Significant Tornado Events

[TH2002]

Hackleburg did a lot more violent tree damage then people give it credit for.

These 2 photo show an entire line of trees virtually gone in the center of the path:

View attachment 10412View attachment 10413

Three images of extreme damage in Hackleburg. At top left, a view of large trees that were completely debarked near the Wrangler Factory. At top right, a vehicle that was rendered unrecognizable in the vicinity of Clay Street; note the debarked and denuded trees it's located in. At bottom, the tornado was powerful enough to rip concrete from the ground. Bottom pic is just concrete ripped from a foundation (I think) but part of the image so I left it.

View attachment 10414

Source:

Examining the Phil Campbell Tornado – The Ultimate EF5

□ During the April 2011 Super Outbreak, one of the most impressive tornadic events in recorded history swept through six counties in northern Alabama. The massive and often invisible EF5 tornado le…

extremeplanet.wordpress.com

Somewhat unrelated but is that last photo the restaurant foundation that was reportedly heavily damaged in Hackleburg?

 

[locomusic01]

Amazing how you really have to look for clues for extreme damage feats like this, shows the importance of having experienced surveyors when it come to tornado rankings.
Also, I found some photos of extreme vehicle damage from Niles-Wheatland that I'll post below, as it's amazingly hard to find automobile damage from this tornado (or most from this outbreak). It's aerials of the Niles Park Shopping Plaza area, in the left below photo you'll see a car with what appears to be missing it's entire front half. I found this on extremeplanet, fyi.

View attachment 10409

Yeah, you can see a couple of mangled cars in the bottom left photo. Here's a little clearer version:

It's funny - I know from all sorts of accounts that Niles-Wheatland produced the most extreme vehicle damage of the entire outbreak, yet I've only found a handful of photos that show it. It's almost like people went out of their way not to take pictures of mangled vehicles lol. The guy I mentioned said that he had some among his photos so I'm anxiously awaiting that.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Cookeville was a pretty violent tornado, it mangled cars beyond recognition, swept away a "very well-attached" home, completely destroyed the 2 top stories of an apartment, and denuded/debarked trees. The intense damage swath was very narrow.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Somewhat unrelated but is that last photo the restaurant foundation that was reportedly heavily damaged in Hackleburg?

The restaurant with the foundation that buckled was in Mount Hope, not Hackleburg I believe. I think the image of the foundation I found is from a home in Hackleburg, but not entirely sure. There was also another restaurant off of Highway 20 in Lawrence County that was completely destroyed but I'm not sure about it's foundation buckling.

 

[TH2002]

Cookeville was a pretty violent tornado, it mangled cars beyond recognition, swept away a "very well-attached" home, completely destroyed the 2 top stories of an apartment, and denuded/debarked trees. The intense damage swath was very narrow.

I could probably squeeze a low end EF5 rating out of Cookeville mostly based on that first home. It was very large, well-anchored and not built on a CMU foundation, though a lot of debris being left in a pile next to the foundation would likely mitigate anything higher than low end EF5. Impressive vehicle damage too. The tornado was probably very similar in intensity to Murfreesboro 2009, and both were definitely stronger than the low end EF4 ratings they got.

 

[buckeye05]

Somewhat unrelated but is that last photo the restaurant foundation that was reportedly heavily damaged in Hackleburg?

No it’s not. I’ve never been able to determine what that photo in Hackleburg actually is a photo of. The restaurant that had its foundation buckled was in Mount Hope, which is counties away from Hackleburg. I’ll post photos of the restaurant foundation later.

 

[buckeye05]

I could probably squeeze a low end EF5 rating out of Cookeville mostly based on that first home. It was very large, well-anchored and not built on a CMU foundation, though a lot of debris being left in a pile next to the foundation would likely mitigate anything higher than low end EF5. Impressive vehicle damage too. The tornado was probably very similar in intensity to Murfreesboro 2009, and both were definitely stronger than the low end EF4 ratings they got.

