Significant Tornado Events

[locomusic01]

Mind if you try reposting the pics on Imgur? The image won't load for me

 

[TH2002]

Accuracy does matter, and sometimes it isn't easy. I remember making inquiries here regards one of that creator's vids about the Warner-Robins tornado which he did a segment on, and discovering some important errata which is widely believed but wrong nonetheless. I've also noted several other vids getting significant facts wrong. He's kind of new to the game and he's very good with vid production but lacking in research depth. He does have a popular appeal to a younger generation of folks which does a lot of good at helping keep interest in tornadoes and history alive, but that has to be accurate to have real value. There's another popular presenter with a similar appeal and following, but she rarely gets anything wrong. Neither one's style is exactly to my liking but I do watch their stuff to see what I can learn and I've watched them both from their starts. He's getting better but too slowly for me to recommend here, seemingly more interested in making popular vids than in accuracy even after I've given him better sources for research (including here). And he's very light on the meteorology aspect too.

I know it took me many years to find TalkWeather and it's great repository of storms and history and knowledgeable people so I can't blame him except for he doesn't seem to make much use of my recommendation that he do more research here. It's not always easy to navigate this place if you're looking for specific events, but all one needs to do is ask and you'll get more and better answers here than anyplace else online. I only wish it was within my means to better support TalkWeather and it's people.

As far as browsing the Internet goes, it's rare that I don't have a TW tab open. Can't put into words how invaluable this site is for me - as such, I made the jump to becoming a Sustaining Member for $5 a month. Good thing my bank has already waived my monthly service fee thanks to my direct deposit from my job lol

I understand not everyone is in a position where they can support their favorite websites though, even if it's only $5 a month. That's where something just as important comes in - the quality of one's contributions to the community. The quality of yours are well deserving of a gold star from me - keep up the great posts!

 

[TH2002]

I've posted about this tornado before, but here's some more damage from the 5/22/2011 North Minneapolis "EF1". Definitely nowhere near as violent as Joplin, but probably should have been given a low-end EF2 rating.

The half-mile wide path was clearly visible from the air:

Another interesting note is that the tornado had an impressive velocity couplet and a debris ball on reflectivity:

Footage of the thing that definitely has a huge "wow" factor to it. The tornado had just passed over this location and you can see it still doing damage in the background. Miraculously, the person who shot this footage was uninjured. The tornado claimed one life and injured 48 others.

 

[pohnpei]

Hi,locomusic01, I have an unrelated question want to ask.I remember that I once read a post in this thread(probably from you I think) which is about a man/woman who experience two F5 rating tornados in his/her life. I believe one of them was Udall but I couldnt remember another and I couldnt remember other details about this story as well. Do you happen to know this story? Thanks!

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

Do you have pics from Topeka 1966?

 

[locomusic01]

Hi,locomusic01, I have an unrelated question want to ask.I remember that I once read a post in this thread(probably from you I think) which is about a man/woman who experience two F5 rating tornados in his/her life. I believe one of them was Udall but I couldnt remember another and I couldnt remember other details about this story as well. Do you happen to know this story? Thanks!

I've come across a few such people, but the one you're thinking of is Agnes Hutchinson. Her story is heartbreaking. I wrote about her in my Woodward article years ago and it's still stuck in my mind:

At the Oasis Steakhouse, 28-year-old waitress Agnes Hutchinson was deep in thought. She worked the night shift while her husband Olan worked days, ensuring that someone was always home with their two sons, five-year-old Jimmie Lee and eight-year-old Roland. Her husband always brought the children to the diner to have a soda and keep their mother company, and Agnes was concerned that they still hadn’t stopped. She picked up the phone to call and check in, but rather than the customary “Number, please” so often heard before the strike, the operator greeted her tersely: “No, not unless it’s an emergency.” Agnes had seen the faint outline of a great cloud bank towering on the horizon during her drive to work, adding to her concern. The near-constant barrage of lightning southwest of town was on full display when she stepped outside. Pacing nervously, she considered quickly heading to her home a few blocks away, but she returned to work and resolved to push the worry and anxiety from her mind.

