Severe WX December 10 & 11, 2021 Severe Threat

[Fred Gossage]

Hopefully community shelters will continue to become more common and personal ones will become much more affordable.

I can absolutely see taking myself and my family to the new community shelter located 2.9 miles away if it's a day with strong potential and there's a confirmed tornado 30+ minutes away.

If I was staring down a monster like the storms on 4/27 or last night, heck yeah, I'd "evacuate" like you two mention. But I've also intercepted a number of tornadoes before and used to chase frequently. It would be a last ditch effort. Don't know how much I trust our community shelter just yet. Construction isn't quite finished yet but when it is I'm going to go check it out and see if the GC did good work.

Yep, it has to be a personal family-level plan you have formulated in advance based on your circumstances. With an advance plan and in the special type of event, it can be and sometimes is certainly a good safety plan. Everyone in the know, fortunately, agrees that it's just not something I can stand on that green wall and tell everyone in the path of a violent tornado to do less than 30 minutes in advance, because the roads would be gridlocked in even a medium to smaller sized town.

 

[TH2002]

This scene from Earlington is probably the most impressive damage I have seen from this tornado. The tossed train cars, large slabbed building, ground scouring and just overall breadth of the damage path is unbelievable.

 

[Evan]

Yep, it has to be a personal family-level plan you have formulated in advance based on your circumstances. With an advance plan and in the special type of event, it can be and sometimes is certainly a good safety plan. Everyone in the know, fortunately, agrees that it's just not something I can stand on that green wall and tell everyone in the path of a violent tornado to do less than 30 minutes in advance, because the roads would be gridlocked in even a medium to smaller sized town.

It's already been referenced, but the day a station in OUN's area recommended people evacuate is a day I'll remember forever. I was terrified it would become a trend. Thank God common sense prevailed, because as you stated, it would lead to gridlock and pandemonium.

Speaking of community shelters, we still need better planning for areas with measurable numbers of mobile homes. I would imagine something like this already exists, but state and federal dollars should be available to construct shelters for every mobile home park or area with a concentration of mobile homes. Those folks deserve a lot better than they've historically gotten. Breaks my heart multiple times almost every year.

 

[gregassagraf]

Would it be less controversial, if we had a sufficiently precise measurement equipment, to just rate tornadoes based on wind speeds?

 

[TH2002]

Still waiting on photos/information from Cayce, Crutchfield, Benton, Princeton and Lewistown. Did see the satellite scouring aerial from Princeton and a brief YouTube video showing tree damage in Benton but that is all so far, anyone have anything new?

 

[gangstonc]

Would it be less controversial, if we had a sufficiently precise measurement equipment, to just rate tornadoes based on wind speeds?

That’s the problem. It’s hard to measure wind speeds in an event like this, so they look at damage and correlate that to a wind speed.

 

[akt1985]

The live wall to wall coverage of the Mayfield tornado on WPSD in Paducah has already been uploaded to YouTube.

 

[Equus]

Nice, really want to check out the TV coverage for this thing from KY; can imagine it was pretty hair raising

 

[vanni9283]

What was the width of the debris ball at its peak?

 

[pohnpei]

Some horrific damage showed on Dawson Springs's aerial video. This two story apartment was nearly leveled with only small portion of the interior room of the first floor still standing. This was certainly one of the strongest apartment damage that I have seen ever. It may even reached the non-existing ACT DOD7. Some may confused about tornado like Cookeville and Louisville leveled some apartment and only earned low end EF4 rating. But these apartments they encountered was more like residence rather than multi-story apartment that Joplin or Washington encountered. This was just Incredible.

 

[Austin Dawg]

Very curious what "evacuations" entailed in this case. Like, if we're talking people heading to designated shelters well in advance of a storm or something I totally get it. If not, yikes.

It's still sad it that wasn't the weather channel that was warning people

 

[pohnpei]

 

[pohnpei]

more insane damage from cambridge

 

[Casuarina Head]

Regarding the Defiance MO EF3:

The second home just 100 yards east of the first was swept clean
to the subfloor, which was still anchored to the concrete foundation.

Would this count as EF3 or EF4 damage?

 

[buckeye05]

Regarding the Defiance MO EF3:

Would this count as EF3 or EF4 damage?

Slabbing caused by detachment of wall connections from the subfloor is almost always rated EF3.

 

[pohnpei]

One particular interesting DI that I am interested in was the church damage in downtown Mayfield. This large church was near completely destroyed by tornado.

 

[SilentShadow87]

One thing that I'm wondering is why weren't the factory workers sent home? It wasn't like the tornado was a complete surprise. It seems like a really irresponsible decision by management...I wonder if any charges will be pressed.

 

[OHWX97]

Damage in Cayce, near where the Mayfield tornado touched down.


Dresden, TN took an awful hit as well.

 

[Casuarina Head]

One particular interesting DI that I am interested in was the church damage in downtown Mayfield. This large church was near completely destroyed by tornado.

The church appears to have been a multi-story, domed structure with a poured cement foundation and numerous interior walls, the last of which were evidently made of brick and mortar. The tornado practically reduced the church to the base of its first story, while actually snapping or breaking some of the bricks into smaller pieces. Wouldn’t the church as a DI constitute a potential instance of EF5 damage?

 

[WhirlingWx]