Master of Disaster

I thought about that as well. And those numbers do not reflect Cat 4 hurricanes that became Cat 5. But the satellite era almost certainly plays a roll in numbers.

Was the lowest pressure 964 on that last pass?

An interesting note on Cat 4 intensity. Doing a little hurricane background this morning. Between 1951-1975, 23 hurricanes reached Cat 4 intensity. Between 1976-2000, 24 hurricanes reached Cat 4 intensity. From 2001-present, a whopping 21 hurricanes have already reached that intensity.

In 4 out of 5 cases, merging cells result in no intensification of the absorbing cell according to the SPC. This was not one of those cases obviously. In addition, the environment which would have supported an EF5 went from unimpressive to off the charts in 5 minutes roughly. There is NOT a meteorologist in this world who could have seen what was coming until the velocity scans came in probably about the time it was over Joplin. The point is, regardless of how advanced we think our radars are, some events just unfold so quickly that no one could have predicted it.

Whats so crazy about that video is its not even IN the tornado. The wind direction never changes so its def just inflow.

Yea, he def said "man hole cover". Not sure if there is a different cover that means that there though. Ill trust you on that one.

Had the opportunity to sit in on a presentation tonight by the EM director from Joplin. Some notes from his speech. 7,500 residential homes damaged or destroyed 9,200 residents displaced 530 businesses destroyed 30 businesses will not be returning 4,500 employees affected 17,000 tetanus shots given out The hospital saw an increase of 100 patients every 15 minutes yet the hospital (St Johns) evacuated totally in 90 minutes. The hospital moved into a basketball arena and they were doing surgery within an hour of opening. At one point, ambulances waiting to transport were 4 wide and 20 deep. Freeman Hospital had 10 deep waiting for each of 4 operating rooms. 100% of primary streets were cleared 36hrs after the storm. 5000 emergency services personnel from 435 different agencies responded. 6 total passes were made looking for survivors. Last alive was rescued on Tuesday. The tornado removed 31 man hole covers which have never been found. Three fire trucks destroyed. Two fire stations destroyed. 3 million cubic yards of debris removed. 90-10 split of reimbursement. Most sheltered at any point 650 2977 mobile housing units ordered. 569 families needed temp housing. Currently 453 remain in temp housing. 118,197 volunteers registered for duty 720,834 hours of volunteer service logged. 54 percent of the city has been rebuilt or is being rebuilt at 9 months. St Johns did NOT shift off its foundation. The upper three floors tilted 3".

Valid point. But width does seem to have at least some record keeping value considering you cant search for "widest tornado" without Hallum Nebraska showing up in the results.

Actually this was what he claimed was Joplin.

Presentation was pretty good. They talked about how everyone who was injured walked to the hospital yet the hospital was evacuating. Also talked about how they were lucky the generators failed at St Johns or the gas breaks would have caused certain explosions or fires. Overall not bad. The only thing that got on my nerves a little is he showed a pic of "the joplin tornado" as a picturesque stovepipe with a small debris ball at the base. Def NOT the joplin storm. He also said the total track was 6 miles which we know is wrong. And that it was the widest EF5 in US history. Not sure about that one, I thought OKC May 9th 1999 was wider but Tornado Tony might know.

There is an article in usa today this morning about public warnings and joplin Page4A. Interesting enough I am at a conference in Pittsburgh and the session tomorrow is on the Joplin EMS response.

Yep. Look at the large lake at the end of that. Directly to the left of the lake you see a long white driveway. Not the driveway going North South, the one to the left of that going East/West. The trailer midway down the driveway is missing its roof and the trees are down which marks the end of the path. Its easy to pick up tree damage now because the leaves turned brown on GE for the ones that fell.

No worries, with this discussion I noticed Google Earth updated to include the damage path now and you can see it ending just Southwest of the large lake Northeast of Granby.

I think the only thing that's really dumb is the fact that you are rambling on about something that wasn't the point. But hey, if it makes you feel better, good for yas. I said he was wrong about it ending and wrong about it lifting. Which was correct. I never had an issue with his theory on damage. You assumed that.

Def agree there about how the winds act. All tornadoes have that kind of tiered damage though in one way or another. I think the most dramatic example of that was Parkersburg where one house was missing a shingle. The one across the street was off its foundation.

There is nothing correct about being totally wrong. The tornado didn't end there and continued to ruin lives and homes for several more miles. Not sure where you guys are getting this lifting nonsense. Do your research and be right or look foolish being wrong. I have serious doubts the tornado remained in a perpetual lifting point for an additional 12 miles while continuing to do high end EF2 damage. There is nothing "lucky" about that.

What on earth are you talking about? The tornado was on the ground for several miles past the city.

Got to admit Randy, Jack Johnson wasnt something to be proud of.

Quake initiated landslide down in Calvert Cliffs according to MEMA. Lost a PEPCO substation to damage as well.

No worries. Just didnt get why it seemed cool to drag me into this when I posted nothing at all.

I stopped posting here because of dumbass posts like this one. Do I make fun of your pictures or what you do for a living? Nope, even if I thought they sucked, I would never make fun of you about it. Grow up a little! Cause whats really fookin funny is when you were trying to make outgoing calls on jammed lines, I was having no problem calling my family in MS to tell them we were ok because I get priority service though GETS and Sat phones in the EOC. A perk that I would gladly extend to anyone here if they needed to know how family was if people werent so damn ugly. So by all means, keep bashing for no reason what so ever.

Noticed a NWS press release this morning stating that 9 disasters this year have reached 1 billion in damages with over 35 billion spent on recovery this year. This ties the record with 2008.

LIKE!!!

There was a def calm during the gas station video. Thats why the guy filming repeatedly says "were good". There was also two different witness statements posted here who said there was a calm in the center as well. The link is on this thread, Ill go back and find it on Tuesday if no one else has.

I still find the whole calm in the middle like an eye, the most interesting piece of the storm. I have yet to see one person explain why or how that happened beyond a guess. Giving a presentation to Montgomery College and Public Schools tomorrow on lessons learned from this one.