Warnings had been issued 48 hours prior that this thunderstorm could get nasty.
The supercell thunderstorm that produced the devastating twister formed over Kansas. The storm was three-quarters of a mile wide with a 300-yard-wide (274 meters) hurricane-like eye. The tornado path was 22 miles (35.4 kilometers) long, and was EF-4/5 strength for 6 miles (9.7 km). The Joplin tornado stands to pass the 1966 Topeka, Kan., tornado as the costliest in U.S. Insurance payouts from the Joplin tornado now exceed $1 billion, and that amount eventually could double, according to the Missouri Department of Insurance.
The team recommended looking into the possibility of using different tones on sirens to indicate different levels of threat, as well as adapting automated warnings to distinguish between smaller, less threatening tornados and killers like the one that hit Joplin. When a second siren sounded, she told the interview team that she thought it could be an all-clear signal and nearly came out of her shelter in the bathroom just before the tornado destroyed her house.
JOPLIN MISSOURI TORNADO TV
She heard the first siren and turned on the TV and only took cover with her daughters when the broadcast said to. One woman interviewed lost 16 neighbors on her block. Many residents did eventually take shelter, but for several reasons such as the lack of basements, many did not survive. Weather radios were not common in the area, the report found. The alerts prompted to her to take shelter in the restaurant before the tornado hit. One woman interviewed said she was eating dinner with her family at a restaurant when she got a text message and phone call during dinner about the tornado. Social media and text messaging alerted some people to the immediate danger, though was not as big a factor in warning people as the team originally expected. The tornado was wrapped in rain, so it was hard to see until it was dangerously close. Most of those interviewed said they waited for further confirmation from television broadcasts or from looking outside and seeing the twister before they sought shelter.Įstimating the number of lives lost because people were slow to take action wasn't possible, Wagenmaker said. Many said the first siren didn't trigger any concern, as they often go off as false alarms or for other reasons. Wagenmaker and his team interviewed 100 people in the field a week after the tornado hit and asked them about what prompted them to take shelter.
0 kommentar(er)
