Surviving the tornado: Man withstands tornado and has the video to prove it (MA)

Masslive.com ^ | June 8, 2011 | libertarian27

[TXnMA]

Do any of you use Google Earth?

I have located the skyscraper with the microwave dishes where the camera that made the video linked in #17 was mounted. The bridge on the right is the railroad bridge, and the second bridge hit (at left) is the Memorial Bridge. In the foreground is I-91, 5 parallels the river on the far bank.

I've already plotted locations for the camera, the approx. position of the tornado at the start of the tape, as well as my guess as to Donovan's location. I can "ballpark" kickstart's location on I-91, and, if he wishes, he can help me refine that.

If enough of you think it is worth the effort, I can create a set of KML files including those positions and an approximate track of the tornado center. It is a lot of work (mostly because the camera zooms [uses different focal lengths] and pans) but I may attempt overlaying a couple of the camera views on Google Earth.

If I do the above I could create a set of KML files that I can publish as a link. Clicking on the files would start you off in Google Earth, centered high over the "camera skyscraper" with north at the top, showing an overview of all features. Then I would rotate the view around to the camera's first view azimuth, drop down to the camera's elevation, and tilt over to approximate the view at the beginning of the video -- with the video view from the camera's viewpoint superimposed on the Google Earth view.

No promises, yet, but if several folks use Google Earth and are really interested, I may give it a try... Any takers?

[JRandomFreeper]

Never, ever double dog dare me. ;)

I will move over 6 ft, and fire up a Windoze machine that has Google Earth on it if you post something like that. And trust me, firing up that old dog is a try on my patience.

Too bad Google Earth doesn't actually work on a Linux box. But they do like to pretend it does.

/johnny

[BornToBeAmerican]

Thank God that he got through it okay. I sure was glad to that small car still there parked on the road, right side up.

[kickstart]

Location was I91N just before the first on ramp and between Bliss St. and Howard St.

[libertarian27]

The building camera is on top of Manarch place in Springfield - it’s the Channel 3 Springfield camera - I watched it live (interestingly the warning siren and message on the tower didn’t kick in until after the tornado had gone southeast of it)

The guy in the car was at the W Springfield Bridge St Pumping station -(from the article) just north of the Memorial Bridge on Rt 5 - if you use google map satellite to see the area where he ‘thought’ he could safely get off of rt 5.

There should be tornado path mapping already of this thing - there’s aerial footage of the path on the net.

[libertarian27]

Here’s a TV interview with the guy at the location
(you have to see his scratch :) - lucky kid)
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=178532808868935

[TXnMA]

kickstart, I have a Google Earth "pushpin" placed for you in the center northbound lane of I-91-- just south of the onramp merge. That puts the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame to your left and due east of you. Close enough?

I have the tornado center passing about 1,000 feet in front of you -- which means you got whacked on your left side by its southern wind wall. My guess is that the damage was mostly on the left side of your vehicle -- and you got plenty wet. (As in... a good part of the Connecticut river got dumped on you!)

Were you one of the lead vehicles in that line of backed-up traffic that stopped just south of where the tornado crossed I-91?

If so, you were very lucky: the "wind wall ring" of that thing was wider than the river at that point -- and you definitely were in a max wind zone. Good thing you had mostly water to your left; Donovan (on the other side of the river) got whacked by the roof from an "ethnic" restaurant across Hwy 5 from where he stopped.

BTW, do you know what happened to those cars that were on the Memorial Bridge when the tornado (and half the river) whacked it? Or the cars that were on I-91 just ahead of you?

~~~~~~~~~

I know I'm doing this rather after-the fact -- but I just saw the Donovan video and the one from Monarch Place -- and decided to do a little "intellectual exercise" using Google Earth and Google Maps Street View to "place those videos in 3-D space". (Sort of "keeping in practice", as it were...) '-)

That thing was scary! Glad you weren't a quarter mile farther north!!

[TXnMA]

LOL!! No "DDD" intended... '-)

I was just trying to find out if anyone on the thread used Google Earth and could/would take advantage of whatever work I might put into creating a "show'n'tell" with it.

Looks like you are the only one interested - or with GE running (albeit on an old Wndz machine...)

I already have a set of KML files showing all pertinent locations -- and three viewpoints that approximate the camera views from atop Monarch Place. By using Google Maps Street View, I was able to "go to" where Donovan was parked by the pumping station -- and even identify the cell tower visible in his video.

For grins, I may try recording a "Google Earth Tour" of my results. If it doesn't satisfy me, I'll probably just upload a folder of KML files to my server and send you a link. Might just grab a few GE views and publish them as JPEGs for all to view. We'll see...

Botttom line: it looks as if it's not worth the effort of grabbing frames from the video and going to all the effort to match GE views to them (a real PITA...)

Who knows -- to paraphhrase Flip Wilson in drag, "What you'll see is what you get..." '-}

[TXnMA]

Duh! Missed the pumping station bit (jumped into the video and didn't go back and read the rest of the article.)

Looks as if few (if any) folks are interested in whatever I might create with Coogle Earth -- so I'll just do whatever pleases me -- and upload whatever "falls out"...

Too bad I "came late to the party": I might have even created a video and uploaded it to YouTube. Now, this is just "old news".

FWIW, I saw a few tracks online, but none matched the area covered by the Monarch Place video -- so I just went ahead and did what suited me. (The fun of the challenge is working with low-angle video; anyone could plot a track from directly overhead...) However, if you have links to some good track plots (or photos) of Springfield / West Springfield, I'd appreciate them.

There is lots of good info about tornado behavior in that river-crossing video; it is well worth studying closely.

As I said earlier, this is mostly an "intellectual exercise" for me; any shareable output will be a bonus. ¿Quien sabe? -- I may just share a few JPEGs of my results...

[libertarian27]

BTW, do you know what happened to those cars that were on the Memorial Bridge when the tornado (and half the river) whacked it? Or the cars that were on I-91 just ahead of you?

A tractor trailer truck was tipped over on its side on the bridge (just as you would exit the bridge on the W.Springfield side)- I was watching it live and it looked like that was the only real bad issue on the bridge- I could be wrong.

There's another video someone took going 91 north on youtube - they showed themselves driving away(northbound) and it did not look like anyone northbound was seriously injured or any cars destroyed as they went through where the path was.

[kickstart]

My estimate was the tornado was only a few hundred yards across. No vehicles in front of me on 91N were flipped, as I didn't see any when I started moving again. I didn't look in back of me, but I heard no reports of flipped cars on 91 either N or S. One tractor trailer was pushed on its side on the Memorial Bridge. I have damage on my left, front and rear. I was in the right lane against the Jersey barriers so that protected my right side

[libertarian27]

Here's an aftermath aerial picture:

See on the left side of the photo - just under the bridge there's a small square building there on the river side of Rt 5 - that's where he pulled off - just down the ramp off the rotary. The railroad bridge is on the far left - by the blue tarps on the houses it looks like it just touched the railroad bridge on the outer parts of the tornado. (more pics on link)

http://photos.masslive.com/republican/2011/06/massachusetts_tornadoes_aerial_photos_path_of_the_tornado_one_week_later_part_1_45.html