There has been a rash of severe weather this weekend
on the Great Plains. two nights ago in Kansas and again last evening in South Dakota, Kansas and Oklahoma.... I hope everyone there is safe !!

there was one about a mile down the road from my home last week

I could only watch as I was South from it and talking to my hysterical wife on the phone who was saying the house was rocking.

and a Sheriffs Deputy was taken for a ride when her car was picked up and tossed 150' she went to the Hospital in critical condition

Tom,
I'm glad that you and your wife are safe! Did you have alot of property damage?
Joe

Joe ,
Thank You
aside from some BIG branches on the road we are fine.

I was on my way home when the first one hit I did see the storms heading East, by the time I got to LaPorte the sky was black and moving fast and then found out that one had touched down on my home road
I will say that I was dumbstruck when she called me to say that the South Bend weather was telling folks that ANOTHER one was on the way and it was following the same path .....that was when she started to panic and I couldn't get up there cause the Emer folks were all over the place diverting traffic and rescuing that Deputy and trying to find a place to hide themselves...those were some unpleasant sickening moments

but we are fine

this must have been part of the storms that tore through Planfield .....again...

We had that tornado on our local news in New Zealand.

Lucky that you are all ok.

Tornado's are fascinating to watch from a safe distance South Eastern side, but no good when your house is on its track.

Hopefully it didn't do too much damage.

Tom,
I can't even guess how many times I've looked off the wing to see LaPorte on the way over to Plymouth, Goshen, or to Knox VOR. I had weather sneak in on me one time to stop me at Valpo when the sky fell above Griffith. No twisters though.
I still vividly remember my long student cross country back in '91. Just west of Carroll Cty Ohio's airport, I was really yanked about. I remember my clipboard flying and hitting the ceiling a couple of times as I was yanking the throttle back. It was a very bumpy ride all the way back to my home airport in Pittsburgh. After I landed, white knuckles and all, I learnd that a Tornado had touched down a very short distance from where I encountered my clear air turbulence. Of course the forecasts hadn't called for any convective activity.
I've had moments of high speed excitement under canopy, dealing with strange winds just above landing flare. Like when flying, I found I was too busy responding to the problems at hand to have time for fear.

I was in Redwood City Ca. in '89 when the big quake hit. I remember how helpless I felt because there weren't any checklist items I could perform to make things better. I remember how worried my loved ones were until I could get through to them late that night. I think I understand how you felt until you knew that your wife was safe. I would much rather deal with my own emergencies than worry about the safety of someone I love.
Joe

we made the NZ news ??

the one building that I did see damaged was a cinder block garage with a boat inside..total loss. and lots of trees

but the monster in Kansas was a killer, and there was much more devastation there, since the whole town is gone

Joe, I can't imagine what flying through something like that feels like, you would have my DNA all over the windshield and seat, and wings

but I still can't get over how helpless I felt when she was on the phone and I really had no idea what HAD happened, since the info I got from people just standing on the roads and looking North and from the cops at the roadblocks put the thing almost in my yard since everyone thought there were two touchdowns about three miles apart.....and my house was almost in a straight line between the two.

as it turns out, the info that the NWS lists, put the tornado in two places that don't intersect.like saying some thing happened at State St. and Halsted


, when something like this happens confusion is the order of the day

and there is nothing we can do about it,

there were more tornado watches this morning for the Southern Plains

here is the NWS report: (excerpted)
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/070426_rpts.html
1958 PLAINFIELD WILL IL 4162 8820 TORNADO MOVED 3.2 MILES FROM ROUTE 126 AND EASTERN AVE IN PLAINFIELD TO ESSINGTON ROAD AND PATRICK HENRY PARKWAY IN BOLINGBROOK. AN SUV IN THE PARKING LOT OF A NURSING (LOT)

2050 10 NW CROSSVILLE CUMBERLAND TN 3605 8516 MOBILE HOME DAMAGED AND NUMEROUS TREES DOWN. (OHX)

2058 PLAINFIELD WILL IL 4162 8820 TORNADO MOVED 3.2 MILES FROM ROUTE 126 AND EASTERN AVE IN PLAINFIELD TO ESSINGTON ROAD AND PATRICK HENRY PARKWAY IN BOLINGBROOK. AN SUV IN THE PARKING LOT OF A NURSING (LOT)


