Weather Storms.

[Alan W.]

We had a deadly tornado strike south of us in London and Somerset Ky. I hope and pray for all those involved. Hopefully none of our members were in that area.

 

[RSKY]

First I have heard of this. From Mayfield, hoping for no bad news.

RSKY

 

[Alan W.]

London area is reporting multiple fatalities.

 

[dodge man]

There were 5 fatalities in St. Louis also, just a few miles north of where my daughter lives.

 

[JPRambo]

I have a friend that lives between somerset and London. Just texted them and all is fine at their place. The are at a higher altitude, maybe that helped them.

 

[MMC]

We had a deadly tornado strike south of us in London and Somerset Ky. I hope and pray for all those involved. Hopefully none of our members were in that area.

The death toll in KY is now up to 21, mostly in Laurel County in south KY. My partner's tenant lost his mother in this large long track tornado. KY is rapidly becoming part of a new "tornado alley" vs the midwest.

The administration seems to want to cut the National Weather Service (NWS) to the bone - doesn't make any sense to me. Leave them alone - we need them. The "talking heads" at the TV stations are often getting their feeds and early insights from the "forecast discussion" section of the NWS. I am in central KY and buttoned up everything last night before this storm...simply because I had been reading the NWS "forecast discussion" and could see how concerned the NWS forecaster was about this event.

 

[Alan W.]

One of my sons co workers took his family to the neighbors basement. The storm almost leveled the neighbors house but his was untouched. Thankfully they were all unhurt but shaken up.

 

[ruffdog]

We had a tornado here in Juneau WI and it destroyed a dairy farm. The second half of this video shows them walking the herd to a neighboring farm:

 

[BravoXray]

We had some pretty severe scattered storms here in northern Indiana Friday night, lots of really high winds and rain. About 8:00PM my power went out, waited a couple of hours and it didn't come back on, so I figured it would be out for a while. Got up at 8:00AM Saturday morning and still no power, was concerned about food in the fridge and freezer thawing out, so I pulled the generator out and hooked it up to the house. Everything powered up fine, it's a Yanmar 22 hp engine and a 10KW generator, so plenty of power for the house.
I called my neighbor lady, an 82 year old widower and told her I would bring my spare generator, a BlackMax 7KW unit, over and get her freezers and fridge plugged in.
A utility truck finally showed up at 2:00PM and replaced the blown fuse on the pole just south of my house, and we had power back. I was surprised they got to us as soon as they did, considering all the outages in the area. Powered everything down and put it back in the shop, ready for the next time.
Interesting thing is that the neighbors right behind me never lost power. I am on a branch that only serves eight houses, the rest of the houses north of them are on lines from another power company.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

15 tornados on the ground in Indiana at the same time, that same night. One traveled a solid 50 miles... We are assessing now to send in disaster relief groups. Rough year for tornados

 

[John0829]

Rough year for tornados

It seems that West KY and southern Indiana have now been firmly added to the tornado alley. Since the tornado of 2000 that hit Owensboro it seems, at least to me, that the number, frequency and severity have been on a steady increase. That long track that hit WKY a few of years ago, it traveled from across the Mississippi river almost to Lousiville was FRIGHTENING!

 

[ponytug]

@John0829 I agree that tornadoes are nothing to sneeze at, and I suspect that you are correct that "tornado alley" has now expanded to more areas. I don't know if tornadoes are any worse than a hurricane, but I think that the unpredictability of their path is hard not to be concerned about.

What I have trouble understanding is the number of folks not having a basement or a root cellar, or a shelter in tornado territory. To me, a place to shelter from tornadoes is a basic safety item. (Yes, it costs money, as does any insurance, but not having one is definitely a form of Russian roulette in my opinion. Clearly lots of folks do not agree with me.)

I wonder if local community programs could help get more shelters to those in need of them. (Bulk buy, locally made, community days to install them...) It would seem like a good community effort.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ruffdog]

FEMA has not reacted to any of these disasters yet...where are they?

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

FEMA has not reacted to any of these disasters yet...where are they?

Good thing volunteers do. Government is terrible at most things. Same happened with the tornado in Sullivan, Indiana a couple years back.

 

[Blue Mule]

That storm was on radar for 420 miles. It had pretty much consistent tornado warnings posted on it the entire trek across Kentucky from Paducah to London. In my opinion the NWS wasn't slacking at all and did a phenomenal job. Sadly, in EF-3+ twisters if you are not underground you're in major danger.

