Sprol

At approximately 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 6, 2005, an F3 tornado tore a path through parts of Kentucky before jumping the Ohio River into southwest Indiana. This tornado produced drastic results for many areas, but did the most damage to Evansville, Indiana.


This unexpected tornadic storm touched down just two miles north to northwest of Smith Mills, in Henderson County, Kentucky before moving northeast. After jumping across the Ohio River, the storm moved through the southern Indiana town of Evansville, Vanderburgh County, and continued on into Warrick County with winds reaching an estimated 200 MPH.

With a storm path of about ¾ of a mile wide and 41 miles long, this recent tornadic event claimed 23 lives while leaving at least 200 Hoosiers injured. Many of these injured survivors, however, are still considered “critical,” and at least five more people are deemed “unaccounted for.”

Along with the obvious, tragic human toll are over 100 buildings and homes. The hardest hit areas seem to be Evansville’s Eastbrook Mobile Home Park and areas in Warrick County, located just east of Evansville. As it turns out, this tornado, which triggered area emergency sirens, was virtually unexpected and undetected by the victims and survivors as most people were sound asleep early Sunday morning and did not even hear the sirens sound just minutes before disaster struck.

Indiana officials have confirmed that the weather sirens did sound twice, but those who lived in the mobile home park just could not hear them. In fact, officials say that the warning siren are definitely loud enough for people who are awake or already outside, but they may not be strong enough to wake up someone from a sound sleep.

What was left by November 6th’s tornado was total devastation to most areas that were unlucky enough to be caught in the storm’s path. Toppled mobiles lay in complete ruins like matchsticks; smashed, overturned cars in what used to be farm fields and lawns; yellow insulation decorated trees; vinyl house siding in the streets; and toppled trees were left-over reminders of the tornado’s wrath.

Indiana homeland security spokesperson, Pamela Bright, has confirmed that this storm was the deadliest in Indiana’s long tornado history since April 3, 1974. Additionally, the National Weather Service has also established that this more recent tornado appears to have been, in fact, an F3, “severe tornado,” on the Fujita scale as it contained winds ranging anywhere from 158 mph to 206 mph. This F3 tornado also possessed the power to tear the roof and some walls from well constructed houses and building, to overturn trains, as well as to uproot most trees found in area forests.

The Fujita Scale is a system used to gage the ferocity of tornados, and it is based on the damage caused by the storm, not the appearance of the funnel cloud. The F Scale has ratings from F0, a gale tornado, to F5, an inconceivable tornado, and storm chasers and most other weather observers usually try to guesstimate the intensity of a tornado when they are out in the field actually observing a tornado. They base their decision on the tornado’s rotational speed, the amount of debris being generated by the twister, along with the width of the tornado. However, it is important to note, the National Weather Service office that issued the original “tornado warning” will announce the official, final Fujita Scale designation only after the tornado is over and the damage is being assessed.

As in the case of November’s southern Indiana F3 tornado, the strength and unusual characteristics actually dispelled some myths about the predictability of tornadic activity. The storm’s intense strength, its 41-mile path of massive destruction, as well as the unusual fact that it struck in the middle of a November night are a few of the thought-to-be-unusual uniqueness of this tornado.

In addition to these common misconceptions about tornados, many people living in and around the Evansville area were under the impression that they had a natural tornado protector in the great Ohio River. It is a typical misbelief that a tornado won’t, or can’t, leap from one side of the river to another. Unfortunately for those in southern and southwestern Indiana, this is just not true.

Fortunately, however, the November 6th F3 twister was not as bad as it could have been.

Anyone Hoosier knows that their home state is in what is referred to as “Tornado Alley.” Tornado Alley, a line of states that stretches from the Southeast to the Plains states, is where the tornadoes are most likely to occur, and, in fact, occur quite often. And, even though states like Oklahoma and Kansas have a much higher frequency of tornado-producing storms than Indiana, the Hoosier state’s tornadoes rank very high in tornadic intensity and strength.

In Indiana’s recorded history, going back to 1852, the deadliest tornadoes struck on Palm Sunday, 1965, when 11 tornadoes ravaged 20 counties in central and northern Indiana. The final death toll in Indiana was 137 Hoosiers. More than 1,700 people were injured and the state’s property damage costs far exceeded $30 million. This Palm Sunday disaster was truly Indiana’s worst tornado event.

The deadliest tornado in American history, however, was actually the Tri-State Tornado which hit Missouri, Illinois and, Indiana on March 18, 1925. This deadly tornado traveled a record 219 miles beginning in Missouri before moving into Illinois and then ending in Indiana where it severely devastated three counties; Posey, Gibson and Pike. The Tri-State Tornado finally ended roughly three and a half hours after it began in Missouri. Just under 700 people died during that three and a half hour period, 74 of them were Hoosiers.

In terms of total destruction, the nation’s most damaging tornado outbreak occurred on April 3rd and 4th, 1974. In Indiana alone, the tremendously devastating tornado-producing system created 21 tornadoes which struck 39 Hoosier counties causing 47 fatalities, 768 injuries, and property losses to at least 5,966 families in Indiana.

The first, tornado touchdown on April 3, 1974, was at 9:30 a.m. in a farm field in Boone County. The major outbreak, however, did not begin until around 2:20 p.m. in the south-central portion of the State. The tornado rampage did not end until just before 8:00 p.m. in the northeastern part of Indiana. Several of these twisters moved rapidly across the state at speeds of 50 to 60 mph and were visually-observed to have more the one funnel cloud. When the dust had finally settled, 39 counties had suffered significant damage, including the loss of 47 lives

This massive series of tornadic storms, also known as the “Super Outbreak of ‘74,” lasted for roughly 16 hours, produced 148 tornadoes and ravaged parts of 13 states. The storm path was devastating and stretch approximately 2,500 miles killing over 300 and injuring more than 5,000 people who were caught in the storm’s path.

It is interesting to note that Indiana ranks 15th in frequency of tornado-producing storms. The Hoosier state also is ranked 7th in tornado-related injuries and 6th in actual fatalities. When it comes to the costs that are accrued as a result of tornadic storms, Indiana chimes in at 2nd in the nation.

As for the survivors of the most recent tornado disaster in Indiana, it is time to try to clean up what is left in the twister’s wake. For many, however, there is virtually nothing left to clean up as the tornado stripped them of their homes as well as most of their personal possessions. Rebuilding will happen slowly, and it will probably be a long time before many of the survivors have a secure, permanent place to call “home.”