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Historic Tornado Outbreak April 27, 2011


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And there's not the level of specific storm shelters or underground shelter there is in, say, Oklahoma. And these are the rare tornadoes that can kill you in the interior bathroom of a real house.

This. Even with warnings, and even if people heeded them, if there was no basement to go to, and if that was an EF-5 storm, there's only so much protection you are going to get in an interior room.

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All...GA radio has the Catoosa Hotel being on exit 348, which is Ringold, which is populated. Google Maps tells us this is a Super 8, Holiday Inn Express or the Baymont Inn and Suites...

Restaurants were also mentioned with the term 'leveled.'

Praying.

Yeah this isn't like Bill's Motel. We are talking about big buildings.

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The problem is this may have been strong enough that all the warning in the world wouldn't help. We don't have many basements to hide in down here and going to the center of your house isn't much use if the whole house is swept off the foundation. Suffice to say we'll find out tomorrow with the light of day.

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once again the storms this morning knocked power out to many people in AL..they had tornaodes and very highe winds about 5-7am

they had no power or access to TV and NOAA weather radio was down in some locations

and the internet

also i assume the sirens won't work if no power

I'm not sure about their warning systems down there, but there are warning systems (sirens) that are activated via a phone number and they are equipped with a battery backup.

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There's no reason to speculate on the death toll right now. The vast scope of this outbreak means that many areas will take several hours... overnight... and into the morning tomorrow to comb. Really the death toll is still completely up in the air right now.

Agree with you completely. With an outbreak this massive, it's going to take a while to search all the buildings and get everyone accounted for. Especially now that it's dark out it's going to take even longer. Broadcasting reports is one thing, but speculating on whether those reports are right or wrong is way to early to do that.

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Fact of the matter is too many people have already died today. There is a reason we work everyday towards improving both the warning process and the responses they generate.

Agree, like many have said, you can put warnings out an hour in advance, but it is entirely up to the people to heed these warnings.

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The morning storms absolutely helped create the problems. It caused the most widespread damage I have seen in 10 years of living in Birmingham. No doubt there were numerous F0-F1 tornadoes this morning that caused damage in addition to the straight line winds. We finally got power on around midday but not everyone did. The warning siren systems down here are as good as anyone's. That would not be an issue on a normal day.

-Just saw a convoy of national guard vehicles heading into Birmingham

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For people saying there were no sirens in places like Birmingham, you could clearly hear the sirens on TWC when Jeff Morrow was there.

Must depend on location. ABC 33/40 said Tuscaloosa sirens were down also from previous outbreaks Birmingham videos have the sirens sounding continuously, but in today's videos there are no sirens playing off in from each photographers vantage point. With a tornado that large hitting as many connectors, transformers and power lines many siren systems were probably knocked out miles in advance of the tornado. Also, coupled with all the storms and power outages from this mornings storms... sirens may have failed many today.

Also, not just sirens but probably the EAS or even ability to reach local media warnings too with loss of power. Also noticing a lot of videos on Youtube the authors didn't even know they were looking at a tornado with the massive wedge because it was so big.

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Agree, like many have said, you can put warnings out an hour in advance, but it is entirely up to the people to heed these warnings.

Yes, but I don't think you understand how some of this stuff is out of each individual's control. Imagine houses that don't have basements and are swept off their foundations. You're telling me if the people in those houses don't survive it's their fault b/c they didn't heed the warnings?

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Yes, but I don't think you understand how some of this stuff is out of each individual's control. Imagine houses that don't have basements and are swept off their foundations. You're telling me if the people in those houses don't survive it's their fault b/c they didn't heed the warnings?

No I do understand that aspect trust me on that.

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I doubt if those tornadoes were rated today they would be rated that high(at least some of them since they tend to be conservative these days) anyway we can save that debate for a slow winter day. Also no outbreak is the same. This one will cover from TX all the way into GA maybe and north into TN..with scattered reports likley in the OH valley and Northeast

for those of you who missed it go back and look at the radar at 2-3am over MS last night......wow

Did you happen to capture a screen shot of that radar image? Thx.

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Also careful with the siren discussion because they are only designed to be outdoor warning systems. Folks in cars, office buildings, homes, etc. need to have some other form of communication to receive warnings effectively. For instance, ABC 33/40 was being simulcast on the radio, especially for those without power for TVs.

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