, area and has experienced many storms. Several members of her family survived the May 25, 1955, tornado that wiped out the town of Udall, leaving only a few brick buildings standing (fig. 7.2). Luckily, they were in a farmhouse 4 km (2.5 miles) on the outskirts of town and were not killed. This F5 storm hit at night, killing 83 and injuring more than 270 people (out of only 610 residents), making it the deadliest tornado ever to hit Kansas. Every building of the 192 in the town was damaged and 170 of them were destroyed, including the water tower and the grain elevator. My father-in-law was 30 km (20 miles) away at the time, and even he could hear the thunderous sound of the tornado as it passed through Udall and made its way toward Derby, Kansas. Unknown to the Udall residents, just minutes earlier, the same tornado had devastated the town of Blackwell, Oklahoma, just south across the border, killing 20 and injuring 250. Udall marshall Wayne Keely gave the following account: The first warning we had was the noise. It was like one of those B1 bombers that are around these days coming into town. I got my family and the kids and got them into the cellar just before it hit. I remember my wife trying to light a candle, and myself not being able to breathe too well. I was able to get a quick glance out of the cellar while the tornado was over us. It looked like there was Fig. 7.2. Damage from the Udall, Kansas, tornado that struck on May 25, 1955. A, Aerial view of the devastation. B, The frame of a 1952 Chevy pickup thrown into a tree. (Images taken by M. W. Keely) A B 188 Catastrophes! electricity inside of it. I’m not sure if it was metal hitting together or maybe static electricity. Debris was coming into the cellar and blocked the entrance. . . . There was a 1952 Chevy pickup in the tree in my front yard [fig. 7.2B]. The owner of the truck was found dead later outside of town. I walked through the damage. I remember not being able to tell what part of town I was in. We found another neighbor setting on a porch, setting down leaning up next to a pole like they were sleeping, but they were gone. (www.tornadochasers.com/ udall) This account was given by Boyd Binford: As I was getting in the car my mom said is it a tornado? I was pulling my door shut at that time, the car was beginning to rock. I reached down to put the car in drive, as I did I made it to reverse, I think my mom must of had her foot on the gas at this time, because when the car went into reverse and started to take off and that’s when it hit. The car begin to bounce up and down but was not moving. The car then spun around and was pushed into a ditch, the headlights were pointing directly at the house across the street. Then I saw the house blow away, then the car started going end over end. (www.tornadochasers.com/udall) Western Kansas has also had its share of deadly storms. Greensburg, Kansas , has been struck multiple times, including devastating tornadoes in 1915, 1923, and 1928. One report comes from a farmer living outside the town who managed to look inside the funnel from the entrance of his shelter on June 22, 1928: I looked up and to my astonishment I saw right up into the heart of the tornado! There was a circular opening in the center of the funnel, about 50 or 100 feet in diameter, and extending straight upward for a distance of at least a mile, as best I could judge under the circumstances. The walls of this opening were of rotating clouds and the whole was made brilliantly visible by constant Tornadoes 189 flashes of lightning which zigzagged from side to side. (Monthly Weather Review , 1930, 58:205) Another tornado struck Greensburg, Kansas, on May 4, 2007, at 9:45 p.m. and was about 2.7 km (1.7 miles) wide and traveled for 35 km (22 miles). More than 95 percent of the city (fig. 7.3) was destroyed and the remainder was severely damaged. It was the first F5 storm since the May 1999 storms that hit Oklahoma, and the first to be rated EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which modified the original damage-based Fujita scale (table 7.1) accounting for wind speeds. Doppler radar clocked the wind speeds at 330 km/h (205 mph). Eleven people were killed and many more injured, but the death toll would have been much worse without the warning sirens that sounded 20 minutes before the storm arrived. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and President George W. Bush visited the scene and declared it a disaster area. Greensburg is now being rebuilt as a “green” city, following the LEED (Leadership in Fig. 7.3. Damage to Greensburg, Kansas, after the May 4, 2007, storm. (Photo courtesy FEMA) 190 Catastrophes! Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building rating standards, which makes it the first green U.S. city. A nonprofit organization, Greensburg Green Town, has been set up to help the residents learn about and build in an environmentally sound way. What Causes Tornadoes? What turns an ordinary thunderstorm into a swirling twister? It all starts with the severe weather conditions that generate large cumulonimbus, or “thunderhead ,” clouds. Such thunderheads are usually produced when a mass of warm, moist air meets a mass of cold, dry air, generating a strong frontal system . If there is a strong high-altitude jet stream operating above it with winds of 150 mph or more, then the three moving air masses interact to form a strong wind shear that gets the thundercloud spinning. With “tornado alley,” the central plains have just the right combination of conditions to make frequent tornadoes (fig. 7.4). During the spring and summer , masses of cold, dry air come down from Canada, which meet warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time, the jet stream shifts southward and focuses its energy over the midcontinent. Warm, dry air may come east from the desert Southwest. The Rocky Mountain front blocks the spread of these air masses to the west, so they end up concentrated in a narrow zone. Their meeting point is usually in the Great Plains, generating huge frontal systems week after week. If they are large enough, tornadoes can be expected. Tornadoes are most common during the afternoon and evening, when heat builds up during the day to reach a critical point and enough thunderstorms are produced. The boundary between the two frontal systems usually trends northeast to southwest, so tornadoes usually travel northeasterly as well. Although tornadoes are known from every continent except Antarctica, they are far more common in the American Midwest than anywhere else. They have been documented in southern Africa, western Australia, New Zealand , south-central and eastern Asia, east-central South America, and northwestern and southeast Europe. In most instances, dynamics are similar: a broad Tornadoes 191 plains region (often confined by mountains) where warm, moist air comes up from the tropics and meets cold, dry air coming down from polar regions. Tornadoes are also common in Bangladesh, where they kill almost 200 people a year, the deadliest annual toll from tornadoes in the world. About 1,300 people were killed in the Daultipur-Salturia tornado in Bangladesh on April 26, 1989. Bangladesh has had more than 20 tornadoes that killed 100 or more people, more than half of the total known for the entire world. Like tornado alley in the American plains, the conditions in Bangladesh are ideal for tornado formation: cold, dry air coming down from central Asia meets warm, moist air from the Bay of Bengal, and the Himalayas confine the flow to the broad plains of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta. The tornado is actually the core of the spinning vortex within the cloud, which spins on a horizontal axis as one air mass slides beneath the other. A strong wind shear with updrafts of warm air and downdrafts of cold air tilts the horizontally rolling air into a vertical orientation. If the vortex extends down to the ground, it becomes visible as it picks up dust and debris (fig. 7.5). Most Fig. 7.4. Diagram showing the atmospheric dynamics of “tornado alley.” (Diagram from NOAA) L Minnesota Iowa SouthDakota Nebraska TORNADOALLEY Kansas Colorado Oklahoma Texas J E T S T R E A M COLDDRYAIR WARMDRYAIR WARMMOISTAIR B A Fig. 7.5. A, Diagram showing the motion of air in a thunderhead that produces tornadoes. A warm cloud of moist air comes from the base and is overridden by cool, dry air from above. The two interact to form a swirling vortex, with warm air producing strong updrafts and cool air descending in strong downdrafts. These tilt the rotating cylinder of air from horizontal to vertical. The tornado we see is only the basal tip of a much larger spiraling vortex running through the entire cloud. (Diagram courtesy NASA; redrawn by Pat Linse) B, Image of a tornado developing from a cylindrical vortex spinning in a horizontal axis (top) and then shifting to a vertical orientation and eventually touching down. (Photo courtesy NOAA) Tornadoes 193 tornadoes have wind speeds of 64 km/h (40 mph) to 177 km/h (110 mph), and their funnels are approximately 75 m (250 feet) across. Some are much larger (more than 1.6 km, or 1 mile across) or much smaller (only a few meters) across. They may touch down and devastate only a few kilometers or miles, but some tornadoes have cut a swath of more than 500 km (hundreds of miles) in length. The name tornado may come from the Spanish word tronada, or “thunderstorm ,” possibly combined with the Spanish verb tornar (to turn) to give us the word “tornado.” Tornadoes cause damage in a number of ways. The most obvious is the high wind speed, which can lift almost anything, from houses and trucks and even larger objects, and carry or tumble them considerable distances. Large tornadoes can uproot and lift huge trees, rip asphalt off highways, and flatten buildings. Strong and violent winds frequently throw debris great distances, and flying debris made of broken lumber and metal can impale objects. Tornadoes have extremely low air pressure in their centers, which may cause windows to pop out of buildings or cause buildings to explode because air pressure inside is greater than air pressure within the