That is a CMU foundation with it’s subflooring and floor platform still attached, and not a poured slab. There are no anchor bolts visible, and such a house shouldn’t be rated higher than mid EF4. You gotta work on taking a closer look at foundation types and construction methods before blurting out that every other tornado is an EF5 candidate. This one especially isn’t.

 

[buckeye05]

For example, here’s the exact same type of foundation, but with the subfloor ripped out in Arab, AL. I can see why the Cookeville photo is misleading with the tile floor, but underneath is nothing but plywood and floor joists.

Not so sturdy or impressive looking once some of brick veneer is dislodged and the subflooring is torn away.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

On September 28, 2016 a significant tornado outbreak occurred in South Australia.

Blyth F2:

-
Wild Dog Creek F2:

-
Wilmington F2:

 

[TH2002]

That is a CMU foundation with it’s subflooring and floor platform still attached, and not a poured slab. There are no anchor bolts visible, and such a house shouldn’t be rated higher than mid EF4. You gotta work on taking a closer look at foundation types and construction methods before blurting out that every other tornado is an EF5 candidate. This one especially isn’t.

If you are talking about the home in the tweet at the top of his post, no that's not the home I'm talking about. I'm referring to the second home with 2 pictures. While it doesn't look like poured concrete it's definitely not a CMU foundation. Same foundation type as this home in Hallam:

Not saying the home in Hallam deserved an F5 rating, but it's not a CMU foundation as far as I know. Maybe I'm wrong and if so please correct me.

Yes I'm wrong a lot and am not an expert damage surveyor but when did I ever say that every home swept away is an EF5 candidate? If a home is at least reasonably well constructed, it should be an EF5 candidate. Shouldn't be rated EF5 in every case but the rating should at least be considered if construction quality and/or context supports it. The home in Cookeville looks pretty well anchored to me (except for the second bolt missing a nut and washer) but I guess there's a chance those are cut nails and not bolts.

 

[buckeye05]

If you are talking about the home in the tweet at the top of his post, no that's not the home I'm talking about. I'm referring to the second home with 2 pictures. While it doesn't look like poured concrete it's definitely not a CMU foundation. Same foundation type as this home in Hallam:

Not saying the home in Hallam deserved an F5 rating, but it's not a CMU foundation as far as I know. Maybe I'm wrong and if so please correct me.

Yes I'm wrong a lot and am not an expert damage surveyor but when did I ever say that every home swept away is an EF5 candidate? If a home is at least reasonably well constructed, it should be an EF5 candidate. Shouldn't be rated EF5 in every case but the rating should at least be considered if construction quality and/or context supports it. The home in Cookeville looks pretty well anchored to me (except for the second bolt missing a nut and washer) but I guess there's a chance those are cut nails and not bolts.

Ohhhhh I see what you’re referring to. I for some reason thought you we’re talking about the last pic. That first one was an apartment building though, not a house. That’s where I got confused. Still probably the most intense damage in Cookeville, but still within the EF4 category due to the lack of debris scatter and only relatively minor damage to cars in the parking lot. I could still potentially see an argument for high-end EF4 with that structure though.

My bad with the misunderstanding.

 

[TH2002]

Ohhhhh I see what you’re referring to. I for some reason thought you we’re talking about the last pic. That first one was an apartment building though, not a house. That’s where I got confused. Still probably the most intense damage in Cookeville, but still within the EF4 category due to the lack of debris scatter and only relatively minor damage to cars in the parking lot. I could still potentially see an argument for high-end EF4 with that structure though.

My bad with the misunderstanding.

I probably should have specified that I don't allow Twitter to run scripts in my browser so I can't see embedded tweets unless I temporarily disable NoScript (or add Twitter to NoScript's whitelist). Something on my part too haha

But like I said with Cookeville I could definitely see someone siding with an EF5 rating. A high end EF4 rating would be just as appropriate, but a case for marginal EF5 could be made. I do believe that both Cookeville and Murfreesboro 2009 were high end EF4 tornadoes.

 

[ARCC]

Hackleburg did a lot more violent tree damage then people give it credit for.

