14 years since the Parkersburg Iowa EF-5 tornado

[wwillson]

I have driven through Parkersburg several times each year since the tornado. The town has been mostly rebuilt and looks strangely new now. One of the local TV stations did a nicely done tribute for the 14th anniversary of the tornado.

15 year anniversary of the Parkersburg-New Hartford EF-5 tornado

It has been 15 years since the last EF-5 tornado in Iowa. The Parkersburg-New Hartford tornado is permanently etched into Iowa’s weather history.

www.kwwl.com

My post from the day of the tornado.

Tornado in Parkersburg Iowa

I'm at my home town in Iowa this weekend. The next town to the south was hit by a very strong tornado at about 4:30 this afternoon. We drove about 5 minutes to a friend's house to make sure they were ok. They were safe, but their house was completely destroyed. We carried as many large items to...

bobistheoilguy.com

I was lucky enough to be just out of the path

 

[tnt_motorsports]

That was certainly a crazy terribly sad day.

Just my $0.02

 

[joekingcorvette]

It's good the town recovered and I am sad for anyone involved. Tornado's can be devastating.

 

[JHZR2]

That’s really tough. Not sure if you can build to code for tornados the way you can for hurricanes. Can’t build higher like in flood areas. No terrain to break them up.

 

[Jdeere562]

I remember that tornado. It was a nasty one. Glad I was living in my part of Iowa when that hit.

 

[wwillson]

Not sure if you can build to code for tornados the way you can for hurricanes.

Nope, the structure would have to be steel and concrete with no windows, making the structure unlivable.

 

[Kira]

When I was a kid I had, of course, heard about tornados.

I swear I thought to build a completely underground house with a nearly completely fake scenic house at grade which could serve as the cover for the top of a stairway or even escalator to the living space below. It might end up being called the 'upper vestibule'.

The fake house could mask/include skylights and be a tool shed and/or garage. The "normal windows" would be graphics, not actual windows.
Again, this would be of small and tough design.
It could surround a garden or whatever you wanted. Since then I learned of steel roofs-perfect, no?

We had teeny brick houses in my neighborhood and I thought their design was perfect for an underground home's "conning tower".

 

[slo town]

Insane. I'm sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, of cases lingering PTSD.

Scott

 

[Jdeere562]

Nope, the structure would have to be steel and concrete with no windows, making the structure unlivable.

The house I lived in at the time of that tornado would have been safe. It had a built in "safe room".
Poured walls, steel reinforced, in the basement underneath the front steps of the house.

Only bad thing is the one door entry swung outwards. If the house caved in you would not be able to open the door and get out. No second option for exit! I always stored a sledge hammer in there along with jack and blocks.

 

[simple_gifts]

The house I lived in at the time of that tornado would have been safe. It had a built in "safe room".
Poured walls, steel reinforced, in the basement underneath the front steps of the house.

Only bad thing is the one door entry swung outwards. If the house caved in you would not be able to open the door and get out. No second option for exit! I always stored a sledge hammer in there along with jack and blocks.

Curious is there is any impetus for community or neighborhood shelters. Seems wildly uneconomical to leave making safe areas up to each individual home owner.

I can't imagine the survivor's guilt that one family had the money to protect themselves but everyone else is on their own. JMO.

 

[wwillson]

The house I lived in at the time of that tornado would have been safe. It had a built in "safe room".
Poured walls, steel reinforced, in the basement underneath the front steps of the house.

Only bad thing is the one door entry swung outwards. If the house caved in you would not be able to open the door and get out. No second option for exit! I always stored a sledge hammer in there along with jack and blocks.

You would have needed a safe room like you describe. We saw houses that even the basement was gone. 200+ MPH winds have an amazing ability to 'clean' every bit of everything from the basements and leave bare concrete.

 

[RhondaHonda]

I remember this one and can’t believe it’s been 14 years. Then a few years after, the Joplin, MO tornado hit. That was the only time I’ve seen actual tornado damage as I was driving to OKC for work and got off at a Joplin exit to get lunch. I’ve never seen anything like that in person. Scary stuff but it’s impractical to live life in fear of a rather slim positbility. I definitely wouldn’t want to live in a mobile home in tornado country though.

 

[skyactiv]

 

[Jdeere562]

You would have needed a safe room like you describe. We saw houses that even the basement was gone. 200+ MPH winds have an amazing ability to 'clean' every bit of everything from the basements and leave bare concrete.

Born and have lived in Iowa 66 years. Have never even seen a tornado. Hope I never encounter one. Saw green nasty clouds with the sirens blowing is close as I have been.

