Leake County Storm Report

On the afternoon of April 14, 1886, the city of Sauk Rapids in Minnesota was nearly wiped out after a tornado had struck the city. The whole city was left in complete devastation. Natural disasters have always interested me, specifically tornadoes. Something about tornadoes, whether it’d be how they form or how they acquire their power to cause great destruction, interests me to learn more about tornadoes. This led me to research about tornadoes in Minnesota. As I began surfing the internet about tornadoes that occurred in Minnesota, I came across the effects that each tornado had caused to the areas that it had struck. This is where I discovered the effects of one particular tornado called the Sauk Rapids Tornado. As I looked at the

Although major disasters, such as wildfires, tornadoes, and earthquakes, are usually followed by an outpouring of

Greenville County’s disaster preparedness plans and resources are maintained by the Emergency Operations Center. The Emergency Operations Center “is the physical location where emergency management and support personnel come together during an emergency to coordinate response and recovery efforts and allocate available resources” (“Emergency Preparedness,” 2015). Greenville County Hazards include naturally occurring events such as dam/levee failure, drought, flooding, tornados, tropical storms, and winter storms; as well as hazardous materials (HazMat) events including fixed facility accidents, nuclear accidents, pipeline accidents, and transportation accidents. Hazardous materials events are of particular concern due to the fact that “Greenville County has more than 1,400 miles of state-maintained highways, numerous railroad lines, and many industrial manufacturing plants that use hazardous materials”

A tropical wave developed into a tropical depression about 140 mi (230 km) east of the Yucatán Peninsula on August 17. Moving north-northwestward, the depression soon strengthened into a tropical storm. Early on August 18, the system crossed the Yucatán Channel and entered the Gulf of Mexico. While nearing the coast of Louisiana on August 19, the storm slowed down, turned westward, and intensified into a Category 1 hurricane. Late on August 19, the hurricane attained its maximum sustained wind speed of 80 mph (130 km/h). The cyclone curved west-northwestward and weakened slightly before making landfall near Crystal Beach, Texas, with winds of 75 mph (120 km/h) around 13:00 UTC on August 21. At landfall, the barometric pressure fell to 992

Power lines were downed across the county, with approximately 70,000 customers left without electricity,[212] including roughly 40,000 in Tallahassee.[261] Trees were also toppled throughout the county, with roads blocked at 200 different locations. A total of 29 homes were inflicted with minor damage, 4 were inflicted major damage, and 1 was destroyed.[212] Two fatalities occurred in the county, with one from chest trauma and the other by blunt trauma and respiratory

On Saturday December 21st 2013 a powerful storm struck Southern Ontario, leaving the streets and sidewalks under a thick blanket of snow. Ice covered covered the ground in thick sheets near Lake Ontario and some parts in Quebec. In Fredricton they received freezing rain. This storm greatly affected many parts of Southern Canada and some parts of the United States. In this essay I will be focussing only on the areas in Canada that it affected. I will be discussing  the different types of precipitation that fell, the areas where the storm attacked and the dangers it caused to many lives, and the impact this storm had on transportation routes and the power grid. Finally, I will be comparing how the different types of tree vegetation were able

It is vital for the survival of mankind that we respect and understand the severity and danger of natural forces and weather conditions. Although advances have been made in the predictions and warning systems of the National Weather Service, or NWS, we must be vigilant in our efforts to always respect what is coming. It is also imperative that we learn from the mistakes we have made in the past and grow from them. One such piece of literature which can help to do this is "Storm Warnings: The story of the a Killer Tornado", by Nancy Mathis, which depicts an amazingly horrific incident where mankind was not prepared for what was coming. The following is understanding of the events that took place on May 3rd, 1999, which showcased an amazing, and terrible, spectacle of tornadoes in Oklahoma. Furthermore we will delve into what has changed since this to better our understanding of upcoming weather related dangers as well as planning for said forces of nature.