These 2 photo show an entire line of trees virtually gone in the center of the path:

View attachment 10412View attachment 10413

Three images of extreme damage in Hackleburg. At top left, a view of large trees that were completely debarked near the Wrangler Factory. At top right, a vehicle that was rendered unrecognizable in the vicinity of Clay Street; note the debarked and denuded trees it's located in. At bottom, the tornado was powerful enough to rip concrete from the ground. Bottom pic is just concrete ripped from a foundation (I think) but part of the image so I left it.

View attachment 10414

Source:

Examining the Phil Campbell Tornado – The Ultimate EF5

□ During the April 2011 Super Outbreak, one of the most impressive tornadic events in recorded history swept through six counties in northern Alabama. The massive and often invisible EF5 tornado le…

extremeplanet.wordpress.com

Wrangler parking lot.

 

[andyhb]

The overall magnitude of vegetation damage from the Hackleburg tornado is pretty astounding when you account for both intensity and scope. That storm really did change the landscape for years and perhaps decades in those parts.

 

[buckeye05]

Yeah that one and Smithville produced unbelievable damage to vegetation. On the old forum somebody posted a photo of a very large tree in Phil Campbell that sustained some of the most thorough debarking/stubbing I've ever seen. It was like there wasn't a single limb or square inch of bark left. The thing is, like mentioned above by another user, in the worst hit areas, the trees weren't just totally debarked, they were simply missing.

Trees reduced to debarked stumps in Hackleburg:

This wooded ravine in Hackleburg was totally annihilated:

What appears to be a concrete porch or stoop that was thrown and smashed into the base of a tree, also in Hackleburg:

I'd like to find more info about this apartment complex in Phil Campbell. It looks like one of the buildings was largely slabbed, though I don't know what degree of anchoring was present:

Oh and here's the restaurant foundation that buckled in Mount Hope, as I promised to post photos of it earlier. There used to be more on the DAT, but now the Hackleburg path isn't showing up? I hope that's not permanent:

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

The environment near Smithville and Hackleburg was insane.

 

[TH2002]

Yeah that one and Smithville produced unbelievable damage to vegetation. On the old forum somebody posted a photo of a very large tree in Phil Campbell that sustained some of the most thorough debarking/stubbing I've ever seen. It was like there wasn't a single limb or square inch of bark left. The thing is, like mentioned above by another user, in the worst hit areas, the trees weren't just totally debarked, they were simply missing.

Trees reduced to debarked stumps in Hackleburg:

This wooded ravine in Hackleburg was totally annihilated:

What appears to be a concrete porch or stoop that was thrown and smashed into the base of a tree, also in Hackleburg:

I'd like to find more info about this apartment complex in Phil Campbell. It looks like one of the buildings was largely slabbed, though I don't know what degree of anchoring was present:

Oh and here's the restaurant foundation that buckled in Mount Hope, as I promised to post photos of it earlier. There used to be more on the DAT, but now the Hackleburg path isn't showing up? I hope that's not permanent:

Assuming you're talking about the cul-de-sac in that fourth image, according to extremeplanet those were large homes that recieved ratings of EF1 to EF5.

 

[TH2002]

Here are some tornado videos I can just describe as absolutely chaotic:

First is the 07/31/2011 Blagoveshchensk Russia tornado. I've posted videos of this one before but WOW. Video is shaky, yes, but if I were in this guy's situation I would be running for my life too and filming would be the last thing I'd be thinking about. Note how the sound of the wind drastically increases at around the 25 second mark as it passes essentially right over him.


Second is a guy who got locked out of his house during the 11/17/2013 Washington Illinois tornado. If your luck is bad enough to the point where you get locked out of your house during a tornado I hope you NEVER play the lottery.

 

[OHWX97]

The environment near Smithville and Hackleburg was insane.

The thermal boundary those supercells (Hackleburg, Smithville, as well as Cullman) were riding made an environment already primed for several violent/long tracked tornadoes even more unprecedented. Truly a nightmare set up.

 

[andyhb]

Always annoying when these videos are not given proper names and thus disappear into the Youtube archives, but I found the footage of the Cordova/Empire AL tornado scaling the rough terrain and hills.