The Worst Tornado Outbreak in U.S. History
Deadly Tornado Swarm Kills 317 in 8 States
Some 211 tornadoes were reported within a few hours' span on Wednesday, including a series of so-called long-track twisters that raked across six states. The Tuscaloosa twister alone may register as the most powerful long-track tornado in US history. Unconfirmed Death Toll at 325; Confirmed Death Toll by State: Alabama: 210; Tennessee: 35; Mississippi: 33; Georgia: 16
The Dark Wednesday: SPC received 211 tornado reports among a total of 806 severe weather reports.
April 29, 2011
FIRE-EARTH - Hurricane Katrina claimed an estimated 1,800 lives in 2005; death toll from tornadoes and storms attacks is at least 316, and mounting.
Wednesday’s tornadoes are now the deadliest in the U.S. history, breaking previous record was set on April 3, 1974 when twisters killed 310 people.
The tornadoes and violent storms that ripped through 8 states left “major, major” trails of destruction in their paths.
“As we flew down from Birmingham, the track is all the way down, and then when you get in Tuscaloosa here it’s devastating,” Gov. Robert Bentley said, declaring Alabama “a major, major disaster.”Entire civic infrastructures were wiped out as tornadoes and storms leveled entire neighborhoods in various parts of the South, obliterating homes, businesses, schools, hospitals, churches, trees, power lines…
At least 36 people were killed in Tuscaloosa, with more than 600 injured, local media reported.
There are no official reports of the dimension of destruction as yet; however, FIRE-EARTH estimates that up to 6 thousand structures may have been razed/damaged, with an estimated loss of about 10 billion dollars.
States of Emergency
Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia have declared states of emergency.
Super-cell T-storms
“These were the most intense super-cell thunderstorms that I think anybody who was out there forecasting has ever seen,” Greg Carbin of the SPC in Oklahoma told the AP.
The twister that destroyed large parts of Tuscaloosa is believed to have been an EF-5 tornado.
“We have neighborhoods that have been basically removed from the map,” Tuscaloosa mayor Walter Maddox said, describing the damage as a path of “utter destruction.”
Another large twister, possibly an EF-4 tornado, reportedly destroyed about 90% of the town Hackleburg in Alabama’s Marion County. The National Weather Service has confirmed an EF-4 tornado touched down in the Tennessee Valley, a report said.
Storm Shuts Down 3 TVA Nuclear Reactors at Browns Ferry in AlabamaThe 3 reactors at TVA’s 3,297-megawatt Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama switched over to emergency diesel generators to supply power for the reactors cooling system at 5:30 EDT (22:30 UTC) after storms knocked out transmission lines that supplied power, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency said. More…
On April 20, a tornado reportedly damaged the switchyard at Dominion’s Surry Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) forcing both aging reactor units to shut down.
About 650,000 homes and business were still without power, mostly in northern Alabama and Mississippi, Thursday night, a report said.
“Roughly 70 high powered transmission lines remain out of service, with some creating dangerous situations because they’ve fallen across roads.”
Browns Ferry nuclear plant won’t restart so long as so much of the grid is down, TVA chief of operations was quoted as saying.
“When the system is ready for the plant, we can begin the process of restarting it. But we have to get the transmission system ready.”
Forecast: Large-scale lightning outbreaks
Unfortunately, the worst may NOT be over yet. In addition to more tornadoes and violent storms this year and the next, FIRE-EARTH forecasts phenomenally large-scale outbreaks of potentially deadly lightning clusters throughout the United States.
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