FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate has what he describes as a "Waffle House" theory of emergency management to assess how bad a situation is after a disaster. "If the Waffle House is open and serving food and has got a full menu, then it's green," he said during an interview inside a FEMA mobile home parked outside a fire station in Joplin. "If the Waffle House is open but has a limited menu, it's yellow, and if the Waffle House isn't open, that's red." -
FEMA Gets its Groove Back
posted by Slap*Happy
on May 27, 2011 -
93 comments
On April 12th, prior to the Alabama outbreak and about 6 weeks before a tornado tore through the middle of mostly basement-less Joplin, MO, Colleen Bogener wrote a
short editorial on the need for public storm shelters in Joplin. There was a short bit of discussion in response.
posted by spock
on May 25, 2011 -
71 comments
A wave of powerful storm cells swept the southeastern United States this week, spawning
hundreds of tornadoes that wreaked havoc from Texas to Virginia. While damage was widespread throughout the region, the most terrible toll was seen in Alabama, which has accounted for two-thirds of
the more than 300 reported deaths -- the deadliest since the Great Depression -- and where
many small towns were simply wiped from the map. Especially hard-hit was the university town of Tuscaloosa, the state's fifth-largest, where a monstrous F5 tornado (seen in
this terrifying firsthand video) tore a
vicious track through entire neighborhoods and business districts -- narrowly missing the region's primary hospital -- and continuing a path that rained debris as far as Birmingham, over sixty miles away. The disaster
prompted a visit from President Obama today, who declared
"I've never seen devastation like this" after surveying the area with Governor Robert Bentley, Senator Richard Shelby, and
Mayor Walter Maddox. More: photos from
In Focus and
The Big Picture,
aerial footage of the aftermath,
"before and after" sliders, the path of the Tuscaloosa twister
on Google Maps,
People Locator,
local aid information,
MetaTalk check-in thread
posted by Rhaomi
on Apr 29, 2011 -
102 comments
John Park Finley, American meteorologist, wrote the
first known book on tornadoes (
Tornadoes, 1887). Though some of his "safety" guidelines for surviving a tornado have since been refuted as dangerous (seek shelter on the side of a house facing an oncoming tornado!), the book remains a seminal work in tornado research.
[more inside]
posted by Wossname
on Jan 25, 2011 -
9 comments
On March 7, 2009,
TornadoVideos.net (TVN) launched the beta version of their
Live Streaming system. It's an interactive map that tracks each member of the TVN team as they criss-cross the country chasing storms, complete with live video. You can
sign up (main page, top left: "Chase notifications") to be alerted when a chase is in progress.
[more inside]
posted by nitsuj
on Mar 25, 2009 -
8 comments
Storm chase from your desk. This link will not be interesting after a bit, but the technology is impressive. Storm chasers can now stream video of their chases, LIVE. This could be a good show between now and sundown.
[more inside]
posted by spock
on Apr 7, 2008 -
19 comments
Inside a tornado. It's a technological first. A well-placed probe fitted with 7 video cameras—6 with a 60-degree field-of-view designed to achieve a full 360-degree field-of-view and one pointing upward—captures footage inside a tornado, providing visual data on ground wind speeds where the storm does the greatest damage. And Tim Samaras with his team of storm chasers are there to make it happen.
posted by KevinSkomsvold
on Jun 8, 2005 -
25 comments
A tornado picks up a house while a storm chaser tapes it. Later, he finds himself getting a little too close for comfort. (27 meg download - some swearing) Fortunately, no one was in that house at the time.
posted by pyramid termite
on May 16, 2004 -
37 comments
"Tornado in a Can" "To test their theory, the Vortex folks have thrown in rocks, diapers, tomatoes, sweet potato rejects from the farm down the road, 400 pounds of Oreo cookies, frozen pizza dough, even a dead bird.....The jellyfish, however, are a first." picture of "Tornado-in-a-Can" that sure is a big can. don't try this at home, folks
posted by troutfishing
on Dec 13, 2002 -
17 comments
New NASA Satellite Zooms in on Tornado Swath ...the twister's swath is the bright stripe passing through the town and running eastward 6 miles (10 km) toward the Patuxent River beyond the righthand side of the image. This stripe is the result of the vegetation flattened by the storm. The flattened vegetation reflects more light than untouched vegetation.
posted by quonsar
on May 3, 2002 -
9 comments
Three Dead From Southern Maryland Tornado. This is the kind of news story you skip because it doesn't happen in your state. It didn't even register to me until I realized that one of my daily reads -
Moire - lives in La Plata. The twister went through her front yard. Her account of the storm and its aftermath is pretty powerful. Were any other bloggers involved? (It's my first post; be gentle.)
posted by web-goddess
on Apr 29, 2002 -
16 comments
Tornado Pictures On Tuesday March 28th at 6:11 P.M. a tornado pummeled downtown Ft. Worth
leaving glass, office furniture, insulation, paperwork, and various other
materials littering a 12 block area of the city. The downtown streets were covered in
shattered glass from the many High-Rise building that were struck by the violent winds
and flying debris. I took some pictures from a 26th floor office window 1 block away
from the epicenter of the storms wrath. At the top of picture 3
you can see the Cash America building that they keep showing on the news - I don't have a
Telephoto lens or it would be a better pic, DOH! You can also see clean up crews
on the roofs of the buildings picking up debris.One of the windows I took the pictures
through was cracked by flying debris, you can see it in picture 2,3, and 6.
PICTURES: 1 2
3 4 5 6
posted by Jeremy
on Mar 30, 2000 -
0 comments