At the local high school, a brass quartet had just wrapped up rehearsal for the big Tri-State Festival scheduled to take place in Enid, Oklahoma the following day. Sixteen-year-old Paul Nelson hopped on his bike and pedaled toward home, while two other students stayed behind to practice. Paul pedaled hard as the wind whipped drenching rain in his face. Chunks of hail pelted his head and back. Just to his south, the storm grew into a howling screech. The tornado, now an almost unfathomable 1.8 miles wide, quickly climbed the small hill – handily dispelling the Native American myth that the mound offered any protection – and thundered into the western half of Woodward. The United States Field Station was swept up and torn apart. It crossed Experiment Lake, allegedly sucking up so much water that the lake’s level dropped by a foot. Thick mud, tinted a rusty color by the red clay soil, spattered anything left standing on the northeast side of the lake.

The switchboards at the Woodward telephone office suddenly erupted with activity. For chief operators Grace Nix and Bertha Wiggans, it was clear that something major was taking place. Before they could begin to address the flurry of calls, however, the boards fell silent. The glass windows bowed, pulsed and then shattered. Scraps of tar paper, glass, wood and other debris rushed into the office. Awnings and shingles raced by in the street, driven on by a violent wind that had risen to near-deafening levels. Patrons at the drugstore on Main Street shared a similar experience. H. C. Carnahan recounted a “loud swishing noise, like the sound of escaping steam.” Vehicles and debris tumbled along the street outside, as did merchandise from several of the stores just to the north. The windows on the south side of the building blew out, and most of the second floor sheared off and tumbled into the street. No one inside was injured, but they emerged to something resembling a war zone.

Large sheets of tin peeled off and flitted away from the exterior of the Oasis Steakhouse. The windows bulged and heaved before shattering, sending glass flying like shotgun blasts and providing entry for the angry winds. Scraps of paper and debris filled the air. Plates and dishes clattered and smashed on the floor. The roof tore off and broke apart, followed quickly by the exterior walls. Many of the people inside, including Agnes, went tumbling out into the darkness, propelled along by the infernal storm. When she came to rest, wrapped around a telephone pole, her thoughts immediately turned to her family. Glancing up in the direction of her home, her heart sank. She could see almost to the horizon, the line of buildings that would normally block her view having been completely razed. She ran in the direction of her neighborhood, navigating by lightning flashes and picking her way around the rubble. A naked man – her neighbor – crawled on the ground, calling out for help. A bolt of lightning flickered across the sky, illuminating the bare foundation where her home had been minutes earlier.

Following the streak of debris to the northeast, Agnes came upon the sight she had unconsciously feared. Her husband and two young boys lay in crumpled heaps in the bottom of a broad grader ditch. A call to her husband was met only with a raspy gurgle as the last gasp of air seeped from his mouth. He was dead, his head partially caved in by the blunt force of airborne debris. Her youngest boy, Jimmy Lee, was unresponsive. Only eight-year-old Roland showed signs of life, pleading for help as he bled profusely. Reeling from shock, her starchy white uniform caked with blood and mud, Agnes stumbled to the road to flag down an oncoming car. Two men helped load her husband’s body while she carried her boys, one in each arm, to the waiting vehicle. Arriving at a makeshift staging area for the wounded and dying, she carefully removed Jimmy Lee’s muddy, rain-soaked clothes, cleaned him as best she could, and wrapped him lovingly in a blanket. She carried him to a truck waiting outside to transport the dead to area morgues. A man asked for the blanket, reasoning that it did no good to the dead child. Agnes was incensed. “I know it won’t! I’ll pay for the damn blanket, but the blanket stays!”

