I could sit there and do nothing. My friends were in danger as the radar showed the Hook Echo. Twisters had arrived in the land where the tall corn grows.
The Hook Echo over Pella, IA
A wicked set of thunderstorms raced across Iowa last night, developing into full blown super cell thunderstorms.
North East Missouri / South East Iowa’s only televsion station, KTVO, was on air, tracking the storm. Weather radios across the region were blaring the emergency “Tornado Watch”, switching over to “Tornado Warnings” with twisters on the ground at various locations.
The weather radars showed perfect examples of the “hook echo” signature right in the Pella and Oskaloosa area, down as far south as Ottumwa.
The worst of the damage hit Pella, Marshalltown and Bondurant.
A tornado where the tall corn grows, this beast was near Cherokee, Iowa in 2011
Bad timing… but fortunately, nobody died
In Pella, it couldn’t have hit at a worse possible time. One of the area’s major employers, Vermeer (a maker of farm machinery) was having a field day, with over 500 customers on site at an already busy industrial plant. Photos of the area show massive damage at the plant, as well as customer-moving trams twisted into wreckage.
Fortunately, there were no fatalities reported despite the massive property damage. Area hospitals reported 17 injured in the three communities.
You can fine out more information about the details of this particular twister flurry here plus pictures by clicking here.
Understanding the hook echo radar and the warnings
I’m no expert, even though I have attended several storm trackers training courses and have taken college level meteorology classes. I’ve seen the hook echo time and again, but I recognize that people who are REAL experts and who are also good teachers can do a better job of explaining things than I can, so here’s a link to a really good article about the various radar signatures including the hook echo that indicate that twisters are forming or are on the ground:
Twister Alley
Iowa is NOT in Twister Alley, nor is North Missouri where I live.
Having said that, we have had many, many strong tornados in our area, and some of them have been deadly. Others have done little damage except to farm fencing and power lines.
One twister that hit our area could have been extremely tragic, but fortunately it happened when it did, and not four hours earlier.
Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri held their graduation ceremonies in the Charles Fieldhouse. The fieldhouse was filled with hundreds of graduates and their families, celebrating the end of their college careers.
A mere four hours later a massive twister hit Canton, and caused horrific damage to the town and campus. The Charles fieldhouse was absolutely flattened, with nearly all of it’s roof (and the roof of a nearby structure as well) pancaking onto the floor. There was no tornado shelter in the fieldhouse. If this tornado had hit four hours earlier, there would have been a massive loss of life.
Here’s a news report about the 15-year anniversary of the event.
When Tornado Shelters are not at hand
There were tornado shelters on campus, but it would have been very difficult to have moved that crowd out of the fieldhouse and into the shelter on time.
As luck would have it, Spice and I were driving past Canton that day, and I remember the huge amount of first responders. The iconic dome of Henderson Hall, a landmark for everybody in North Missouri who have driven past that building over the last 100 years, was gone.
It really struck home the power of what a twister can do when the hook echo arrives.
This has also had the effect of having me start paying close attention to storm shelter location signs whenever I enter a public building. Before I was aware of the concern, I would just wander around oblivious of any safety signs.
Today? When I first enter a room, I consciously take note of all of the signs. Where the exits are, where the storm shelter signs are (if there are any). I look for the location of the fire extinguishers, I look for the automatic defibrillator (AED) in case somebody has a cardiac event and I have to help them.
The pancake flat roof of that huge fieldhouse was my wakeup call.
Life in Twister Alley
My father was from Kansas, the southern part of the state south and west of Wichita, which is in the heart of Twister Alley. My grandfather, who had lived there all his life, knew a lot more about storms and the weather than I ever will, and he didn’t need a radar or a hook echo to tell him when a storm meant trouble.
I was in my early teens the first time I spent a week with my grandparents in Kansas (I was a military brat, we were overseas most of my early life).
I remember looking out from the second floor of grandpa’s house and seeing several thunderstorms across the vast plains that make up southern Kansas. We could see for countless miles all around us, and I saw three distinct boomers (thunderstorms) in three different areas.
Confession time: When I was 6 I first saw the Wizard of Oz and that tornado scared the living snot out of me. From that time on during my youth that twister was what I thought was the norm for Kansas. To be honest, that movie creeps me out up to today.