Saturday afternoon a deadly and costly EF5 tornado hit Camillus, NY. 568 people were injured, and sadly, 8 people perished. This storm was devastating to the people of Camillus, and their families.This was the worst storm yet. The damages are approximately $9.7 million, not to mention it’s estimated to take around 2 years to rebuild the community. The most disappointing part is how long it took government agencies to help the people in need. We could have avoided so much, but the residents weren't prepared. Most of the people that had died was due to the lack of warning and the severity the storm. They didn't realize that a tornado was coming because they are so uncommon in New York. Therefore, they will arrange tornado drills at the schools;

There is an old expression, when it rains, it pours, and according to Clemmie Sue, an elderly vivacious pig farmer who lives in the rural southern town of Wrongberight it is true. It just so happens that for the past three days, intermittent summer rainstorms have hit the area and the deluge on Friday morning saturated the farmer’s fields and woodlands with an additional eight inches of rain. To complicate the situation even more another storm is brewing in the east and slowly pushing enormous thunderclouds towards Wrongberight threatening to strike early Saturday

One common concern among the Joplin tornado survivors was the improvement of the established warning system. Had they been warned sooner, would have more people survived?

At 6:15 p.m., a devastating tornado hit the downtown area of Fort Worth, Arlington, and Grand Prairie areas. The tornado that struck downtown Fort Worth was an F2 tornado on the Fujita scale, but an F3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. The thunderstorms that the tornado arose from brought flash floods, strong winds, and hail. The tornado funnel developed directly over the city, descended, and stayed on the ground for at least 15 min (Brewster, 2004). The path of the tornado was recorded and after examining the damage it was determined the tornado began its damage in the municipality of River Oaks where damage had been done to homes and Castleberry High School. The tornado continued its path crossing the Trinity River where it then took a turn at the intersection of West 6th street and University Dr. It then took on a eastern direction damaging more homes. The tornado continued its path toward downtown leaving destruction to the Cash America building, the Bank One tower, Calvary Cathedral and many other buildings. The tornado finally dissipated when it hit I-35, but its parent cell continued to cause damage to homes, trees, and fences (Wikipedia.org). Another thunderstorm system began to arise in Johnson county and made its way northeast ward to meet up with the parent cell from the Fort Worth tornado, this produced a second tornado that hit Arlington and Grand Prairie. This tornado also reached

Shifting gears to a much wetter threat from accelerated climate change, the potential for all kinds of severe weather such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, and even ironically snowstorms is on a drastic increase from its already elevated state, putting hundreds of millions in danger from these short term weather systems that can occur anytime and anywhere where the conditions are just right. These shorter term weather related threats as a result of this changing climate can already be seen happening all around the world, especially here at home in the United States and namely the Central Plains region, which is colloquially known as “Tornado Alley” come spring and summer time since tornadoes do not regularly happen elsewhere in the country. In

A final key point made in the article is that, “fires in Graham County have consumed 6,000 acres; a fire near the town of Hayesville, in Ashland County, has burned nearly 600 acres, and 14 different fires on the Cherokee Indian Reservation, where a state of emergency was declared Thursday, has consumed at least 450 acres ("Lake Lure, N.C., wildfire doubles in size; multiple fires burn across

Hayes speaks on behalf of the National Weather Service when he says that they found “Several EMs and media representatives stated the growing number of weather awareness weeks (e.g., flood, lightning, fire, etc.) were diluting the messages and causing the events to lose their effectiveness.” The way that we now look at awareness events are to do fewer more impactful events. Another thing that Hayes found was that some cities did not have any systems in place to handle the tornado outbreak, and now there is an education program set in place that is free of charge to the participants. Much of the other things that the National Weather Service said that could be improved were infrastructure, the foundations of our society. There were unreliable systems of communication between cities, and there were no backups in place incase one link broke. One other thing that the cities could have used to further spread the knowledge was social media, but some cities did not use any of it to contact citizens. The largest contributing factor to people not getting to shelter or leaving was their misunderstanding of tornadoes and forecast systems. The best way to educate these people is to offer classes to teach them about the basic weather systems that they live

No storm is experienced the same. Seeing a storm on the horizon has the power to stir up gripping memories, introspective thoughts, and convoluted emotions. The poem “Storm Warnings”, by Adrienne Rich, applies a predictable structure paired with flowing syntax, and ambiguous diction- speaking both of weather and emotions- to illustrate that one cannot avoid the tribulations of life, embodied as the approaching storm, but instead prepare for their arrival.