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ARCC

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Very impressive damage from the Shoal Creek tornado of 4/27. Trees debarked and chewed to the ground or all limbs sheared off and left as a pole. Looking at flyover shots, the width of devastation is very impressive.

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locomusic01

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Very impressive damage from the Shoal Creek tornado of 4/27. Trees debarked and chewed to the ground or all limbs sheared off and left as a pole. Looking at flyover shots, the width of devastation is very impressive.
Speaking of 4/27, I mentioned a few weeks ago that it would be cool to sort of cover it (or 4/3/74 or whatever) collaboratively. Considering the mind-boggling scale, it's probably the only feasible way to do it in detail. If there's enough interest, I think the easiest way to start would be to set something up on a platform where we could begin collecting and sharing research in an organized way.

I haven't really looked into options, but we should ideally be able to upload photos/documents/etc, organize them in some kind of coherent way and include notations for pertinent details (source, location, context, whatever). And have at least some basic controls for who can add/edit/share/download as well. We could figure the rest out from there, but having a structured way to manage research would make life a lot easier. I primarily use Scrivener and Evernote for my own articles, but I don't think either of those would be very useful for a collaborative project.

Anyway, just something to think about if y'all are actually interested in it.
 

buckeye05

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Very impressive damage from the Shoal Creek tornado of 4/27. Trees debarked and chewed to the ground or all limbs sheared off and left as a pole. Looking at flyover shots, the width of devastation is very impressive.

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There’s another aerial damage photo from this tornado that I’ve been looking for forever. It was taken at or near the 5W Ranch near Ohatchee, and shows a clear swath of ground scouring through an open, grassy field. It was some of the only “typical” ground scouring I’ve seen from 4/27, as in it didn’t dig any trenches like Philadelphia, Cordova, or Smithville. I really should have saved it.
 

buckeye05

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Speaking of 4/27, I mentioned a few weeks ago that it would be cool to sort of cover it (or 4/3/74 or whatever) collaboratively. Considering the mind-boggling scale, it's probably the only feasible way to do it in detail. If there's enough interest, I think the easiest way to start would be to set something up on a platform where we could begin collecting and sharing research in an organized way.

I haven't really looked into options, but we should ideally be able to upload photos/documents/etc, organize them in some kind of coherent way and include notations for pertinent details (source, location, context, whatever). And have at least some basic controls for who can add/edit/share/download as well. We could figure the rest out from there, but having a structured way to manage research would make life a lot easier. I primarily use Scrivener and Evernote for my own articles, but I don't think either of those would be very useful for a collaborative project.

Anyway, just something to think about if y'all are actually interested in it.
Definitely interested!
 

MNTornadoGuy

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Speaking of 4/27, I mentioned a few weeks ago that it would be cool to sort of cover it (or 4/3/74 or whatever) collaboratively. Considering the mind-boggling scale, it's probably the only feasible way to do it in detail. If there's enough interest, I think the easiest way to start would be to set something up on a platform where we could begin collecting and sharing research in an organized way.

I haven't really looked into options, but we should ideally be able to upload photos/documents/etc, organize them in some kind of coherent way and include notations for pertinent details (source, location, context, whatever). And have at least some basic controls for who can add/edit/share/download as well. We could figure the rest out from there, but having a structured way to manage research would make life a lot easier. I primarily use Scrivener and Evernote for my own articles, but I don't think either of those would be very useful for a collaborative project.

Anyway, just something to think about if y'all are actually interested in it.
I'm not really that interested in a 4/27 article as TornadoTalk already has detailed articles about it but 4/3/74 or some other outbreak like 3/21/1932 or 3/21/1952 would be interesting to do
 

buckeye05

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I'm not really that interested in a 4/27 article as TornadoTalk already has detailed articles about it but 4/3/74 or some other outbreak like 3/21/1932 or 3/21/1952 would be interesting to do
Now that you mention it, I think 1974 interests me the most. Information on the most violent, and second largest outbreak in US history shouldn’t be so scarce. I’d absolutely love the opportunity to gather information on that one, especially considering I have a a bunch of people I could interview locally.

