NaoPos

Has anyone heard from Josh at all?

Just looking at some videos from Snapchat in St. Croix, and they got hit pretty hard from that OEW. Looks like anything leafy that wasnt a palm tree lost its leaves. Pretty decent damage to block structures as well.

Latest sonde has 137knots @surface in the SE eyewall. @931mb (above surface in the Eyewall) was 173knots.

Where did you get that info? tt recon info hasn't updated since 0322(almost 25mins).?? nvm. Just updated **

Lucky Sob

It's societies nature as a whole to be reactive rather than proactive.

It stills boggle me.. At the end of the video, the girl says ,in reference to the tor sirens, "and now they're turning them off? Well, I'm not sure if they keep them on the whole time". A severe lack of education on emergency procedures from the govt level To the general population.(all levels, state, local mostly). I mean, you live in the heart of tornado alley, how isn't everyone educated ? It's mind blowing. I know not everybody can be fully informed on these procedures, but c'mon! Sorry for the rant, just something I wanted to discuss.

JoMo, Nice shelter. Quick question though. Is their a secondary exit hatch? I know it's a small vestibule. However, in the event of a tornado knocking it over towards the door, wouldn't want to see anyone not be able to open the door if it was face down. But then again, I guess the bottom is just a 3/4" plywood?

The old trailers they used in the katrina response had high levels of formaldeyhyde*(correct spelling) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/12/AR2010031202213.html By Spencer S. HsuSaturday, March 13, 2010 In a giant auction, the federal government has agreed to sell for pennies on the dollar most of the 120,000 formaldehyde-tainted trailers it bought nearly five years ago for Hurricane Katrina victims. But the sale of the units, perhaps the most visible symbol of the government's bungled response to the hurricane, has triggered a new round of charges that it is endangering future buyers for years to come. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/fema-katrina-tr/ and another article from 07' The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will measure formaldehyde levels in 500 trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as housing for victims of Hurricane Katrina. "However, the scope and design of the study, announced during a press conference today, suggest that it can do little more than confirm what’s already known: the trailers contain high levels of formaldehyde, a known respiratory irritant and carcinogen" "Walls and cabients in 120,000 trailers distributed by FEMA after Katrina were made from formaldehyde-containing particleboard" I imagined they've moved on from the debacle, but not sure if it was brought up at town hall meetings. The prefabbed homes =cheap=cheaper means of construction.

Did FEMA replace the ole' fermaldahyde trailers from the Katrina era?

I still can't get over the duration of the actual tornado. i mean, you usally see a tornado cross a road in 10 seconds, or other videos it's moving fast, and you only see a couple seconds of it in 1 spot. But between the convenience store video, and some others, and hearing that it lasted up to 2-3 minutes in some places is just unfathomable.

Beau, Thanks for posting that article. That is an incredible, heart breaking, hope lifting article. On the board, all we hear are x amount dead, y amount injured. I don't think most of us on here think about the methods of death, injury and destruction these people experienced. Impalements, sand blasted with concrete, crushed, paralysis,suffocation, buried alive, being lifted and tossed like a rag doll hundreds of yards, explosions,sliced, etc.... It must have been an absolute closest thing to Hell on Earth. God bless them. I could never imagine all that at once. Being a fireman, i;ve seen single incidents of such acts, but never within a whole day and in such proximity and shear numbers.

I've asked this too many times this year. But why in gods green earth are people that live in "TORNADO ALLEY" less educated than they should be? I mean. c'mon... It should be instilled in people from a young age about the dangers of these storms. I know this it's probably about 50-50 on percentages of people who know the dangers and the others. But it always seems that when people hear tornado warnings/sirens/watched that they don't take it as serious as they should And i;m not just talking about this event in Joplin, but all over the south. People in Florida and NC know about hurricane prepardness, west coast do the earthquake/wildfire thing, but i can't fathom some of the stories i hear. WHoever said as they were heading out of Joplin, and warning people on the way in not to go, and they laugh it off. It's absurd... I know you can't fix stupid, but c'mon people. I don't live in the area of tornados, so i have some questions? 1. Do public schools have education programs, cirriculums on tornado disasters? 2. DO local communities have seminars on weather emergencies? I know there's false alarms an such, but this goes to show you, that ignoring 1, well it could be your last one. Finally, glad to see/hear your alright JoMo. I don;t know you personally, but your on the forum, and we were worried about you. edit* I sit back and try and put myself as one of the 5 persons in the car found in the pond, and i can't even start to fathom the fear, destruction and panic they must have felt in their final minutes... Must have been awful

Ehh, still not a weak tornado by any means. And the rapid intensification says a short distance wouldn't make too much of a difference, ( structurally speaking) . Hoping for the best

Man, still can't believe what happened. Never thought we could get much worse than April,27th.

