Archive Severe threat April 26-27, 2011

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bingcrosbyb
Posted 28 April 2011 - 09:27 AM

CNN reporting total death toll in south is 231.

 

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djbarker
Posted 28 April 2011 - 09:30 AM

The Tuscaloosa/Bham storm continued on and hit Piedmont. No one really talked about it because it's on the edge of 3 different media markets.

Piedmont's on the cusp of Calhoun and Cherokee. DeKalb would have been from a separate storm, I'm thinking maybe the Cullman/Marshall one...

 

[TW Archive]

xtreme weather
Posted 28 April 2011 - 09:31 AM

A good study/dissertation could be done to see how much the infrastructure was weakened by the derecho and how that affected communications and emergency response once the supercell show started. I'd be curious to see what impacts it had.

While it could have played a role there was means of getting information yes limited but available.....this is a case of imo even being underground loss of life probably has occurred if you were under the direct path (this also happened w/last F5 just W of Birmingham i.e Oak Grove) have seen pictures/evidence of implosions of structures/well built business via media photo's and different damage than "swept clean" imo also debris was actually "sucked into" standing structures on McFarland Blvd debarking of trees limited photo's still of the PG area but earlier before it was closed down same evidence I have little doubt we have another EF5 for this area

My fear was and now realized I said that the Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Gadsden, Cullman and Huntsville corridor was the "hot zone" for worst potential the day before...........sadly was the case as the "world" now is watching our state/region and it's aftermath

The Alabama record books WILL be re-written....sadly

 

[TW Archive]

MikeT
Posted 28 April 2011 - 09:40 AM

Has anyone heard about the damage in Phil Campbell? That sounded like one of the worst-hit places yesterday.

Also, Tuscaloosa is trending worldwide on Twitter right now.

As of Thursday morning, the Alabama Emergency Management Agency is reporting 18 confirmed deaths in Franklin County from Tuesday’s massive tornado that ripped across Phil Campbell and East Franklin.

Officials resumed looking for those unaccounted for early this morning and that death count could rise.

Franklin County Times

 

[TW Archive]

xtreme weather
Posted 28 April 2011 - 09:43 AM

30 of those in DeKalb according to 33/40?!? What happened there? I don't remember hearing of any really violent storms there.

It was well warned and this was the storm that ripped through Cullman.....

 

[TW Archive]

xtreme weather
Posted 28 April 2011 - 10:11 AM

I'd say it had to play a significant factor. These kinds of death tolls just aren't supposed to happen anymore.

With all due respect the significance of what has taken place you may not be grasping here....it is one thing to have a EF4-5 over farmland with widely spaced homes in sometimes very rural areas in the Plains. When you have one hit major population/high density cities to say this should not happen well again would think maybe your not understanding the magnitude of what has happened and the power of these types of TOR's.

Stress again, not trying to be rude but trying to shed some light on what has happened and why we are seeing these types of death tolls.....

 

[TW Archive]

NorthGaWeather
Posted 28 April 2011 - 10:23 AM

This figure will still go up too. The Bartow county tornadoes aren't even on there yet. They still won't be individual tornado reports, but we will have many more when the next 3 days are done. We could see upwards of 180-200 reports.

I think the Bartow storms are being surveyed now. I'm on a team doing the Cherokee/Pickens end of the tornado...EF 1 to EF 2 damage here. FFC is flying the track from AL to NE GA.

 

[TW Archive]

djbarker
Posted 28 April 2011 - 10:27 AM

I think the Bartow storms are being surveyed now. I'm on a team doing the Cherokee/Pickens end of the tornado...EF 1 to EF 2 damage here. FFC is flying the track from AL to NE GA.

How do you get on a survey team? Do you have to have specialized training?

 

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TXTornado
Posted 28 April 2011 - 10:30 AM

With all due respect the significance of what has taken place you may not be grasping here....it is one thing to have a EF4-5 over farmland with widely spaced homes in sometimes very rural areas in the Plains. When you have one hit major population/high density cities to say this should not happen well again would think maybe your not understanding the magnitude of what has happened and the power of these types of TOR's.

Stress again, not trying to be rude but trying to shed some light on what has happened and why we are seeing these types of death tolls.....