I was shopping at Aldi in Council Bluffs a few years ago. Just coming out of the store and sirens blowing. Looked up and saw what I thought was a tornado down around Lake Manawa. Threw food in my car and left my cart in the parking lot, and I never do that. Someone else can have my quarter for the return!

Sure enough, city traffic and 3 red lights. Kept distance between cars for an open get away and cross median if needed! Got on I-29 headed south, speed be darned, I'm out of here! Could see it driving on interstate still. People pulled over taking videos. First time I had my Subaru Forester to 95 MPH.

Turned out to be a water spout over Lake Manawa. Never heard of one before that day. It did no damage. If I had known that, I would have driven down to the lake and watched it.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Loma Prieta Quake of '89. Our community banded together; we were one.
When the quake hit, my brother was working under a Porsche on jackstands at his shop in Santa Cruz (near the epicenter). He always said if he died that day it would have been a good way to go and a great story. A few blocks away a flying brick hit and killed a downtown pedestrian.
This was the building, the Cooper House.

San Francisco

 

[Jdeere562]

Don't know what is worse. Tornados, earth quakes or hurricanes. But at 66 years old, I'll be staying in Iowa and tornado alley.

Funny thing is, Iowa is known for tornados. One Sat AM I woke up with my bed shaking a little. Thought I was dreaming. Pretty soon it happened again. Thought I must be going crazy. Forget when, but probably in the last 10 years. Driving in the car, radio said my region had a minor earth quake. No damage, except to my mind before hearing the radio.

 

[svtrit]

I worked in Aplington sometimes and knew the area well. We went up to help a few days after. Lots of stories. High school hero held up a wall in a car wash to save friends. Old couple died together because one could no longer go down stairs. Devastating for sure.
I heard more stories when I managed a group of grain and agronomy locations up that way.
The town looks great now.

 

[bbhero]

You would have needed a safe room like you describe. We saw houses that even the basement was gone. 200+ MPH winds have an amazing ability to 'clean' every bit of everything from the basements and leave bare concrete.

One aspect of note here though.... Make that two. .

1) A safe room maybe ok but if there is a fire and there happens to be debris that traps the people inside and there was a gas leak and fire.... They are dead.

This actually happened in Georgia Gainesville EF-5 tornado where people took cover in a bank vault.... They survived the tornado but were trapped by debris and a massive fire happened and they were burned and died. That bank vault turned into a literal oven.

2) If you have a tornado proof room which is a great idea... You need multiple routes of escape from that room as well. Not just one but at least two. And there needs to be some distance between the exit points and the tornado proof room too.

The whole path of a EF-4 or EF-5 tornado is not completely debris free. It's not. Yes there are patches of complete debris free areas but don't count on that. Joplin EF-5 tornado proved that. Massive piles of debris in many many places in that tornado and like the two EF-5s that hit Moore Oklahoma.

 

[bbhero]

That’s really tough. Not sure if you can build to code for tornados the way you can for hurricanes. Can’t build higher like in flood areas. No terrain to break them up.

An interesting point learned from tornado studies has been terrain does not break up tornado winds or structure.

I saw video footage of a bad EF-4 tornado from Pennsylvania where that tornado went up and over mountains... And it mowed down the forest like a lawn mower up the mountain and down the other side. That video was from some time back in the 1980s I believe.

Shortly after that people involved in tornado research started realizing tornado winds patterns and structure was not affected by land topographic changes.

 

[bbhero]

The house I lived in at the time of that tornado would have been safe. It had a built in "safe room".
Poured walls, steel reinforced, in the basement underneath the front steps of the house.

Only bad thing is the one door entry swung outwards. If the house caved in you would not be able to open the door and get out. No second option for exit! I always stored a sledge hammer in there along with jack and blocks.

This is what I am thinking about ^^^^

Not just the door aspect but the lack of multiple escape routes.

And fire is a possibility in these events. Your safety in a structure is just a part of that. Escaping the safe room is potentially just as critical as surviving the tornado.

I have thought about this circumstance especially if I lived in places in tornado alley or Dixie alley.

I have seen first hand what a EF-3 tornado did to my home county. And I met a guy paralyzed from ... Neck down 8 months after that tornado hit Gloucester county. That was quite startling being perfectly honest. 2 people died in that tornado and it completely destroyed the middle school C Hall classroom wing. Thank God the tornado hit on a Saturday afternoon and not say during school hours.... There would have been many, many causalities and deaths if that had happened. That building was made of cinder blocks and metal roofing and it was destroyed. It was surreal seeing helicopter video footage of my middle school I had went to on The Weather Channel when they talked be about that tornado the next day.