tornado. Tornadoes can do weird and quirky things, including picking up cows and carrying them unharmed for hundreds of meters, plucking chickens of their feathers without killing them, driving thin pieces of straw through wood like nails, and picking up and carrying railroad cars off the ground and setting them down on their wheels again. Tornado Myths Tornadoes have been such terrifying forces of nature for so long that many myths and misconceptions have arisen about them. Some are harmless, but many are harmful if you make the wrong decision. Where is the safest place to be during a tornado? As most midwesterners know, the best protection is a concrete-lined shelter with solid doors (like a bomb shelter) in the core of the building. Most midwestern houses have “tornado cellars,” where the family can shelter, even if the house is ripped to pieces above them. If such a shelter is not possible, then a room in the lowest 194 Catastrophes! floor of the center of the house with some interior walls and few or no windows (such as a bathroom) is the best alternative. Contrary to the popular myth, the northeastern corner of the house is not the safest part of a structure, nor is the southwestern corner the most dangerous. This myth comes from an 1887 book on tornadoes by John Park Finley, and it was based on the observation that (at least in “tornado alley”) most tornadoes travel southwest to northeast (because this is the trend of the weather fronts when the Gulf and Canadian air masses meet). Later research showed the opposite was true: there were fewer deaths in the southwestern “leading edge” part of a house than in the northeast “trailing edge.” But neither is as safe as the center of the house. Another myth is that highway overpasses provide adequate shelter. This was propagated when a TV film crew in El Dorado, Kansas, shot footage as they hid under an overpass during a 1991 tornado. However, their situation was unusual, because they were wedged in a shelflike crawl space at the top of the embankment with steel girders to hang on to, and the tornado did not actually pass over them. Nevertheless, the sensational footage was broadcast all over the country and led many people to believe they were safe under an overpass. Unfortunately, this myth proved deadly because several victims of the 1999 Oklahoma tornado storms tried to shelter beneath overpasses and were killed by flying debris or swept into the tornado. An overpass may actually be one of the worst places to take shelter during a tornado because overpasses are elevated aboveground, and wind speed is faster on higher terrain. The confined space may create a wind-tunnel effect, focusing the force of the winds into a narrow channel, strengthening them. If you stop your car in an underpass, you might block traffic and make the situation worse for others whose cars are left in exposed positions. Some people think driving as fast as possible to outrun a tornado is safer than staying in a shelter. The opposite is true. Your car may be able to outrun a tornado if you drive in a straight unimpeded line, but if the tornado changes course and blocks the roads that provide the only escape, you may find yourself cut off or trapped. Tornadoes drop debris and fell power lines and tele- Tornadoes 195 phone poles, which can block roads. Tornadoes are usually accompanied by intense rain, hail, and flying dust storms, making driving slippery and visibility limited, so you are more likely to be in an accident. Worst, drivers attempting to escape a tornado may be panicky and careless and more likely to crash or cause a traffic jam, making other drivers vulnerable. In Wichita Falls, Texas, on April 10, 1979, a number of people trying to flee a tornado got caught in traffic and were killed in their cars. If you are in a car and see a tornado bearing down, the National Weather Service recommends you seek shelter in a ditch or culvert, but do not sit in a stalled car. A common belief is that tornadoes are “attracted” to trailer parks. Tornadoes are not affected by any human structures on the ground. They move in a more or less steady path, depending on the winds that produce them. A higher percentage of deaths (about 50%) during tornadoes occurred to victims in trailers, but that’s not because tornadoes are attracted to them. Trailers and mobile homes are simply more vulnerable because they are light, airtight, and not anchored to the ground on a solid foundation; therefore, a strong tornado can easily lift them. High winds can lift, demolish, or roll trailers and mobile homes in ways that other structures cannot. In many parts of the world where land is cheap and permanent housing expensive, a neighborhood may have many trailers, which are vulnerable when tornadoes strike. Another myth is that tornadoes do not strike big cities. Several major cities, including Oklahoma City and Salt Lake City, have been hit by tornadoes. From spring 1997 to spring 2000, approximately 3,600 tornadoes occurred in the United States, and 10 of them struck large metropolitan areas: Miami, Florida; Birmingham, Alabama; Nashville, Tennessee; Little