Updated! December Tornado Outbreak. Deadly and Historic. Long Track Tornadoes Deliver Death and Tragedy
Updated..........10 PM Sunday Evening!
I took a ride at sunset after a good day with amazing conversations. Just after sunset these two planets hung low in the sky next to the oak tree that is finally turning colors and dropping it's leaves. I'm in North Carolina, far from the six states that suffered such horrific devastation yesterday. We don't think about tornadoes usually in December and yet they can happen any time the hot, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico feeds into a strong cold front. Hurricanes don't always happen at the peak of the Hurricane Season and have been known to pop up months out of season! Hail Happens! Hurricane Ida caused more deaths as she exited the country than when she made landfall. Weather somehow always surprises us.
People complain often about Twitter and yet it's a source of shared knowledge and for that I'm grateful. Someone gave me the name of the storm chaser who took the heartfelt images I used below earlier today. Another person tweeted a graphic showing the 1925 Tri-State Tornado next to the much longer path of yesterday's tornado that trashed six different states and killed way too many people. Some of the missing have been found and the feared death toll is lower than we previously projected and that's good, but whether we lose 100 people or "just 60" is not something to celebrate yet to give thanks. What is more important is to give charity in any way you can to those who are in need.
People who live are often scarred forever in subtle ways or not so subtle ways. I had a young man at my house for dinner years ago who heard there was severe weather in his home town. He immediately was worried on his wife back home as she had survived a tornado that hit her elementary school and while she survived, her best friend next to her died. Any time the lights flicker, or thunder crackles or hail hits the roof she would get terrified all over. Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome plagues survivors of such tragedies. If you know someone who needs help, make sure they get help be it a tornado, an earthquake or a hurricane.
I tell people all the time that I'll take a hurricane over a tornado anytime, more so an earthquake as you have the ability to get out of danger if you need be it a safe shelter or travel to another place. The people who work up yesterday looking forward to a busy day on Saturday preparing for Christmas with plans to shop or decorate abruptly had their lives changed, rearranged and need help.
Please donate. https://www.redcross.org/
The before is below......
Amazingly of all the images the one at the top just totally did me in. I stared at the immensity of the power of a tornado to reach down out of the sky, drop down as if it was some vehicle of war and wrench the dome off of a large brick courthouse and suck all of the life out of a town and every other own for miles around in the path of a line of tornadoes that lased for 10 hours while most of us slept quietly in our beds oblivious to the severity of this historic event. Yes, we knew it would be bad and there was the chance of severe weather and tornadoes as warm, moist Gulf of Mexico air moved up towards a strong front sweeping across the country. But did any of us expect it to be this bad? Maybe, possibly and yet the depth of destruction always stuns even those of us who cover disasters and have chased storms and have seen it first hand.
Every. Single. Time.
I'm always in awe each time and thankful where I live we worry more on hurricanes than tornadoes dropping out of the sky on some relay, rampage ripping our hearts out and bringing death and destruction at a time of year we so desperately want to to see good cheer and happiness after the collective nightmare 2020 was for many we want bright lights, holiday happiness and churches filled with people singing praise of thanks and good tidings. And, yet Mother Nature never seems to ignore a beautiful church in the way of some destructive storm. Yes, long run on sentence because my mind is running through so many thoughts just now.
That is just so sad. I suppose we can be happy the Twisters did not hit Sunday Morning? And, again the oddness of Weird Science in that the prayer books are sitting there in perfect order as if nothing ever happened. I learned after Hurricane Andrew that rooms can be broken into by the devild wind, furniture rearranged, scratched and destroyed and pictures can remain in place perfectly as they hung straight up on the wall in their frames staring down at the destruction.
Pics like this always remind me of Hurricane Andrew.
It just looks as if some bomb went off or it was taken from a War Zone and indeed it was a war zone and the search to find anyone who is missing still alive is going on frantically across a large swath of a place where the South meets the Heartland.
The video below is by the storm chaser...
..Brandon Clement... Awesome!
It's a poignant, ironic photography.
The town is now in our collective memory.
The top of the courthouse ripped away.
Lives destroyed and rearranged.
And it wasn't just Kentucky.
Look at this signature below......
Like a scar across the land.
It will take a long time to heal.
While Kentucky can get severe weather and tornadoes, it's not the first place we think of as we do Kansas, Iowa and of course Oklahoma. As we begin the Winter of 2021 we have displaced unseasonal weather in an area where many were hoping for a White Christmas. It's very sad, it's humbling and it's why we have to and must continue research on Tornadoes, Severe Weather, Hurricanes, Earthquakes and every other field of Earth Science to better prepare populations, give earlier warnings that are taken seriously and learn better how to build in case of disasters.
When I first saw the NWS page with the area highlighted all I could think of was the New Madrid Fault Zone as that was what it outlined and yet here we are in December dealing with the strongest line of severe weather in easily over 120 years if not way more; this morning I read 130 years as meteorologists who study weather history try to figure out the details while the rest of us are numb.
It reminds me of 1925.
Tri-State Tornado Outbreak.
This was actually bigger, and longer.
And that was March....not December.
Adding this in Sunday evening...
... great graphic showing how the difference!
@ATXHarrisonTran on Twitter.
I'll remind you to donate.
Pray they find and save the wounded.
Pray for those who need.
We have only just begun weather wise this December and I'm pretty sure it will be randomly strewn with various sorts of trouble from Ice Storms to Blizzards and who knows what else Mother Nature has for us?
Going offline a bit today. Taking some private time to rest and connect with loved ones. I love going to Miami, but always exhausted when I get back and takes a while to readjust. I prefer when people come here, and yet more often than not we travel there and I'm tired of traveling; here is good for a chance! The weather here today is beautiful, and yes I know that can change fast. It was in the 70s yesterday and going down to 29 tonight, which is what makes everyone sick as the rollercoaster ride of December in Raleigh goes on and on until we get deeper into real winter. Enjoy your day and connect with your loved ones and appreciate all you have and please donate today and down the road when the set up for those who lost everything is set up .... to receive goods and to begin again. That is how we live life be it weather or otherwise. Sad, bad things happen and at some point we pull ourselves together and go about the process of starting over again!
Besos BobbiStorm
@bobbistorm on Twitter and Instagram
I'll put a video up tomorrow as there is no song I can really think of that would go with this tragedy but leaving you some links to check out.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2021/12/11/tornado-damage-kentucky-tennessee-illinois/6475737001/ Photos above are from this well done articl. USA Today does do the visual aspect of news excellently. Usually I only read the paper if I am in a hotel, but it always amazes me the choice of images they choose which evoke the scope of the tragedy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_outbreak_of_December_10%E2%80%9311,_2021 Remember to "tip" them once in a while for how much information we gain from using Wikipedia!
I link to the Red Cross, because I know they are a real charity that many give to, yet there are many good charities local and otherwise in this area but it's always good to do your due dilligence. The Red Cross is set up to get help where it is needed fast and I know that because my brother has worked with them and it's an impressive organization. Please give and pray. I'll link to more charities later this week.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_tornado_outbreak An outbreak I actually first learned about in a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Roaring 20s were exciting and wonderful and yet they were filled with severe, deadly weather be it tornadoes or hurricanes!
posted by BobbiStorm @ 8:28 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home