WARNING: graphic content below
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My barber has an incredible story from 1974 when she was a kid in Xenia. The tornado missed her house, but hit her friend’s house who happened to be over at her house after school. Her friend’s mom was at home though, so they had to make slowly their way over into the damage path on foot. When they got to her friend’s mom’s house, all that was left was the foundation slab with a bathtub sitting on it. Her friend’s mom was still sitting in the bathtub, relatively unscathed but so terrified that she couldn’t talk. They helped her out the of the tub, and my hairdresser told me that she was in such a state of shock that it was like she was “in a trance”.
They then realized that they couldn’t find their neighbor, who’s house was totally gone. After searching around in a nearby field for a bit, they eventually found her body. She was had thrown into the field and impaled by a piece of lumber.

Some of the details could be off, but this is what I remember. I can have her retell the story again soon though.

I also have a story about several of my late grandfathers friends riding it out inside a gas station walk in cooler.
 

MNTornadoGuy

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Now that you mention it, I think 1974 interests me the most. Information on the most violent, and second largest outbreak in US history shouldn’t be so scarce. I’d absolutely love the opportunity to gather information on that one, especially considering I have a a bunch of people I could interview locally.

WARNING: graphic content below
————————————————
My barber has an incredible story from 1974 when she was a kid in Xenia. The tornado missed her house, but hit her friend’s house who happened to be over at her house after school. Her friend’s mom was at home though, so they had to make slowly their way over into the damage path on foot. When they got to her friend’s mom’s house, all that was left was the foundation slab with a bathtub sitting on it. Her friend’s mom was still sitting in the bathtub, relatively unscathed but so terrified that she couldn’t talk. They helped her out the of the tub, and my hairdresser told me that she was in such a state of shock that it was like she was “in a trance”.
They then realized that they couldn’t find their neighbor, who’s house was totally gone. After searching around in a nearby field for a bit, they eventually found her body. She was had thrown into the field and impaled by a piece of lumber.

Some of the details could be off, but this is what I remember. I can have her retell the story again soon though.

I also have a story about several of my late grandfathers friends riding it out inside a gas station walk in cooler.
I'm kind of surprised that most of the violent tornadoes including many of the F5s from 4/3/1974 were poorly documented despite being surveyed extensively by Fujita and one of the most famous outbreaks in history.
 
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I'm kind of surprised that most of the violent tornadoes including many of the F5s from 4/3/1974 were poorly documented despite being surveyed extensively by Fujita and one of the most famous outbreaks in history.
Especially the northern Alabama tornadoes (Guin, in particular). I'm a broken record at this point as Guin has been discussed quite a bit in this thread before but it really is frustrating how difficult it is to find good-quality damage photographs from it.
 

locomusic01

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I'm kind of surprised that most of the violent tornadoes including many of the F5s from 4/3/1974 were poorly documented despite being surveyed extensively by Fujita and one of the most famous outbreaks in history.
There's a huge amount of information and photos in Fujita's archives at Texas Tech. Unfortunately, the last time I checked you could only access the files in person and they were pretty strict about what you could do with them. I'd have probably made a trip there anyway if I wasn't almost 2,000 miles away from Lubbock.
 

MNTornadoGuy

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There's a huge amount of information and photos in Fujita's archives at Texas Tech. Unfortunately, the last time I checked you could only access the files in person and they were pretty strict about what you could do with them. I'd have probably made a trip there anyway if I wasn't almost 2,000 miles away from Lubbock.
I wonder why they haven't released it online yet as they have released most of Fujita's papers.
 

locomusic01

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I'm not really that interested in a 4/27 article as TornadoTalk already has detailed articles about it but 4/3/74 or some other outbreak like 3/21/1932 or 3/21/1952 would be interesting to do
That'd be my preference as well. It's more difficult but also more interesting. Somewhere in my files I've got notes from a few people I interviewed years ago when I was naive enough to think I could just crank out an article on the Super Outbreak. Didn't take me too long to realize I'd bitten off more than I could chew lol

The good thing is that it happened just recently enough that there are plenty of survivors still around.
 

locomusic01

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I wonder why they haven't released it online yet as they have released most of Fujita's papers.
I dunno, I'd guess probably they just think it's too labor-intensive to digitize a ton of photos and maps and notes and whatnot. I think a lot of it is also unsorted/unlabeled, which is problematic. I'm sure there would be enough interest that they could find volunteers if they wanted to, though.
 