-----------------------------------------

The material loss was staggering, but the emotional toll was hard to appreciate for those who had not lived through it. Agnes Hutchinson fell deeply into shock after her husband and youngest son were killed. She did not cry at the funeral, nor did she cry at all for some time. She kept herself constantly busy, cobbling together a small shack with whatever building material could be salvaged from the wreckage of the previous home, the home her husband had built for his family with his own hands. She, like so many in Woodward, could not sleep without keeping one eye focused on the window, fearful the swirling winds would return and determined to be ready. Agnes could never forget, but she slowly healed, and within a few years she’d remarried and had four more children. She and her family made their new home in Udall, Kansas. At 10:35 p.m. on May 25, 1955, the roaring winds did return. One of the most violent tornadoes in history obliterated much of the small town, killing 80 people. Agnes again lost her home and much of her property, but her family was safe. After the immeasurable loss she suffered on that early spring night in Woodward, that was all that mattered.

Here's a direct link to her part of the story if you want to see the photos and whatnot.

 

[locomusic01]

Do you have pics from Topeka 1966?

Here are the ones I posted the other day:

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

Thanks

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

I wonder if there's like photos from the July 3rd, 1907 Wisconsin tornadoes

 

[pohnpei]

I've come across a few such people, but the one you're thinking of is Agnes Hutchinson. Her story is heartbreaking. I wrote about her in my Woodward article years ago and it's still stuck in my mind:



Here's a direct link to her part of the story if you want to see the photos and whatnot.

Thank you so much!

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Here are the ones I posted the other day:

Topeka reminds me of Xenia, it was likely weakening as it went through the town, doing F5 damage to a smaller localized area before weakening to generic F2-F3 damage over a wider area for the rest of its path.

 

[TH2002]

Have a question rather than something to share, but didn't know where else to ask this...

2,860 clips in I've finally decided to begin the laborious task of bringing some kind of organization to my tornado footage folder, which is something I probably should have done to begin with...

So, to my fellow hoarders of tornado videos - if you sort them, how do you go about it? By year? Exact date? Location? Tornado-specific? My damage folder I sort tornado specific (e.g. Joplin Tornado, Almena Tornado, Ivanovo Tornado, so on so forth) but I'm not sure if it would be a great idea to do that with footage, especially since many tornadoes have only one or two videos available. I mean, that approach might work, but I'm curious to hear some feedback on how others sort their photos and videos.

edit: Oops, it's actually 2,884 so far as of updating this post, and still gonna continue rising. Can't wait to hit 3,000 and beyond. Anyways, pinging @locomusic01 specifically since I know you're a fellow hoarder of damage photos. Still, looking for advice from anyone who hoards tornado footage, damage photos or both.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

@locomusic01 By the way, are there pics from the Jerry City segment of the Cygnet F4+ path?

 

[A Guy]

Have a question rather than something to share, but didn't know where else to ask this...

2,860 clips in I've finally decided to begin the laborious task of bringing some kind of organization to my tornado footage folder, which is something I probably should have done to begin

edit: Oops, it's actually 2,884 so far as of updating this post, and still gonna continue rising. Can't wait to hit 3,000 and beyond. Anyways, pinging @locomusic01 specifically since I know you're a fellow hoarder of damage photos. Still, looking for advice from anyone who hoards tornado footage, damage photos or both.

I'd go by year, and either alphabetical or by date in each of those.

 

[locomusic01]

Have a question rather than something to share, but didn't know where else to ask this...

2,860 clips in I've finally decided to begin the laborious task of bringing some kind of organization to my tornado footage folder, which is something I probably should have done to begin with...

So, to my fellow hoarders of tornado videos - if you sort them, how do you go about it? By year? Exact date? Location? Tornado-specific? My damage folder I sort tornado specific (e.g. Joplin Tornado, Almena Tornado, Ivanovo Tornado, so on so forth) but I'm not sure if it would be a great idea to do that with footage, especially since many tornadoes have only one or two videos available. I mean, that approach might work, but I'm curious to hear some feedback on how others sort their photos and videos.

edit: Oops, it's actually 2,884 so far as of updating this post, and still gonna continue rising. Can't wait to hit 3,000 and beyond. Anyways, pinging @locomusic01 specifically since I know you're a fellow hoarder of damage photos. Still, looking for advice from anyone who hoards tornado footage, damage photos or both.

