Posted on 05/27/2008 2:41:47 PM PDT by xjcsa
Last updated at 4:30 p.m. Tues. May 27, 2008
Summary
NWS personnel have rated the Parkersburg-New Hartford-Dunkerton tornado as a Low-end EF 5 (correlated to wind speeds up to 205 MPH) on the Enhanced Fujita Scale at the locations of maximum damage. Additional details on path length, width, etc. will be posted on this webpage Wednesday, May 28. This is the first EF5 tornado in Iowa since the Jordan tornado of June 13, 1976.
A large and destructive tornado moved across Butler and Black Hawk counties on Sunday May 25th. The initial touchdown occurred near the Butler and Grundy county line, 2 miles south of Aplington at 4:48 pm CDT and quickly grew in size and intensity as it approached Parkersburg. The tornado was nearly 3/4s of a mile wide as it moved through the southern end of Parkersburg at 4:59 pm CDT. Significant structural damage occurred in the town of Parkersburg including 100 to 200 homes destroyed. The tornado maintained size and intensity as it move towards New Hartford. At 5:09 pm CDT the storm moved just north of New Hartford once again causing significant structural and tree damage. The tornado weakened around 3 miles east of New Hartford with lesser damage as it moved east to north of the Waterloo and Cedar Falls area. Significant straight line winds occurred along and just south of the tornado track with preliminary estimates of 90 to 100 mph. The tornado then grew in size to near 1.2 miles wide north of Dunkerton causing substantial damage to a farmstead there. The tornado lifted just before entering Buchanan county.
The image below depicts the approximate damage path. The width of the green line in no way implies damage path width at this time. The damage path map will be updated and refined this week as more information is gathered.
EF5 ain’t nothin’. When Barak was a boy he lived through an EF12.
I thought he was going to ban them.
prayers for the people who had to suffer this storm. That had to hurt.
I didn’t think a “low-end F5” tornado was possible.
This hits close to home, (home is on that map) I know at least 4 people who lost everything, except their lives. There are reports of finding cancelled checks and mail from Parkersburg in Wisconsin.
Prayers for all of them. I understand Senator Grassley’s farm is very close to the tornado’s path.
F4 Devastating tornado 207-260 mph Well-constructed houses leveled; structures with weak foundations blown off some distance; cars thrown and large missiles generated.
F5 Incredible tornado 261-318 mph Strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried considerable distances to disintegrate; automobile sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 meters; trees debarked; steel re-inforced concrete structures badly damaged.
F6 Inconceivable tornado 319-379 mph These winds are very unlikely. The small area of damage they might produce would probably not be recognizable along with the mess produced by F4 and F5 wind that would surround the F6 winds. Missiles, such as cars and refrigerators would do serious secondary damage that could not be directly identified as F6 damage. If this level is ever achieved, evidence for it might only be found in some manner of ground swirl pattern, for it may never be identifiable through engineering studies
The F6 sounds like only a theory. If you had an F6 you wouldn’t know it. Interesting.
An interesting tidbit;
A few years ago, I took the scenic route to Waterloo. There was this place on the way called the “Twister Bed and Breakfast”. Supposedly, the last scenes from “Twister” were filmed at this farm.
If I remember correctly, it wasn’t far from Grundy Center.
Missed me by a quarter mile.
Tornado ping!
That would have been near Eldora, I think, just a bit west and north of Grundy Center. The last scenes from Twister were indeed filmed there.
Sounds like we need to start a Cedar Valley Freepers group or something...I wasn't quite that close (Waterloo) but my parents' house was within a mile or so of the path.
Does the “low end” description reduce the handout?
Eldora, I believe that is right.
Those out of the way places were small town America at it’s finest. Some of the nicest folks you will ever meet.
In an F5, wreckage like this is usually sourced from earlier in the twister’s path. 5s generally take up the wreckage they cause with them and deposit it somewhere else.
Also a ping to people who were on the original storm thread.
Yes, that’s F5. A stronger one would have abraded the street away.
Unbelievable. Thanks for the ping.
Whoever heard of a tornado that takes a house but leaves the trailer home?
That trailer was probably drug in for temporary shelter, for the cleanup crews and managers.
Look at the trees around it.
Thanks for the ping.
Our church is organizing some assistance. I will be attending a meeting tomorrow morning on it.
Washington Iowa was hit 10 years ago, on a much lesser scale, but the children were tramatized for a couple of years. Everytime the dark rain clouds appeared they just were petrified.
God Bless my northern neighbors as they deal with this.
I’m hearing that several vehicles were thrown over a mile, and a plow attachment for a road grader (the big highway kind) was found 8 miles from where it started.
Thank you for the ping....
Prayers for these fine people who’ve lost it ALL...!!
According to TV, those killed were in their basements and heavy objects fell in on them. They said to go to the middle part of the basement under an area where there is nothing heavy above.
It seems to me that it would be preferable to get very close to an outside wall but I certainly never thought about thinking what is located above the area where we seek safety.
This is truly amazing. We may in for another round of this Friday.
Also on TV last night they interviews a dad who said he was laying on top of his wife and kids and felt himself being sucked up but grabbed onto something to hang on. I’ve never thought about trying to have something on which to hang on to. Fortunately, an F5 doesn’t come around often.
Something to hang onto can be critical. 10 years ago when the tornado hit Washington, a friend of my DIL was caught on the road. She got out of her car and laid in a ditch and clutched onto weeds in the ditch.
Intense I am sure is a gross understatement. Mindboggling the forces of nature and how truly puny man is.
My grandparents has a barn leveled by a tornado back in the early fifties. The chicken house not far was still there with hens in it. No dead chickens. It depends on where the winds go.
Did you notice the basements in the photos are basically empty? No furnace, no water heater, not even any interior walls.
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My Grandma was from Clarksville.
Prayers for you all.
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