Rock, Arkansas; Cincinnati, Ohio; Wichita, Kansas; Salt Lake City, Utah; Milwaukee, Wisconsin ; and Fort Worth, Texas, were among them. Oklahoma City has been hit more than 109 times between 1893 and 1999. Many larger cities produce “heat islands” from warm plumes of exhaust and concrete absorbing and reflecting heat, which may help to deflect some thunderstorms. But there is a much simpler explanation for why tornadoes rarely hit big cities. There are few large cities in the Great Plains and the Midwest, and these cities do not 196 Catastrophes! occupy a large area of land. They are simply small targets for a typical random array of tornadoes to strike. The Super Outbreak, 1974 Although tornado alley states like Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma have the lion’s share of annual tornadoes in the United States, the largest single-day outbreak of tornadoes did not occur in these states but from Alabama and Georgia up to Michigan and Ontario (fig. 7.6). In one day (April 3, 1974), 148 tornadoes occurred in 13 states, damaging 1,440 km2 (900 square miles) of land. There were 6 F5 and 24 F4 tornadoes, an all-time record, and at one point, there were 15 active tornadoes on the ground simultaneously. The situation was so chaotic and the multiple storms so hard to track that officials issued a blanket tornado warning for the entire state of Indiana. The individual paths of those 148 tornadoes formed a combined path length of 4,160 km (2,600 miles). This single deadly day killed 335 people and hospitalized 1,200 more. More than 7,500 houses were destroyed and 6,000 more were damaged, including another 2,100 mobile homes destroyed and more than 4,000 farm buildings and 1,500 small businesses. More than 27,600 families suffered significant losses, making it one of the costliest disasters in American history, totaling about $3.5 billion (in 2005 dollars). On April 2, a series of weather conditions brewed into the perfect storm. A big cold front spread east from the Rockies toward a low-pressure system over Michigan, which also sucked in humid air from the warm Gulf of Mexico. A strong polar jet stream flowed across the Midwest, with a big portion flowing right over the stretch from Texas to New England. Finally, warm, dry desert air from the Southwest moved up the Mississippi and created an inversion layer, with warmer air on top of cooler air. Since heat rises, this inversion condition is stable and stagnant but also prone to bad side effects when other weather conditions prevail. When these weather systems collided on April 3, the Gulf air was forced up through the inversion layer, producing huge anvil-shaped thunderheads, which were then sent spinning by their own motion and the Tornadoes 197 strong jet stream wind shear. By 1 p.m., the greatest barrage of tornadoes ever recorded had begun. Of the many different tornadoes and many different towns involved, a few instances stand out. The little town of Xenia, Ohio, was hit by an F5 storm formed when two smaller tornadoes merged to form one giant funnel cloud (fig. 7.6). It flattened nearly every building in Xenia, picked up railway cars, and toppled gravestones. It killed 32 people and injured about 1,150 others, causing $150 million in damage. President Nixon visited afterward and declared it a Federal Disaster Area. Before the storm, there were no warning sirens, but now there are 20—too late to have done any good in the 1974 storm. Another F5 tornado hit Brandenburg, Kentucky, and destroyed nearly every Fig. 7.6. One of the 148 “super outbreak” tornadoes of April 3, 1974, as it struck Xenia, Ohio. (Photo courtesy NOAA) 198 Catastrophes! building, while killing 31 people (18 on a single block). Once again, there were no warning sirens in place, and the only warning came when a local disc jockey looked out the window of the studio and saw the tornado coming. He told listeners to take cover, and then the radio station was obliterated. About an hour later, the same thunderhead produced an F4 tornado that hit Louisville , Kentucky, where it demolished much of the city on a 35 km (22 mile) long swath. Luckily, the local weather station and its traffic helicopter were able to follow and track the storm and warn listeners, so there were only a few deaths in the Louisville area. Across the Ohio River, DePauw and Madison, Indiana, were hit by two separate F5 tornadoes, while Monticello, Indiana, was hit by an F4 event, and Cincinnati, Ohio, was hit by a different F5 event. Numerous towns in the South were struck by different tornadoes: Huntsville, Guin, Jasper, and Tanner , Alabama. Finally, the day’s misery became international when an F3 tornado struck Windsor, Ontario (across the border from Detroit, Michigan). This storm killed 9 and injured 20, almost all trapped inside a curling rink. Attack of the Killer Tornado, 1925 The 1974 “super outbreak” may have been the largest cluster of storms in a single day, but the prize for the biggest and deadliest tornado ever goes to the infamous Tri-State Tornado of 1925 (fig. 7.7A). It did not hit the usual tornado