I asked my dad and grandpa if I should be worried about seeking shelter from a twister. Both of them just shook their heads sadly at me and chuckled. My dad said “son, don’t be worried about a tornado until your grandpa tells you to be worried. He’s seen hundreds of them, he knows when it’s time to head to the cellar”
I don’t think we are in Kansas any more
While this is an amusing anecdote (and actually true… I’m not above telling a “Missouri Stretcher” but this one’s Gospel) it’s not really a very good plan to have to haul around 70-year-old Kansan to be your tornado warning system.
Even more with twisters like the one that was being tracked north of Ottumwa, it was completely clouded in a rain shield and you couldn’t visually see the thing.
We rely on the National Weather service and to a lesser (but growing) extent social media and storm chasers. Storm chasers are really interesting people, but this is a subject that’s far beyond prepping so I’m just going to leave it at “they know their stuff”.
Social media, however, is becoming a far more instant and up-to-date source of news. I was able to follow along with my friends as they report what is going on around them.
The worst place to be during a tornado… seriously…
Sometimes it can be terrifying when a good friend of yours is in mortal danger from a twister.
A good friend of mine, both in real life and on social media, was caught in the absolute worst place to be during a tornado event, and he recorded the whole trial on his phone via social media posts as we followed along in horror.
In 2011, a tornado hit Lambert Field, the St. louis International Airport, in the terminal area. The twister tore through the terminal area (which has glass walls) and turned the inside of the terminal into rubble.
As awful as that was, my friend was in a worse spot… he was already inside his plane, which had closed up and been in the process of being pushed back from the terminal when the warning came.
They couldn’t deplane. The ground crew ran for cover. They couldn’t take off. The push-back wasn’t finished (jets can’t go backwards, they have to be pushed). All they could do is watch the twister coming right at them through the windows of their fully-fueled jet.
Yeah, it was scary.
Fortunately, while the jet was hit by flying debris from the terminal, the actual twister went just wide of them. It wasn’t that plane full of people’s day to die, I guess.
Ignoring the warnings
I recently wrote an article about ignoring tornado warnings, so I’m going to let you read that one if you want to.
I do think it’s an important topic, especially in areas where twisters are less frequent. Normalcy bias is a real thing, and a real challenge for us to fight.
Takeaways
I’ve often stated that I think many preppers spend far too much time on national and international news and far to little time on what’s important. People spend hours upon hours debating about climate change, while ignoring the fact that they don’t have up-to-date supplies in their tornado shelter.
I don’t think somebody from the Kyoto summit is going to come and knock your house down, but there’s a good chance that a tornado will send you running to your shelter if you live where twisters are common.
Prepping for tornados is simple, yet a lot of folks don’t do it. Have a weather radio with fresh batteries. Set up some type of a shelter, and have a plan to get into that shelter (and make sure everybody who’s supposed to be in the shelter is actually there with you).
Have a bug-in grab-n-go bag/area for nighttime, so you can grab your wallet, keys, so that you have a decent set of clothes and most importantly footwear at hand. Broken glass and bare feet are not “a thing”.
When the Hook Echo comes to a radar near you, be ready.
Where I live, the local authorities have adopted the practice of activating the tornado sirens any time there is a Severe Thunderstorm during an active Tornado watch. Sometimes, there will be a tornado warning issued based solely upon radar…aka “radar indicated.” or “the potential to produce a tornado. As a long time WARN storm spotter, I disagree with this. A hook echo alone does not indicate the presence of a tornado on the ground. Tornado warnings have become so commonplace around here that fewer and fewer people pay any attention to them. I’d estimate that 95% of the time no funnels are spotted and no damage path is ever found afterward. The criteria used in the past was that a funnel on the ground, and or rotating debris had to be confirmed by observers on the scene. Nowdays, “radar indicated” tornadoes are mostly false alarms…leading people to disregard them. I often think of the old tale of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”
Good thoughts, Brian, and you are right in that there’s a lot of times when the radar shows a possible tornado formation that don’t turn into a twister, let alone a twister on the ground.
I think one of the most interesting developments in sharing a good picture of what’s really happening is social media, where we can track through an area-wide network of friends what’s really happening… they know when one IS on the ground via actual observation.
Me? I’d rather duck into my basement and be safe than risk it… my basement’s not that bad of a place anyway 🙂