WWA Info Exchange

Heavy damage and some deaths/injuries (13 dead 40 injured in Monroe county) to some small surrounding towns near me, and along a path thru Tuscaloosa, AL. Our entire county lost power from about 1:30 yesterday till around 4 am today, which also meant no water once the towers ran dry. No cell service either till power came back on, which is a good reason to have a traditional landline. Here's some early reports/pics from the local paper: http://www.cdispatch.com/Photos/photo.a ... photonum=1

Front page, more news: http://www.cdispatch.com/ .

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I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

I was watching the weather radar last night, oh my, terrible.

Everyone in the area please report in as soon as you can. We all get worried.

Vicki

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Whoever said nothing is impossible, never tried slamming a revolving door....

WOW!!!!! I went to bed early last night and had no idea this had happened.

To those who haven't been up close and personal with a tornado, their strength is just totally unbelieveable.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected....and to those who are now under tornado watches and warnings along the East Coast this morning.

Verna

FYI - The largest outbreak of tornadoes in American History was the Super Outbreak in April 1974... I think 143 tornadoes touched down with the Xenia, Ohio F5 probably the most notable.

Yesterday, the reports are already up to 160 possible touchdowns... Several are being investigated to see if they got to EF5 severity.

Pray for these folks. It's VERY bad.

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I was really shoched to see the power,loss of life and devastation.Just cant figure out why so many this year

From what I saw on the sat tv nothing holds when that pulling power is in your area.

Are your oak trees ok Gene?

Be safe you and yours.

Take Care
Francois

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Its the quality that counts not the quantity.
If you want creative workers give them time to play.

On one of my diabetes forums, a member there in the Ringgold, GA area, had a tornado go over his house. He and his are ok physically. The rest of the story was not good. Hail took out his wife's windshield. The schools were totally destroyed. The exits on the interstate (I-75) into Ringgold, have been shut down. @ Tom, heard this morning that winds exceeded over 200 in one of the tornadoes. Is that an F5?

Last count this morning that I heard, 230+ killed. At least 140 of those were in Alabama alone. Has anyone heard from Yank and GiGi? Paul, have you heard anything from him?

We've been under the gun for three weeks now, but....yesterday missed us....other than a couple of didn't kill the nerves thunderstorms. One of our biggest concerns here still, is the flash flooding and flood warnings. Thirty seven of 47 flood gates have been up since Tuesday. Flood stage here is 39 feet, with Tuesday nite late reading of 53 feet. The Ohio is not expected to crest until May 3rd.

I was in one tornado, in the middle of the night, when I was 9 years old. It was 1/2 of a city block from us. It DID wake us up.

Thoughts and prayers to all in this destuction.

Trisha

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~First light brings a new day, new hope, new wisdom, & a chance to start fresh again-JSM
~Welcome to all new members! & welcome back to the others!
~He is most powerful who has power over himself - Seneca

Hamilton is fine. All back to normal here. All the storms went North and South of us. Toll is now 245 dead, maybe over 1000 injured, and counting across all the affected States.
Thousands of homes, etc. including schools, the entire downtown area of Smithville ( a small historic town 20miles N.E of me ). The lengthy power outage has also resulted in nearly every grocery store, including Walmart, Kroger, etc. in 3 nearby counties dumping all refrigerated and frozen foods.

Tuscaloosa, AL really got slammed. Went down the main drag (hiway 82) thru town and was 3/4 to 1 mile wide path. Destroyed parts of a couple malls and many smaller stores, restaurants, etc.

Most of the news is only covering Tuscaloosa, since it's the biggest city affected, but many rural areas and small towns were badly hit also.

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I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

Jiggy -

Tornadoes are ranked on the Enhanced Fujita Scale (As of Feb 1, 2007). And, you betcha... 200 mph is EF5.



Since these aren't like Hurricanes where the forecasters get wind readings in real time, the damage is assessed after the fact and the rating is given based on that analysis. There are reports of several of these storms reaching EF5 intensity.

Right now, the NWS folks are fanning out across the damaged areas to evaluate. Rumor has it that there are a minimum of 170 reports of tornadoes out there...