2108 4 E MICHIGAN CITY LA PORTE IN 4171 8680 REPORTED NEAR US 20 AND FAIL ROAD (IWX)
2114 LA PORTE LA PORTE IN 4161 8671 200E AND RANGE ROAD...TORNADO REPORTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT (IWX)


2125 10 NE LA PORTE LA PORTE IN 4171 8658 PATROL CAR FLIPPED OVER (IWX)


2140 6 E LA PORTE LA PORTE IN 4161 8660 TORNADO REPORTED ON THE GROUND NEAR US20...NAER 650E AND FAIL ROAD (IWX)


2250 2 NW WINCHESTER BROWN OH 3896 8368 BARN KNOCKED OVER. FRONT PORCH TORN OFF. COUPLE OF TREES DOWNED. (ILN)
..........

Couple of questions regarding structures in the "tornado alley":

I see that a lot of homes in the US are timber construction, is this because of the plentiful supply of timber, the lack of concrete & brick for home construction or is timber the preferred method of construction?

Is it mandatory to have a storm shelter/bunker/safe room in homes in "tornado alley"?

May seem like silly questions from the other side of the world but my limited education on tornadoes comes from "Storm Stories" on the weather channel & the ABC & CBS news feed from the US.

Tom:

I too am glad to hear you and your wife are o.k.

I grew up in Ohio in tornado alley and recall seeing a few twisters too close for comfort.

The oddest incident happened when I was stationed In Tucson in the Air Force. My crew and I were load training in a hangar, when suddenly the wind kicked up, lifting a 4 foot square aluminum drip pan from under the plane, hitting me and my crew chief before flying out the hangar door. We closed the hangar door, paused our training. The lights went out briefly, then the phone rang. The control tower was calling to check in on us, as a tornado had touched down about a thousand yards from the hangar!!

I had mentioned to my guys that the sky had that peculiar tornado look right before we started training, they didn't believe me. (They weren't from tornado-prone hometowns.)

After that, they listened very seriously if I expressed any doubts about the weather.

Then there was the time we almost got a direct hit from lightning during aircraft recovery....but that's another thread.

32vac:

I think IMHO the timber is simply the preferred method...brick homes would need more skilled labor that wood frame I'd guess. 'Tis all about the buck...

And I don't know of any areas that mandate a shelter/bunker. Heck, in the house I grew up in we did have a basement, but the last house I lived in there for about 6 years, all we had was a very damp crawlspace. Not much protection there I would imagine.

32VAC, almost no homes are "timber" construction. Rather, they are "stick" or "balloon" frame .... light wood members, with gypsum board facing.

This method was developed so that lots of homes could be built fast, cheap, with minimally skilled workers. It has far surpassed expectations, and continues to be the method of choice.

Even where you see a brick home, the brick is usually just a thin veneer.

Storm shelters are not required, nor are they often designed into the home.

"Tornado Alley" sounds like a limited route, but the description actually applies to an area at least half as large as Australia.

As flimsy as this construction may sound ... and as dramatic as the pictures appear ... the USA actually has far fewer casualties from natural disasters than similar events elsewhere. Where a similar storm just a few miles off our borders will claim hundreds of lives, we lose only a few .... and suffer much less secondary loss (fires, disease, etc) as well.

Short of an areodynamicly designed dome building made of poured steel reinforced concrete, steel blast doors, and with earthen burms all the way around it - anything else is a sitting target for a tornado.

What gets me is that it seems every 4th one misses the trailer parks? So it would make sense not to live in anything that showed up on wheels.

Timber construction as in wooden frames & wooden sidings is what I was referring, forgot about the different terms across the Pacific Ocean

I find it funny that the brick construction is a "dying art" in the U.S. , most homes here are brick construction for insulation & termite (white ant) resistance.

lumber is cheaper than concrete, which seems to be the only material capable of withstanding the force of the powerful F5s...that or blocks that are filled with mortar or other aggregate..like concrete !.

there is nothing where I live that requires reinforced rooms or bunkers..not enough of a threat from twisters

one structure our little storm destroyed was made of block, and three walls and the roof and the boat inside are gone.