I don't have a lot of videos so I'm probably not the best person to ask for that specifically, but I can definitely relate to the pain of having to organize a huge hoard of material lol

For me the most important thing was to be able to quickly sort + find by date, so I landed on this for my main folder:

For outbreaks, each folder then has separate subfolders for individual tornadoes, and I use the outbreak folder itself for more general stuff that isn't attached to a specific tornado. For example, my 5/31/85 folder (the numbering is just to keep them in sequence for my article):

There's more beyond that but it's probably not useful or applicable here. Anyway, I do end up with some folders that only have like one or two photos/videos/newspaper clippings/whatever in them, but I don't really mind because it's way faster and easier to find what I need or sort and save new stuff.

 

[locomusic01]

@locomusic01 By the way, are there pics from the Jerry City segment of the Cygnet F4+ path?

I think these are the only ones I have from within Jerry City itself (it just sort of clipped the town):

There are a bunch of others from that general area though (mostly within a mile or two in either direction):

 

[TH2002]

Thanks @A Guy and @locomusic01. Advice is much appreciated!

Think I'm gonna use both of your ideas to sort my folder something like this:

2011

• April 27
  • Cordova Tornado
  • Hackleburg-Phil Campbell Tornado
  • Haleyville Tornado
  • Other 4/27 Tornadoes (could be for tornadoes that only have one or two videos available, or ones I can't identify off the top of my head)
• June 1
  • Springfield-Brimfield Tornado
• June 23 (Vietnam)

2022

• April 29
  • Andover Tornado
• May 20
  • Gaylord Tornado
  • Paderborn Tornado (Germany)

Think you get the idea. Anyhow, here's some advice of my own: if you have a huge hoard of data: back it up! Can't emphasize how important that is. The original files making up my Tornado, Hurricane and Tsunami Archives are on an external HDD I and currently keep two backups of every archive: one backup on a flash drive, and also a cloud storage backup (Filen.io was my choice because they offer Lifetime plans that are just a one time payment, and they take privacy seriously which is rare for tech companies these days).

 

[locomusic01]

Topeka reminds me of Xenia, it was likely weakening as it went through the town, doing F5 damage to a smaller localized area before weakening to generic F2-F3 damage over a wider area for the rest of its path.

That's a good comparison; pretty similar in terms of peak intensity as well. And naturally in both cases most of the focus was on the heavily populated areas that (for the most part) suffered much less extreme damage. Incidentally, also a surprisingly large number of photos of the tornadoes themselves.

 

[locomusic01]

Anyhow, here's some advice of my own: if you have a huge hoard of data: back it up! Can't emphasize how important that is. The original files making up my Tornado, Hurricane and Tsunami Archives are on an external HDD I and currently keep two backups of every archive: one backup on a flash drive, and also a cloud storage backup (Filen.io was my choice because they offer Lifetime plans that are just a one time payment, and they take privacy seriously which is rare for tech companies these days).

1,000%. Back in the day I was pretty lax about backing things up and I ended up losing a bunch of stuff, some of which I was never able to find again. Now I'm paranoid, so I keep backups on multiple internal and external drives. I probably should set up cloud backup as well now that I have decent internet.

 

[Sawmaster]

What I've seen recommended is a 3 or 4 tier backup. Working copy and backup at home & cloud backup which update daily/ weekly etc. Also a 'doomsday' media backup at a trusted friend or family member's house who you see a few times a year that is at least 25 miles away. Update each visit. Damn near impossible for one event to get all those bur cloud accounts can be hacked and a total=loss home disaster is always possible.

Do a master file system with each entry sorted along lines you might research like intensity, casualties, scouring, debris-tossing distances etc. Makes for easier research and comparison. Nothing is more consternating than knowing something and not being able to find it. The older you get the more it happens when you rely on memory, and should something happen to you, with a master list a survivor can make best use of your data.

Common-sense stuff y'all are probably doing already but thought I'd mention it. I don't have anything terribly important to save these days but in the past several HD crashes lost much I couldn't find again and brought forth many tears, screams, and gnashing of teeth. Excrement occurs so plan for it!