Georgia Tornado Disastergreenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread |
Need a Category for "Natural" Disasters.PAYS TO BE PREPPED!
[ Fair Use: For Educational / Research Purposes Only ]
http://www.msnbc.com/news/369887.asp
CAMILLA, Ga., Feb. 14 Rescue crews began looking for more victims at daybreak Monday after several tornadoes tore through southwestern Georgia overnight, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 100. The mayor of one town told MSNBC of unconfirmed reports that 20 people were killed in his area alone.
THE POLICE CHIEF of Camilla, a town of 5,000 in southwestern Georgia, reported an unconfirmed death toll of 20 people, Mayor Joe Powell told MSNBC.
Powell added that many people were missing, among them city employees.
Residents had been relying on cable TV reports for tornado warnings, Powell said, but power was cut before the tornado hit, so many had no advance notice.
Willie Nelson said his three-bedroom house near Camilla was carried about a quarter of a mile by the storm, but he only suffered abrasions. The whole house came up and I came up with it, said Nelson, 41. I was just praying to the Lord to take care of me.
Officials confirmed six deaths in Mitchell County, where Camilla is located. Six more people were confirmed dead in Grady County, and one in Colquitt County.
After daybreak, search-and-rescue teams went into the area to look for more dead and injured.
You just dont know until you turn over all the trees and houses and dig through the rubble, said Grady County Administrator Rusty Moye.
The Georgia Emergency Management Agency reported more than 100 injuries.
Each year, about one thousand tornadoes touch down in the United States.
GEMA spokesman Bob Miles couldnt give an estimate of the damage. Rescue crews were trying to assess that, but the possibility of heavy rain could complicate the effort.
BULLDOZER EFFECT
Witnesses described a five-mile swath of destruction through a neighborhood outside of Camilla, 25 miles south of Albany and north of the state border with Florida, where the storm hit just after midnight local time.Its like somebody took a bulldozer and leveled it, said a volunteer fireman, adding that between 50 and 60 homes were destroyed, most of them mobile homes.
All you heard was a roar, woo-woo-woo, said Johnny Jones, whose mobile home south of Camilla was lifted up and thrown on its side.
He said he freed his 14-year-old son, who was pinned under a washing machine, and they crawled out a window. All I could see was that everything was demolished. People were hollering and crying Wheres my child? he said.
FLARE UP FEARED
MSNBC meteorologist Joe Sobel said the tornadoes were part of a much larger weather system. And while the threat diminished Monday morning, it could flare up again Monday afternoon, he said.Thunderstorms also ripped off roofs and knocked down trees in parts if Alabama, and earlier strong wind destroyed at least six houses in Arkansas and injured two people. Trees and power lines also were down in parts of Mississippi and Tennessee, where one woman was injured by wind-blown debris.
In Ada, Ala., Charlie Jones said hed had enough after the roof was blown off his home. I will not rebuild, Jones said. This is the third time my house has been blown away. Im done at this corner.
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-- Ashton & Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), February 14, 2000
OH NO!
-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), February 14, 2000.
Tornadoes being reported in Arkansas now too.
-- run (cellar@bunker.down), February 14, 2000.
And its only February yet. Sad.
-- ..- (dit@dot.dash), February 14, 2000.
---tell ya whut, last night I thought we were gonna tip over in the RV. short of a few other windstorms and some hurricanes I've been in, last night for about 2 minutes was definetly in the top 5 wind gusts I ever saw, and we aren't anywhere's close to south georgia where all that destruction took place. I got a serious survival deal I have over looked here, going shopping today for some hurricane screw in the ground tie downs and some cables. I mean this rig leaned over and almost went off the leveling supports. Couldn't even get out the door, wind was too strong, couldn't hardly close the door either. Most of the storm was "normal" but that two minute gust was a doozy.--I do hope that that guy who rebuilt 3 times reconsiders some different building techniques, and maybe add a nice basement instead. If I had the loot, I'd do an earth bermed, or a concrete monolithic dome house.
--think I might pick up a copy of art and whitleys "the coming superstorm" just to get motivated more.......
-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 14, 2000.
hope I got italics off now, sheeshhhh, sorry
-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 14, 2000.
anyone keep track of the activity on the sun??? if not, you should...you'll see an incredible relationship between the solar activity and the weather here on panet earth.
heres'a good place to start:
http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/
o)<
mike
-- mike (mike@knuckledragger.com), February 14, 2000.