Tony

Thank You,

.....Tuscon ? Hangar ? good grief, what a wonderful shelter huh ?

I want to hear the lightning story

..oh man look at the time ! I gotta run, catch up with ya later

BOHICA..

Florida leads the pack with wind resistant construction but we only design for 130-150MPH winds. These F-5s get up over 200.
Basically the wind code plan is based on tying the roof to the foundation making a continuous matrix in the walls. In stick built every upright framing member has a steel strap that connects it above and below from the straps coming out of the footers to the straps going over the trusses. These are not those little "twisties" either. They are straps with about 15" of connection to the wood and about 30 nails.
In CBS construction (Concrete Block & Stucco), more common, you have a #5 rebar tied to the footer steel (2 #5s) coming 4' out of the footer every 4 feet on a running wall and in every door or window opening. This gets tied to another #5 that comes down from the top. There are 4 #5s that ring the top 2 courses of block which get poured solid along with all the "dowel" cells you have rebar in. This creates a matrix that makes a very tough building.
You can see the footer and dowel cell steel in my "ufer" pictures.

http://members.aol.com/gfretwell/ufer.jpg

They paint the cell with the Ufer in green it so some bozo doesn't pour it solid. That still happens about 5-10% of the time. The AHJ makes them chip it out, down to the steel for the ufer.

Once you get above 120mph, it becomes very difficult to build 2x4 homes because of the sheer magnitude of the forces involved- on a typical home in 120mph winds, you're looking at about 500lbs of uplift force on every joist-wall connection point to keep the roof from being torn off, which has to be transferred through the wall into the foundation to keep the entire house from taking off like an airplane. And laterally, there's 15-20 pounds per ever square foot of force exerted on exterior walls, doors and windows. It's counterintuitive, but the worst pressure is not on the windward side of the structure, but the leeward side where there is a negative pressure created- the differential pressure is enough to tear sheathing right off a wall.

One problem in particular is garages- that little stub wall framers love to build flanking garage doors to keep the garage as small as possible offers next to no strength when that wall is in shear. A storm with 120mph winds will exert leverage forces on that wall section can exceed 2 tons of force trying to pull out on the anchor bolts and rack it out of true and just push it right over, collapsing the 2nd floor right on top of the 1st.

Wood 2x4 construction is cheap in the US which is why it's so prevalant- cheaper than masonry or steel frame- except for Florida. In florida, you can still build multistory wood homes, but the building codes are so restrictive and techniques so expensive that single-family masonry homes might just as well be required. (Helps with termites, too!) If you get out to places like Guam where they build to exceed 150mph supertyphoons, the buildings are often solid concrete with concrete roofs and start to actually look like bunkers! The lesson here isn't that masonry is necessarily any better, but that US is smarter than the rest of the world and farms trees!

As a resident of "tornado alley" (Kansas) I might offer a couple more comments. As Steve Fehr mentioned, one reason 2x4 construction is so popular is that its cheap compared to other construction methods. But I want to dispell the idea that USA homes are cheap.....at least to build new. The cost of construction and real estate has risen so much over the past few years that the cost of home construction is beginning to make home ownership unattainable to a great many people. If this country built with a more expensive building method, I would imagine homeownership would be out of reach for the majority of the population.

As far as basements or storm shelters go, most homes in tornado alley have basements where ground conditions permit them to be built. In some areas, either shallow groundwater or rock formations make it unfeasible to build basements. Some new homes around here have concrete "safe rooms" in the basements, with steel doors on them. In an F-5 tornado, even a basement may not save your life. In the Greensburg, Kansas tornado, which wiped out the entire town, the only structure left standing was the grain elevator.

You're welcome Tom. Haven't chatted with you for a while..

Yeah, it was only well after the fact that we all realized how dumb it was to keep going in that hangar..not a good shelter against a twister. It had formed with virtually no warning though. I have since learned to trust my feelings and take shelter if I have any doubts.

Though here in So. Cali. it's earthquakes that are an issue.

