Jackson, Tennessee "UNBELIEVABLE DAMAGE"

NWS ^ | 06/04/03

[Lucas1]

*** 1 DEAD *** ONE FATALITY

CONFIRMED IN A SUBDIVISION THAT SUFFERED UNBELIEVABLE DAMAGE. REPORTED BY MADISON COUNTY EMA. (MEM)

Violent tornado apparently has tore through Jackson, Tennessee.

[Abigail Adams]

Space Wrangler...Do take care! If you have a matress you can bring to the lowest level or a closet and put it over you, that might be a good idea just in case! Call your friends and family just to make sure they know what the situation is. Keep your eye on the sky, and pray!

[babylonian]

Obviously, you have went to the best of schools :-)

[archy]

It's on it's way here now-- we are due east of all the above mentioned counties, and it's headed right for us.

Kindly check back in here if you can after it's passed and let us know you're okay, if you still have power and phone/cable lines after it's cleared. God bless you and take care of each other.

-archy-/-

[stainlessbanner]

Thanks for the directions, NCC-1701.

[HiJinx]

LYNCHBURG!!!! OH MY GOD!!!

Is the cost of Jack Daniels going up???

[archy]

Not to sound morbid or anything but is it me or does anyone not see these things having a bit of a miracle attached to them? A re-building process and construction jobs and growth can come into a community or a town now thanks to tornadoes. Loss of life is impossible to replace. However, in the darkness of all of this chaos the light at the end of the tunnel has to be the fact that there is now open land and property that can be re-built at the cost of FEMA and the Govt. Maybe some of these area's have been having hard times with businesses and now insurance can pay off the small business owners.

I dunno...just trying to see some good in this.

Nothing wrong with your observations, known to those in the emergency mananagement field as the *recovery phase,* and also very related to pre-disaster mitigation, as much of that rebuilding can hopefully be to better standards more survivable in those disasters most likely to affect the local area and community involved.

There's a downside too, of course: following the Indiana Petersburg tornado, there were large numbers of fly-by-night repair scams plaguing that community, and during the aftermath of the disaster when water had to be hauled into the community, someone poured paint thinner into one of the military 200 gallon water tankers, poisoning a few folks, thankfully not fatally. So far as I know, noone was ever apprehended or charged for that particularly nasty crime. So it doesn't hurt to keep the thoughts you've raised well in mind, though of course more immediate matters must be dealt with first. But the Petersburg rebuilding was a case worth study if you have a real interest in that sort of thing, and if you'd like to get involved in that phase of Emergency Management, as necessary as preparedness or disaster response if not as immediately heartwrenching, I'd be glad to point you in the right directions.

Those who *try to see some good come of all this* are the bright lights that light the way for the rest of us when we get real tired and snappish. It's really needed, and I'd love to see someone who expresses such thoughts put them into action.

-archy-/-

[archy]

LYNCHBURG!!!! OH MY GOD!!!

Is the cost of Jack Daniels going up???

I prefer mine neat, and stirred, not shaken, please. But both the prices AND the product could indeed be going up. And around and around.

-archy-/-

[HiJinx]

You, sir, are doing a great job of keeping your spirits up.
Hmmm...pun not really intended...
Hang in there!

[Travis McGee]

How's everything at your end?

[oyez]

I would guess Olivehill to be 140 mile east-northeast from Olive Branch. I don't know of dammage there.

[Joe Hadenuf]

*** 1 DEAD *** ONE FATALITY

Is there a difference?

[wardaddy]

Fine here. We had about 5 doppler tornados show up on the NOAA radar between midnight and 4AM here in Nashville but none did any damage of any consequence. Thunder rolled and lightning struck every minute or so in a very dense fashion all night. Still stormy today.

I have a great stone storm cellar cut into the rock under my home but the entry is from outside. Guess we'd go for the downstairs closet (my hunting gear). Fortunately, I'm way up a hillside amongst a bunch of 800-1000 foot relative gradient knobs and not a likely spot for touchdown but you never know.

The spot where my mini warehouse is in the flats by the Cumberland river has been within 2 miles of touchdowns in the past 5 years.

I really have grown to dislike these "acts of nature"...lived with them all my life I've spent in the South.

What country has the most tornados (very small ones admittedly)?? It's a suprise.

[Travis McGee]

Glad to hear you're okay. I thought the central USA had the most tornados, with that great combo of arctic air meeting Gulf warm water.

[wardaddy]

Here it is:

The United Kingdom (U.K.) experiences 15 days, on average, each year when the synoptic and meteorological conditions produce tornadoes. A single tornado may form on some days but on other days the conditions may give rise to a large outbreak of tornadoes. For example, on 23 November 1981, an outbreak of 105 tornadoes occurred across England and Wales during the 6-h passage of a very active cold front attached to a very rapid deepening depression. On average the U.K. experiences 33 tornadoes each year but the annual total has varied from only 11 tornadoes in 1989 to 152 tornadoes in 1981.

Granted they are quite weak...more like little land waterspouts but many believe the UK has the highest incidence per total square miles. Bet you could win bar drinks with that one.

[Travis McGee]

Interesting! I never heard of a UK tornado, so they must not destroy homes very often.

[wardaddy]

There is a macabre rivalry in the US between the Plains States and the Southeast as to who is in the deadliest tornado path.

I think the Plains have more arguably but the Southeast has the most deadly due to higher concentrations of people.

Mississippi last I looked had the highest fatalities per capita. There is also a corridor between Tupelo in NW Mississippi passing thru Huntsville Alabama to the Rome Gerogia area which is a particularly active and deadly alley. It is probably the most like spot in the SE where cold fronts lap over warm pressure from the Gulf and hence lots of activity.

Here in the Nashville area, we have had at least 8-10 touch down with damage the past 7 years I've been here. The ones around here last night were apparently pretty bad.

[archy]

*** 1 DEAD *** ONE FATALITY

Is there a difference?

Technically, a victim who is dead is one who has been certified as such by a physician or coroner, or other person qualified by state law to make a pronouncement of death, the legal requirements of which vary from state to state. A fatality may not yet be expired, but may be a person so irretrievably injured that there is no doubt that they are expired or will be, as, for example, those trapped underground in mines during collapses, caveins or earthquakes, but whose bodies could not be accessed for a legal determination of death.

Aircraft mass casualty disasters frequently result in multiple fatalities, and those involved are later eventually designated as dead as their remains are hopefully recovered and identified and the determination of their death is confirmed.

The difference is a small and technical one, of little importance to grieving family members or friends, but sometimes an important legal distinction when insurance settlements come into play.

-archy-/-

[Travis McGee]

I have relatives in OK, it almost seems like living in a war zone at times, always on the alert for enemy bombers who can drop one on you with almost no warning at any time. The comparison works even down to the "air raid shelters."

[wardaddy]

Yes...I was raised with cellars outside away from the home ....I think they called them "root cellars".

Problem in the SE is unless you are in the Delta, you can't see em coming.

I keep planning to have a drop door built into my walk in closet over my cellar which houses my hot water heaters and heating and cooling.

[Travis McGee]

There's nothing funny about your truck landing in your bedroom. It happens!