I run a meteorology page on FB that has 30,000+ followers. Way back in February I talked about how this spring would be a very active severe weather season. So far we've had two floods, one of which was the worst flood in 46 years, and multiple severe weather outbreaks. Another coming in less than 12 hours as another system pulls strong dynamics into Kentucky today.

We've been using 2011 as the "analog" year figuring that the way the overall patterns matched up at the end of winter would give us clues about spring. 2011 was the year Joplin, MO was hit and we had a lot of activity across the Ohio Valley region that year. Our suspicions have sadly been correct.

 

[JeepHead]

Multiple tornadoes in my area Saturday with one death that I have heard of. I see the damage every morning on my ride into work. They have said the strongest was an F2 which I seen videos of it. After the storm passed, I walked outside and looked up and seen the oddest looking clouds, guess they're called mammatus clouds and they were super cool.

 

[ruffdog]

More storms and damage last night.

WASHINGTON—The newly appointed head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency acknowledged in private meetings that with two weeks to go until hurricane season, the agency doesn’t yet have a fully formed disaster-response plan.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/fema-hurricane-season-no-plan-39042ee6

 

[tacticalturnip]

More storms and damage last night.

WASHINGTON—The newly appointed head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency acknowledged in private meetings that with two weeks to go until hurricane season, the agency doesn’t yet have a fully formed disaster-response plan.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/fema-hurricane-season-no-plan-39042ee6

It's nice to know that FEMA being an absolute joke really transcends party lines.

 

[MMC]

That storm was on radar for 420 miles. It had pretty much consistent tornado warnings posted on it the entire trek across Kentucky from Paducah to London. In my opinion the NWS wasn't slacking at all and did a phenomenal job. Sadly, in EF-3+ twisters if you are not underground you're in major danger.

I run a meteorology page on FB that has 30,000+ followers. Way back in February I talked about how this spring would be a very active severe weather season. So far we've had two floods, one of which was the worst flood in 46 years, and multiple severe weather outbreaks. Another coming in less than 12 hours as another system pulls strong dynamics into Kentucky today.

We've been using 2011 as the "analog" year figuring that the way the overall patterns matched up at the end of winter would give us clues about spring. 2011 was the year Joplin, MO was hit and we had a lot of activity across the Ohio Valley region that year. Our suspicions have sadly been correct.

Your comments are timely and IMO correct. I am in KY and I pay attention to the weather. There's no farmer who does not. People's lives and our livestock, structures, equipment, and our crops are in peril in these events. And there seem to be more now than in my long ago youth.

As PonyTug noted earlier, maybe we need...a plan. In rural KY, a house trailer may be all folks can afford. And it's death on wheels in a tornado. As are many older houses out there in the country. But few strucures can take a direct hit from a tornado. No, we can't protect everyone with a personal shelter, but perhaps some centralized system of defining existing buildings to go to or community shelters to be built. But the point is it can't just be an ad hoc thing - it would have to be a true "system" with a defined structure. And more education of the public in general about buying in to such a plan.

As I write this, I am watching the Governor, Laurel County Sheriff, and local officials explaining a mandatory evacuation of people from debris fields using school buses or cruisers ahead of today's storms coming again to KY. They are trying to keep people safe and opening up places to put them. Government and municipal resources from across KY have been deployed to the London area to help, and many private folks are coming as well. I am always proud of my state during these times...

Now, a last thought. Is there waste in "government?" Yes, in some places, primarily due to Congress, as opposed to the executive branch, be it Democrat or Republican. And Congress is...us. But for Heaven's sake, stop cutting essential government services based on a bunch of young people running algorithms on a laptop without any real understanding of mission areas.
Attacking the scientific bodies within the government such as the National Weather Service is just...nuts. That forecaster on TV is relying on NOAA's satellites, supercomputers, and NWS weather balloons and the analysts from the NWS to provide accurate information. Because of cuts, the Jackson County, KY forecast staff can't even provide 24/7 coverage anymore. But they did, by coming in to work at night to keep people safe as I understand it. Yeah, you're damn right I'll pay their salary as a taxpayer.

Go after the waste, the political fat, DEI, whatever, but leave the essential services out of it. And have the brains to know which is which.

 

[Blue Mule]

It's nice to know that FEMA being an absolute joke really transcends party lines.

I didn't know until two months ago that FEMA existed prior to 9-11-2001. I think that says a lot.