Zog, sure glad you're OK! Life would be quite drab without your posts.
-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 14, 2000.
Solar flares = weird weather, happens everytime.
http://members.tripod.com/~thepcguru/changes.html
-- Dan G (earth_changes@hotmail.com), February 14, 2000.
Mother Nature can really wreak havoc ...[ Fair Use: For Educational / Research Purposes Only ]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000214/ts/weather_tornadoes_6.html
Monday February 14 4:32 PM ET
Tornadoes Kill 22, Turn Georgia Town to 'War Zone'
By Michael Peltier
CAMILLA, Georgia (Reuters) - Tornadoes ripped through southwestern Georgia on Monday, killing at least 22 people, injuring more than 100 others and reducing one town to a ``war zone,'' officials and witnesses said.
The twisters, which struck just after midnight, ripped through brick houses and mobile homes and knocked down power lines in Colquitt, Tift, Mitchell and Grady counties near the towns of Moultrie and Camilla, about 200 miles south of Atlanta.
Parts of Camilla were flattened.
``We've had whole neighborhoods destroyed. Our people are dead. There are a lot of injuries and the roads are impassable,'' said Stali Allen, a reporter with the Camilla Enterprise, a local newspaper.
Allen said two tornadoes, about 40 minutes apart, struck the outskirts of the town when most of Camilla's 5,500 residents were asleep. Power cuts hampered initial efforts to help the injured.
``We need everybody's prayers,'' Camilla mayor Jay Powell told CNN.
``We will need help to rebuild too,'' he said, describing the devastation in his town as like a ``war zone.''
Dan Brown, a spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency said: ``We had 22 fatalities, 14 in Mitchell county, seven in Grady county and one in Colquitt.''
He said the search for victims was not over.
More than 100 people were injured, their condition ranging from critical to minor scrapes and abrasions, Brown said.
``The last thing we have is 19 structures destroyed, 11 with minor or moderate damage,'' he added.
Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes declared a state of emergency in all four affected counties in the state.
``It's like this thing just cut a swath across a huge area,'' Barnes told Reuters after flying over the worst hit areas in a helicopter. ``Within it there was total devastation.''
He said he had asked for federal help. ``Right now we're getting the people what they need,'' Barnes said, adding that generators, food and water were still needed.
At the Anderson Manufacturing plant in Camilla, which makes heavy duty utility trailers, 250 trailers weighing up to 10,000 pounds each were reduced to twisted metal.
The steel and aluminum plant was ripped cleanly off its foundations. Beams were shredded like paper and bent like question marks around trees and shrubs.
Kevin Glover, 17, showed up at the plant for work at 7:30 a.m., to find everything within a quarter-mile swath leveled.
``I got to work and everything was just gone and all that was left was just this,'' Glover said, motioning to the debris. ''My first thought was, 'Gee I'm out of a job.'''
Smashed trailers were found up to a mile away, where aluminum siding was wrapped like tinsel around trees.
Military and civilian helicopters hovered above the destruction.
Debris lay in random piles containing everything from oranges to car batteries.
An emergency worker in the town, Kenny Calhoun, said electric power was being restored as quickly as possible.
``But in some places it doesn't really matter because there's nothing left to plug in,'' he said.
There were no estimates on how many people in the area were without power.
Casualties were taken to several hospitals in southwestern Georgia, some of which operated on backup generators. Some of the injured were also taken to a hospital across the state line in Tallahassee, Florida.
Hospital officials said staff, initially overwhelmed by the influx of patients, worked through the night treating lacerations, setting fractures and trying to stabilize the most critical cases.
State officials said emergency shelters had been set up in Camilla and Moultrie. They added that it was too early to estimate the cost of the damage.
President Clinton expressed sadness over the deaths and damage.
Tornadoes also swept through the northwest Florida Panhandle shortly before midnight, destroying five homes and damaging 30 others in Bay County, Barbara Doran, a spokeswoman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said. There were also reports of structural damage in neighboring Washington County, Fla.
But there were no reports of deaths or injuries.
------------------------------------------------------------When Mother Nature causes the disruptions, people feel humble fear and shock, the "Act of God" reaction, and try to help their neighbors, and come together.
Very different than the predatory piss-off that Y2K might have engendered.
Every day we give thanks that Y2K was a No-Show on the surface!
-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 14, 2000.