targets in Texas and Oklahoma but instead cut a wide swath across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. After 1 p.m. on March 18, 1925, witnesses reported a sound “like a thousand freight trains” headed their way. It was one of the largest and broadest tornadoes ever seen, with a path several kilometers (several miles) wide, moving northeast across Missouri at about 100 km/h (60 mph), Fig. 7.7. A, Map of the course of the Tri-State tornado, 1925. (From Wilson and Chagnon, 1971. Courtesy Illinois State Water Survey; redrawn by Pat Linse.) B, Ruins of the Longfellow School, Murphysboro, Illinois, where 17 children were killed. The storm hit the school at about 2:30 p.m., just as the school day was winding down. C, Devastation of the town of Griffin, Indiana, during the 1925 Tri-State tornado. (Courtesy Wikimedia Commons) 0 10 20 30 40 50 Scale of miles N Gorman—100% destroyed Murphysboro—40% destroyed De Soto—30% destroyed destroyed West Frankfort—20% destroyed destroyed Parrish—90% destroyed Owensville—85 % nearby farms totally destroyed Princeton— 25% destroyed Rural area 1630 1301 1400 56 mph 1426 1438 1305 1315 1434 1600 1618 72 mph 60 mph 78m ph 67 mph 60 mph Gri n Gri n—100% destr oyed Biehle—double funnel tracked for 3/5 miles Biehle—double funnel tracked for 3/5 miles NOTE: Percentage destroyed refers to total number of buildings and homes in the community Mt. Vernon 541 killed and 1423 seriously injured in 40 minutes Onley Veered 9° left and 3 funnels observed for six miles Redford Ellington Annapolis—90% destroyed Cairo WISCONSIN IOWA ILLINOIS MISSOURI INDIANA ARKANSAS OHIO KENTUCKY TENNESSEE MISSOURI ILLINOIS KENTUCKY INDIANA A B C 200 Catastrophes! faster than any car or horse could outrun. Witnesses saw the huge formless round cloud of dust moving toward them and did not recognize it as a tornado. It was difficult to judge its speed, so many people did not realize how fast it was moving and were overcome before they could escape. After leveling Annapolis, Missouri, and many other smaller towns along the way (killing 11), the tornado crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois, where it struck the town of Murphysboro (fig. 7.7B). Every building in its path was destroyed, and the rest of the town caught fire from the open flames left behind. The broken water mains left firefighters watching helplessly as the town burned down. Two hundred and thirty-four people died. It hit De Soto, Illinois, where the residents watched the terrifying huge cloud carrying houses, cars, and uprooted trees racing toward them. It hit the town school, lifting off the roof and knocking down the walls. Of 125 students and teachers, 88 died. The dead students were laid out on the lawn afterward, but their parents could not claim them, because they were dead, too. A train engineer was on the tracks headed straight toward the funnel cloud. He decided to speed up and try to race through it, which he did—except that the roofs of the train cars were stripped off. In 40 minutes, the tornado had struck dozens of towns in southern Illinois, killed 541 people, and injured 1,423. Finally, the killer crossed the Wabash River into Indiana, where it leveled Griffin (fig. 7.7C), Owensville, and Princeton , killing another 71 people. More than 700 died, making it the deadliest single tornado in U.S. history, and more than 2,000 were injured. It hit nine schools in three different states and killed 69 students, the highest death toll of schoolchildren in any natural disaster (fig. 7.7B). Four towns were obliterated and never rebuilt. This catastrophe caused at least $1.4 billion (in 2007 dollars) in damage and severe effects on the local economy. Many starving and homeless people were left behind. Anarchy, crime, and looting were widespread. Recovery was slow, and the entire region did not recover economically or socially for many years after the event. Tornadoes 201 for further reading Akin, W. E. 2002. The Forgotten Storm: The Great Tri-state Tornado of 1925. Lyons Press, Guilford, CT. Ball, J. A. 2005. Tornado! The 1974 Super Outbreak. Bearport Publications, New York. Bechtel, S., and T. Samaras. 2009. Tornado Hunter: Getting Inside the Most Violent Storms on Earth. National Geographic, Washington, DC. Bluestein, H. B. 1999. Tornado Alley: Monster Storms of the Great Plains. Oxford University Press, New York. Felknor, P. S. 2004. The Tri-state Tornado: The Story of America’s Greatest Tornado Disaster. I-Universe, New York. Grazulis, T. P., and D. Flores. 2003. The Tornado: Nature’s Ultimate Windstorm. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. Hollingshead, M., and E. Nguyen. 2008. Adventures in Tornado Alley: The Storm Chasers. Thames & Hudson, London. Laffoon, P. 1975. Tornado. Harper & Row, New York. Levine, M. 2007. F5: Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the Twentieth Century. Miramax, New York. Mathis, N. 2007. Storm Warning: The Story of a Killer Tornado. Touchstone, New York. Weems, J. E. 1977. The Tornado. Doubleday, Garden City, NY. Whipple, A. B. C. 1982. Storm. Time-Life Books, Chicago. ...