The lightning incident was very scary...I was team leader on the End-of Runway (EOR) recovery crew..I was connected to the returning aircraft with a wired comm set as my crew safed up the A-10's gun and any unexpended ordinance. The usual afternoon monsoon storm had moved in, but a lot quicker than we had expected. We only had 8 aircraft to recover (four on the ground already parked and we were working them, and four in the air) and the tower instructed us to recover them ASAP, as they had detected no lightning within 3 miles. (3 miles was the limit, any flashes in that range and ALL ground work stopped.)

It was raining pretty hard at EOR, and we were on the next-to last of the birds on the ground. A tremendous boom, blinding flash and all three of us crew were knocked to the ground..and we all felt something, not like a regular electric shock but we all knew what had happened. The pilot of the plane I was connected to kept asking if we were o.k. I told him yes and had him key the radio so I could have a chat with the tower.

We sent the last plane of that group and the four that had just landed back to the ramp "hot".

The tower supervisor got called on the carpet and issued a letter of reprimand.

The base weather office determined that the lightning struck one of the landing system lights about a thousand or so yards from the ramp we were on.

So I think my crew and I had discovered what "step potential" can do. And we were darn lucky too.

jeezus. darn lucky is right. that is one cool story though

the pilots had to sit in their planes during the storm ?

Yes, the pilots usually waited out the storm in the plane, fortunately the monsoon storms were usually short-lived, about a half hour max. So the pilot would either wait at the EOR marshall area, with the engines (and cockpit A/C ) running, or go directly back to the flightline parking spot and shut down and get out quickly.

On rare occassions, if the plane(s) had enough fuel, they would hold in the air and fly around 'till the storm passed.

After I got certified for the APU (Auxillary Power Unit, a small turbine engine in the rear of the aircraft which provides power, hydraulic pressure and bleed air for engine starting) operation, I discovered a few neat things to do while waiting out the rain.

For example, the aircraft's radio can tune in some of the VHF local T.V. channels. It was quite surreal to be sitting in a military fighter, on a dark flightline, while listening to Johnny Carson.

Another fun thing to do was open the speed brakes (on the A-10, about the size of a sheet of plywood) and waggle the stick, thus whacking the poor unsuspecting fool standing under the wings.

A-10's and Johnny Carson - this must have been some time ago?

I used to pratically live in a conex box on the Camp Pen MCAS runway for over a year. (In 92-93) '92 Camp Pen flooded and filled all of the runway lighting full of river silt, so everything was generators and field gear for several years as they were redone. My job was keeping all the temp stuff operational while rehabbing the perminant gear. Most of my fun was helo's* (Ch-53's, 46's and cobras) But they still had some A-10's on the way out then. Never been a victem of "Flap-Slap" but have witnessed it.

*Had a 53 land next to my van while the taxiways were to be clear for me to re-work some lights at night. Tore the drivers door right off my van due to rotor-wash. Other fun for them was to knock over the porta-john next to my lighting shack - once with a buddy of mine in it.

Yep, I was stationed in Tucson from early '82 to about late '84.

Pretty sure Carson was the late night guy then...but lately my memory on the small stuff has started to go... Yesterday I climbed my stairs twice before work because I couldn't remember if I'd locked the front door!

, I was a hull mechanic on M-60 tanks, and would hear those warthogs unleash that gun whenever I was supporting range exercises.....AWESOME

Young guy here, used to use derilict M-60's for .50 Cal. + MK-19 practice. I too will also do a bit of the up and down the stair, and need to have my keys attactched to me.

Keys ?
I remember once, I was going

Tom (togol),

Thank goodness you + your family are OK!
Those Tornados are frikken insane!!!

Out here in Southern California, we get "Mini Mesocyclones (sp???)" and "Water Spouts", but nothing at all like the Mid U.S. plains of "Tornado Alley".
With a choice between the Earthquakes we experience regularly - vs - Tornados and Hurricanes, give me Seismic events anytime!
Just step outside and away from Buildings, let the shaking knock stuff over, return later with demo crew, rebuild, etc.

The closest thing to a Tornado / Hurricane event I have ever witnessed, was a Microburst.
It occurred late one night, during an intense Summer Storm (likely generated from a Pacific Hurricane).
I was watching the intense Lightning discharges - many of them connecting within 1/8 Mile and closer, when the Microburst came rolling through.
The winds picked up a full 4 x 8 sheet of 1-1/4" Plywood (two 5/8" sheets screwed together), and had it "Dancing" around my Back Yard - then over the fence into the Park next to our House!!!