_________________
* http://tomsworkbench.com
* Purveyor of the world's finest Weasel Spit
* Why do they call it a WORKshop if I go there to have fun?
* Founding member: WWAFLAUX#1
* Passed 16,000 posts 7/23/09 - 8:41 a.m.

I've never been near a tornado and hope I never am. My heart goes out to those who lost lost loved ones.

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"To all those who work come moments of beauty unseen by the rest of the world." Norman Maclean

CNN put up a map with markers of all the places hit yesterday - http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2011/04/ ... tml?hpt=T1

And a blog post by Joe D'Aleo and Roy Spencer - both well known meterologists - http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/04/28/p ... more-38885

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I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

I'm not superstitious, but we've had this guy hanging on a wall in the breezeway since we built the house, and so far every bad storm has bypassed us with no damage to the house or my shop.

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I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

That link is to a 1 minute clip from Tuesday, when we had a cell go overhead. At the time I thought, cool, I can get some lightning strikes, found out this morning that an EF1 tornado spawned from that cell, took off a couple of roofs about two miles east of us. My wife and son were driving during the storm, which spawned dome sized hail during the peak of it.

it also did some slight damage to our house:


peeled back the ridge cap on our house. Here is another couple of clips:

that is my wife and me checking out the nieghborhood just afterwards.

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Ned

Madison Woodsmith.
WWACNYAUX #1
2B1ASK1

Neighbor and I were coming back to our campground from fishing at a small pond when I was about six. Wall cloud started to form and he started us moving Northwest, at right angles to a normal tornado path. The funnel formed and we hit the ground in a swale. It was like a like a freight train, roaring, with stuff falling on our legs. When we got up, we were less than a hundred yards from trees which were still steaming after being twisted off.

A tanker, he had made the breakout in Normandy and run all the way to war's end in Czechoslovakia with 3rd Army, so he knew how to keep a cool head.

His wife, and mom and dad thought we were goners. Never saw dad so concerned or relieved as when he met with us on the trail back.

Thank God, we are find here in Montgomery.

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My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter!

CJ,

Thank God you are ok. I'm so sorry, I had forgotten, that you also live in Alabama.

Trisha

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@ Tom, thanks.

@ all...Brian Williams (NBC) evening news.... well, I can't see to type anymore right now.

Stay safe everyone.

Trisha

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~First light brings a new day, new hope, new wisdom, & a chance to start fresh again-JSM
~Welcome to all new members! & welcome back to the others!
~He is most powerful who has power over himself - Seneca

Jiggy, GiGi and I are fine, all the bad storms went north of us and we weren't bothered at all except for the threats that kept me up till midnight.
186+ fatalities as of last count for Alabama. I can't believe all the distruction in tuscalusa, birmingham and other cities and towns.
It is going to take time for things to get back to anything nearing normal. State of emergency was established last night by our Gov, and The Fed Gov has promised aid and Fema is on the ground, along with the Red Cross and other emergency services.

Jiggy Thanks for thinking of us and I assure you we are both fine with no problems here.

Wayne

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My father was my Mentor for my WW hobby. luv ya dad.

WW'ers I have met.
Guroo
Verna
Wooder
Paul, (brother,)
Falcon1.
Gene and his friend George

Some more details from Smithville (hardest hit town in MS ) http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=11064



It even broke some tombstones in the cemetery!

This twister is estimated to have been 1/2 mile wide, which is about the width of Smithville. They've closed the entire town, except for emergency workers. According to NWS in Memphis, it was an EF5. http://nems360.com/view/full_story/1303 ... news_right

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I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

Wayne,

So relieved you posted! I really imagine that you guys are more than relieved!

I don't know if we have more members in that part of the country or not.

@ Gene, Smithville was one of the places that was on Brian Williams. Just so heartbreaking.

@NB, at 6 years old, you were probably just as scared, as I was at 9.

@ All....Stay safe, no matter where you are. Keep those thoughts, and if you are the praying kind, .... well, those folks and their familes, businesses, etc., ... sure will need them...for a long time.

Love you all,

Trisha

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~First light brings a new day, new hope, new wisdom, & a chance to start fresh again-JSM
~Welcome to all new members! & welcome back to the others!
~He is most powerful who has power over himself - Seneca