Very accurate! This is the 2011 version of the Tri-State Tornado, except that this one hit multiple densely populated areas. Had this tornado done this in decades earlier when warnings and communications weren't as good, we'd be looking at death toll in the thousands... maybe several thousands. This is a force of nature that really isn't survivable above ground.

 

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ALhurricane
Posted 28 April 2011 - 10:39 AM

Tuscaloosa mayor says the Emergency Operations Center was destroyed and they are currently staged at Bryant Denny Stadium.

 

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KG4GUF
Posted 28 April 2011 - 11:04 AM

Will the survey data for the storms be posted on the FFC site? Anyone know when that'll be?

 

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Tyler Penland
Posted 28 April 2011 - 11:08 AM

Will the survey data for the storms be posted on the FFC site? Anyone know when that'll be?

They will but no clue when.
Just saw video out of Bartow(?) County on WSB-TV that shows an entire subdivision of nothing but concrete foundations.

 

[TW Archive]

trency911
Posted 28 April 2011 - 11:09 AM

Will the survey data for the storms be posted on the FFC site? Anyone know when that'll be?

I believe they will as soon as they get more information.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ffc/?n=20110427_svrstorms

 

[TW Archive]

TXTornado
Posted 28 April 2011 - 11:10 AM

Will the survey data for the storms be posted on the FFC site? Anyone know when that'll be?

Likely to be a while until the survey is complete. They'll really take their time studying this one, as they should. They may release something preliminarily but especially with such a LONG track the survey will take quite a while... in fact, there may be some unprecedented work to do with this one.

 

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trency911
Posted 28 April 2011 - 11:11 AM

Death toll up to 231 now per CNN.

 

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StormNine59
Posted 28 April 2011 - 11:12 AM

Prayers sent to MS, AL, GA, and East TN,VA. I am glad that everyone here is alright. I am at a loss of words about having 200+ fatal in 2011, but sadly that is always a possibility when you have many EF3-EF5 tornadoes in very populated areas.

 

[TW Archive]

StormNine59
Posted 28 April 2011 - 11:13 AM

Prayers sent to MS, AL, GA, and East TN,VA. I am glad that everyone here is alright. I am at a loss of words about having 200+ fatal in 2011, but sadly that is always a possibility when you have many EF3-EF5 tornadoes in very populated areas.

 

[TW Archive]

xtreme weather
Posted 28 April 2011 - 11:19 AM

Very accurate! This is the 2011 version of the Tri-State Tornado, except that this one hit multiple densely populated areas. Had this tornado done this in decades earlier when warnings and communications weren't as good, we'd be looking at death toll in the thousands... maybe several thousands. This is a force of nature that really isn't survivable above ground.

Personally a large shout out to our NWS regional offices JAN/BMX/HUN/MEM especially. The SPC also did a great job in getting the info out early and excellent wording/disco's on what was coming and ongoing.

For our on air MET's if we are not blessed with the BEST, it is one of the BEST in the NATION period, IMO. Say what you well really do not care but personally James Spann and 33/40 team for the Birmingham market set/raised the bar greatly imo for this area. Yes I know some will disagree that is fine but he/team/live chaser feeds covered the MCS that morning and later on the terrible TOR outbreak I watched all 3 local stations at some point but hands down coverage believe he was on air/visible for 10+hrs and never blinked or left the picture. They had the sky cam on Cullman as the TOR was about to form and carried it throughout......had video of it with camera guy in the city as well. The Fayette/Walker county live feed as TOR roared through, Brian Peters crew. The Tuscaloosa storm John Oldshue had feed on it before it came into view of the Skycam network as it was developing and roaring towards the city once it was visible w/Skycam excellent video feed and then the Birmingham Skycam was all over it as it moved into W Jefferson county as well as LIVE video feed from the field yet again. The LIVE video on the web NEVER skipped a beat, no buffering and was stream-less over 30,000 viewing at once, again never failed once and the cell phone app again stellar.

The overall media market coverage I have no doubt saved hundreds more lives.......

Once again THANK YOU ALL

 

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AprilA
Posted 28 April 2011 - 11:25 AM

I lost internet just before 4:00 yesterday and was watching the monster in Birmingham on TWC.. Was hoping everyone in the area was safe..

 

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SWL
Posted 28 April 2011 - 11:26 AM

severestudios: RT @spann: Alabama death toll now at 158 #alwx