Yeah. Seems like this would be a great tornado to study in terms of how fast, vigorous ,large and "brief" it was. WOnder what was so different from any other tornadic storm in the area compared to this one. All questions mets, chasher and amatuers alike are trying to figure that out.

it could have been the inflow, then the tornado, and then the RFD. but your assesment could be right as well. tough to say. not sure what exactly goes on in the middle of these multi vortex tornado/large wedge tornados

Absolutely. I would bet EF-4 as well. Tree's debarked, and basements(below grade) exposed are sone things that make me think that. I've never seen cars so damaged. I mean, windows broken with hoods crunched from tree's falling on them. But this is something else. Cars look like they were taken out to a firing range and shot to shreads . I guess the duration , being such a wide tornado, would account for that.

Ehh, that last statement is tough one. While warnings were lesser in time, you have to take into account population and housing booms. Were there as many communities back then as there is now? Just playing devils advocate there. Another thing I want to point out is this as far as shelters. There's def an increase in apartment buildings, condo style buildings. this isn't the best/ safest construction housing as far shelters go. A lot of garden style 3-4 story apartment buildings have no basements. Just think it helped contribute to the death toll. A lot of times, the only images you see are single family dwellings destroyed. But I wonder how many multiple family dwellings got hit during this outbreak.

Because its your home, and your right to do what you want to to, within reasonable law. there's a chance for eletrocution, should we make everyone wear grounding rods? there's a chance for fire, should we make everyone wear fire fighting equipment, own a fire eninge or pre req it to building code/ laws? There's a chance for a flood, do we make everyone in a flood prone area have a boat? People, get real. Danger is out there. in all shapes ,types and forms...there's always monday morning QB's that could do it better. Always that woulda coulda shoulda peoples out there. Building codes have to be within reason of new construction, not old. It's tough in RESIDENTIAL occupancies to require such specific codes. ALmost unconstitutional. HEy, propose it, and find the 5-10k for everyone within a tornado prone area. (almost the whole lower 4).. hell, even trailer parks should have safe rooms as well while we're giving suggestions safe rooms, tornado shelters, bomb shelters, 2012 shelter etc all are great... But you can t reuqire someone to have them by law. As far as evacuations. You HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?! maybe a 24 hr evac timeframe(like hurricanes ), which would completely be idiotic. How big is a warning area? how disruptive can it be? wanna talk about 1hr timeframes? go take a ride during rush hour through your local city and see how far you get outside that potential danger area. If you wanna play it safe, leave the day of. Expecting people to run to a community center is, well, darwinish. THE BEST PLAY OF SAFETY HERE IS EDUCATION AND PUBLIC AWARENESS!! THEY NEED TO KNOW IN ADVANCE WHAT EXACTLY THEY ARE DEALING WITH. It's mother nature, catastrophes of this nature have happened, are happening and will continue to happen. It's inevitable. We, as a populous, have done wonders in strides for early warnings, preparedness and saving lives. Look at the numbers. this is just one of them perfect storms. Sure, things could have been different. But that's in the pass. learn from the incident, plan ahead, and move on.

Jcxwguy , It's just CNN . Com homepage cover story. Posting from my iPhone, so it might be my fault

http://m.cnn.com/primary/_AS6rmG-iCYgcw6rvF1 159 confirmed dead...

Glad they weren't up there attm. Lets hope the house was spared. good luck Anyhow fellas, ladies.. im off to bed. Striper fishing @ 4am tomorrow..fml! From a meteorological stand point, what an awe stricking day to observe such an event. As far as the human toll, too much death and destrcuction and i hope everyone fairs well the rest of the event. tomorrow's images are gona be a gut check.

This thing is a freakin machine..

eurharlee heads up!