Deadly Storms Slam N. Carolina, Virginia

[knocker]

The death toll is growing from a storm system that's been pummeling the South over the past few days. At least 17 people are known to have died in four states. Officials in North Carolina say they have fatalities, but no word yet how many. Enormous damage has been done by dozens of tornadoes.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42625977/ns/weather/

Midnight chart.

[Snowyowl9]

2 dozen tornadoes reported,this is only spring.

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/tornadoes-rip-across-the-us-leaving-22-dead/story-e6frfkui-1226040470946

[chionomaniac]

For those of is who were monitoring those storms rather than watching BGT last night the power was truly awesome. At one time there were two identical apostrophe shaped storms moving through the NC with devastating consequences. Then there was the raliegh storm as well with great local news coverage.

[vortex_liam]

was following live. I was really hopeing that they were going to die out but they did'nt. The houses and people are'nt perpared for extreme storms.unlike kansas they are not prepared with manny storm shelters. Also not all of them have basements. They wer'nt prepared for this!

[ukweathergirl]

Just found an article on it this morning. I don't remember hearing of such large outbreaks before this

241 tornadoes rip through 14 states in 3 days

[Coast]

Looks like a very bad go this time:

Deadliest tornado in US history claims 44 lives

Washington, Apr 17: The deadly tornado, one of the largest in U.S. history has reportedly killed 44 people in 14 states in an area between Oklahoma to North Carolina. The Los Angeles Times quoted state officials and AccuWeather.com as saying that the storms had led to the occurrence of 241 tornadoes so far. Over 60 twisters had reportedly swept through the Bertie County in eastern North Carolina, killing 11 people. At least 22 people were killed across North Carolina late Saturday, and five in Virginia. Earlier, the storm system killed seven in Arkansas, seven in Alabama, two in Oklahoma and at least one in Mississippi. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service has claimed that the thunderstorms might reoccur, possibly striking some of the same areas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qfq-8LfzzY

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/48503/historic-tornado-outbreak-3-da-1.asp

Leonard Smith didn’t need the National Weather Service to tell him that a tornado roared through northwestern Rowan County on Saturday. Once it ripped the roof off the shed he was standing in, all he had to do was look up. “I was in the shed painting when I looked out the door and saw it coming,†said Smith, who lives on Beck Road off Old Mocksville Road. “I knew it was a tornado, the way it twisted.â€

He ran to an adjoin-ing room that he knew was sturdy because he built it. Just before Smith ducked inside, he heard the wind tear off the roof and felt the rain begin to soak him. After the storm passed a few minutes later, Smith emerged into the backyard to check on his house and the Chihuahua he left inside. His dog was scared but unharmed. The home didn’t fare as well; half of the roof on its back side was gone. Smith doesn’t have insurance to cover the damage, so friends and family members are helping him make repairs. The hole on his roof is now covered with metal sheets. “My neighbors have been coming around, cleaning up and all,†Smith said. “There were about 15 people here earlier.â€

Several trees on and around the property were twisted apart and uprooted. They lined up to reveal the path the tornado traveled toward the nearby Farrington Meadows subdivision, which also saw heavy storm damage. The National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado with winds up to 105 miles per hour struck Saturday in Rowan and Davie counties. Preliminary assessment of the damage indicates that an EF1 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale hit the area from 5 miles north of downtown Salisbury near U.S. 601 to Point Road in southeast Davie County, the weather service said in a statement.

EF1 is the second lowest rating in the scale. The tornado track length was 3.5 miles long with an average width of 100 yards, and damage was intermittent along the path. Saturday’s storm, whi-ch moved through between 12:30 and 1 p.m. Saturday, damaged about 20 houses in the area as it tore apart roofs, shattered windows and brought down nearby trees. No injuries were reported in Rowan County. Large trees also toppled onto utility poles, blocking a few roads and causing power outages for at least 6,000 Duke Energy customers in Rowan. Electricity had been restored to nearly all by Sunday night.

Across the state, the death toll from a swath of tornadoes reached 21, according to the Associated Press. Spencer resident Dan Patterson was among those caught in the more heavily damaged areas. During an RV camping trip toward Virginia Beach, Va., with his wife, Patterson stopped Saturday at an RV park in Selma just off Interstate 95. That afternoon, tornadoes reportedly moved through Selma and nearby Smithfield in Johnston County, but the RV park was spared.