Marshal79344

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I just came across this photo of damage from the Beauregard Tornado. Anybody in here had absolutely no chance of getting out alive. I am unaware if this was an occupied home or not. I bet that EF4 intensity was maintained at this location, but most of the homes were too weak to warrant an EF4 rating. Of all places this EF4 Tornado could have impacted, it had to impact a subdivision filled with terribly built homes. How terrible.....

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There's a huge amount of information and photos in Fujita's archives at Texas Tech. Unfortunately, the last time I checked you could only access the files in person and they were pretty strict about what you could do with them. I'd have probably made a trip there anyway if I wasn't almost 2,000 miles away from Lubbock.
Is Texas Tech what you got that collection of Brandenburg photos from?
Interesting they'll allow you to access those online but not a whole bunch of others, or maybe they have a limit on how much you can access for free online?
So, do they likely have tons of damage photographs from both of the Tanner tornadoes, Jasper, Guin, Huntsville and many tornadoes from that day that are likely impossible to find elsewhere?
 
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I dunno, I'd guess probably they just think it's too labor-intensive to digitize a ton of photos and maps and notes and whatnot. I think a lot of it is also unsorted/unlabeled, which is problematic. I'm sure there would be enough interest that they could find volunteers if they wanted to, though.
This is one of the biggest problems of the Information Age: so many files need to be digitized but for whatever reason it's either too labor-intensive to do so or they weren't neatly categorized in the analog information days so they're impossible to neatly sort and catalog for information into digital databases; had a huge discussion about this in one of my archiving classes for my MLIS degree last year; really illuminating stuff.
 

locomusic01

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Is Texas Tech what you got that collection of Brandenburg photos from?
Interesting they'll allow you to access those online but not a whole bunch of others, or maybe they have a limit on how much you can access for free online?
So, do they likely have tons of damage photographs from both of the Tanner tornadoes, Jasper, Guin, Huntsville and many tornadoes from that day that are likely impossible to find elsewhere?
It's been quite a while now but IIRC they didn't actually have the Brandenburg photos posted anywhere at the time. I was just poking around the root directory and saw them listed in a folder somewhere. They might have them posted publicly now, I haven't checked.

Anyway, yeah, there are boxes full of survey photos, film, slides, documents, news clippings, interviews, etc. It's hard to say exactly what they have since many of the labels are so generic, but here's an inventory of their holdings: https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/ttusw/00271/tsw-00271.html

It's like a treasure hoard for severe weather nerds. As you'd imagine, there's a bunch of stuff from decades' worth of events. Incidentally, I believe all (or at least most) of the survey photos from 5/31/85 are stored there, too.
 

locomusic01

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This is one of the biggest problems of the Information Age: so many files need to be digitized but for whatever reason it's either too labor-intensive to do so or they weren't neatly categorized in the analog information days so they're impossible to neatly sort and catalog for information into digital databases; had a huge discussion about this in one of my archiving classes for my MLIS degree last year; really illuminating stuff.
Yeah, automation has made it easier in recent years, but it's often still labor-intensive and/or costly when you're dealing with huge collections. It's a real bummer because there's SO much stuff out there - not only at TTU but at a bunch of other institutions as well - but most of it just sits around in archives collecting dust.

Some will pull and digitize information/photos for you even if you can't make it in person, but it's usually not cheap. I had to pay for some photos in my Tupelo article, and I found several others that I really wanted to use but were so expensive (relatively speaking) that I just couldn't justify it. Libraries and museums are usually better about that, though. I got some photos from the 1920 Palm Sunday outbreak from a museum and they only charged me like $5 to copy + mail them.

'Course the copies ended up being pretty small and low-quality, and I still don't understand why they couldn't have just scanned them and sent them digitally, but that's a whole other thing.
 
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