That was an _Amazing_ sight, especially since that Plywood weighed something like 60 Pounds (at least it seemed that heavy!), and didn't know any Ballroom Dancing ...

In my past studies of Lightning Phenomena, the topics of Tornadoes and Hurricanes is somewhat covered, as Thunderstorms accompany these Cyclones.

As fascinating as those Weather Disturbances are, I still have no wish to experience them up close.

Scott

Scott,
Thank You,
you mentioned waterspouts. I saw one of those begin to take shape a few years ago on Lake Michigan, but it never touched the water, but a little sailboat was having a rough time trying to get off the lake.

and you can have those earthquakes..

it turns out another electrician saw the cop car that was caught in the funnel fly past his place , according to him the car was spinning like a top with the nose pointing toward the ground.

have not heard any more about the cops status

From what I understand, died of injuries later...

WHAT? are you sure?

Yeah, I think so... I could be confused? Heard it on the radio a few days later, and it is mentioned in several news accounts. (if this is that same tornado, and officer?)

http://www.kansas.com/233/story/65394.html

http://www.911jobforums.com/showthread.php?p=465214

My sincerest apologies, I think I'm going on about a different tornado and person that happened near the same time earlier last week. Different state...

oh,
may that man Rest In Peace...

but the Deputy in LaPorte was female

My condo in Treasure Island Florida was hit by a waterspout/tornado. Unfortunately it was only 49.999% damaged (pressured by some long time residents). We would have all been better off if that was 50.0001%
Much like the "collapsed house" in San Francisco, a backhoe party would improve that property.

Once again My apologies Togol. Not making light of the situation, but who would of thought two cops end up in very simular-nearly identical situation involving a tornado a few days apart from eachother?

When I heard that on the radio the other day they just mentioned 'the Officer who was injured after being caught in tornado - cruiser found 200' away...' (No mention of the other 'Officer' who had a simular experiance...)

One of the stories posted on that forum I linked to was particularly touching, about giving away his daughter...

Have not see it here yet, but one of the LARGEST motivations for building with timber frame is it's heat transfer properties. Brick and stone are good temperature conductors and generally require additional insulation on the inside, in which case you would be better off building with timber in the first place.

Greg, I confess that I just assumed that waterspouts were just a "oddity " with respect to their ability to wreak havoc..I had no idea they could be as terrifying as their counterparts ! But I just did some searching and saw the snapshots of a boat from Australia the "Nicorette" that managed to sail right into one and stayed afloat.....Holy Cr....!!

Mark, there is no reason to apologize, it was a sad coincidence with different outcomes.as it tuns out,the woman here is Ok,
she was released a few days later.
and the story about that Deputy and his daughter, was indeed bittersweet..joy and grief all at once, I hope her marriage is a long and bountiful one, full of happiness and laughter

I agree with you regarding the insulating qualities of wood, but Timber frame homes are just as vulnerable as stick built..it would just make bigger toothpicks

I think it really depends on the size of the timbers and the connectors you put them together with. The Lover's Key comfort station took a direct hit from Charlie, wind and water at 145-150 MPH and survived but it was framed with 12x12s with 1/4" stainless connectors holding it together on pilings that went down about 20 feet. About 100 feet of the beach was gone but the building stayed. Nobody was around but they suspect the waves went over it. I may be able to find picture I took from my boat, looking up under the building.

what's a "comfort station" ? .... he asked

Bathrooms

you pulling my leg.?

Why would you say that? This is actually a pretty big building on the beach.

i got the link that show the photo of the storm damage in Kanans area. you will get the idea how much damage it show storm damage photos

Merci, Marc

I thought it was slang....given it's location and I seem to recall that "comfort" in the "Olde English" meant something else !!

that's a very stout bathroom nontheless

Marc, after looking through those it would seem that the traditional shelters... a basement, storm cellar, or brick building, offered little or no protection !
I simply can't imagine what those folks experienced.

thanks for posting the link

This is the building in the background behind the tram.