“We could tell a twister went to the both sides of us,†Patterson wrote Saturday in an email to the Post. “We only suffered a little hail the size of golf balls and quite a bit of wind.†As sirens blared after the storm had passed, the couple drove a half mile down a service road and saw mobile homes that had been mangled and destroyed. The couple then drove 2 miles south on another service road along I-95, Patterson wrote, where it appeared that a tornado had crossed the interstate. A tractor trailer had overturned and sat on its side across the southbound lanes, while downed trees blocked northbound traffic.

Gov. Beverly Perdue toured damaged areas. According to the Associa-ted Press, the governor said her tour of tornado-ravaged portions of her state nearly brought her to tears. She said at a Sunday afternoon news conference in Raleigh that nothing she saw surprised her, given her experience with natural disasters. Still, the damage is hard to bear. Perdue said the people she talked to are grateful to be alive. They told her they plan to rebuild their homes and businesses. The governor says President Barack Obama has pledged federal help for recovery.

The string of tornadoes that touched down across North Carolina on Saturday were the worst such storms in more than two decades. Hundreds of homes were damaged.

http://www.salisburypost.com/News/041811-Saturday-tornado-follow-qcd

Look at the list of the SPC storm reports!

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/110416_rpts.html

[Coast]

Incredible footage at the end of these reports:

http://www.newsobserver.com

http://www.herald-dispatch.com

[sammie]

Media now reporting that the death toll from the last three days is 45 with more expected. Really is amazing whats happened over 241 confirmed tornados withthe final count not yet in across 14 states. This week now takes the crown as the biggest tornado outbreak in living memory surpassing the 74 superoutbreaks.

Some really amazing info here: NOAA anlaysis information Including links to radar shots and damage survays here NWS Jackson Miss. storm reports and analysis

Storm reports for the last two days 15th and 16th Ratings and damage analysis are expected within the next 48hours.

Edited April 18, 2011 by sammie

[Coast]

SANFORD, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue says she's never seen anything like the destruction caused by a storm system that's claimed at least 21 lives statewide.

Perdue said Monday on NBC's "Today" show that search-and-rescue teams are still working all over the eastern part of the state. She says the storms appear to have treated homes as if they were paper doll houses. Federal Emergency Management Agency teams will be in the state assessing damage this week. Thousands of acres of agricultural land also have been devastated. Perdue plans to talk with officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture about what aid might be available. The state was the hardest hit by a ferocious storm system with twisters that ripped through the South, killing at least 45 people across six states.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hUCaaHPyraG-f62fM4scLn9t9DFw?docId=d61a179bbfe94862bc9770d069a3e83d

[Coast]

This has an all too familiar ring to it - is nature fighting back?

A US nuclear power company has disclosed that one of the tornadoes that hit the US at the weekend, killing at least 45 people and causing widespread damage, forced the shutdown of two of its reactors. The series of tornadoes that began in Oklahoma late last week barrelled across the country, with North Carolina, where 22 people died, the worst-hit state. The US nuclear safety regulator said on Mondayit was monitoring the Surry nuclear power plant in Virginia. Dominion Virginia Power said the two reactors shut down automatically when a tornado cut off power to the plant. A backup diesel generator kicked in to cool the fuel. The regulator said no radiation was released and staff were working to restore electricity to the plant.

The tornadoes were among the worst in the US in the past two decades. Last year, 10 people died in a tornado in Mississippi, while 57 were killed in North and South Carolina in 1984 and 330 across the south in 1974.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/18/us-tornadoes-shutdown-nuclear-reactors

[Evening thunder]

Wow some incredible but saddening scenes there, It's a shame these tornadoes have to hit residential areas.

However I have a little bone to pick with the newspaper headline at the top of post 6 on this thread, seeing as a) it was 241 tornadoes not a single tornado, and b ) even if it was a single tornado, 44 fatalities is in no way the deadliest tornado in US history, as for example the Tri-State tornado of 1925 had 695 confirmed fatalities! Is it from the Daily Mail by any chance

The Tri-State Tornado of Wednesday, March 18, 1925, was the deadliest tornado in U.S. history. With 695 confirmed fatalities,^[1] the tornado killed more than twice as many as the second deadliest, the 1840 Great Natchez Tornado.

http://en.wikipedia....i-State_Tornado

Edited April 19, 2011 by Stormmad26