Tag Archives: Tornado

Mom and kids pray as Tornado passes over

Revelation 16:9 “They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.”

Important Takeaways:

  • ‘Please, Jesus, Don’t Let Us Die’: Mom with 2 Kids Prays After Taking Cover During Louisiana Tornado
  • A mother and her two daughters survived a tornado that barreled through the small town of Paradis, Louisiana Saturday after listening to what she said was an inner voice telling her to “pull over.”
  • As tornado sirens sounded and the building shook from the storm’s high winds, Guidry told WWL she did the only thing she could do. She prayed.
  • “I had my arms around my babies and I was just praying, ‘God, don’t let us die. Don’t let us die in here. Please, Jesus, don’t let us die in here,” she said.
  • The outlet reported most of the damage was in the area around Highway 90 and 306. There were no injuries reported.
  • But Guidry credited an even higher power for her and her children’s deliverance from the storm.

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Seminole Oklahoma hit by two tornado events leading to massive power outage

Important Takeaways:

  • 2nd tornado cluster ravages towns in Oklahoma and Texas
  • The community of Seminole, Oklahoma, has been ripped apart by two tornado events in three days, including a multi-tornado outbreak Wednesday evening, leading to massive structural damage and power outage in the city.
  • The second tornado of the evening touched ground at approximately 8:48 p.m. CDT, after the area was already shaken from the prior hour’s damage. Seminole County was unable to sound the area’s tornado sirens due to power outages, leading to a potentially dangerous situation for those needing to take safety precautions.

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New Orleans Hit by Tornado, Search and Rescue Under Way

Important Takeaways:

  • Tornado wreaks havoc in New Orleans, leaves at least 1 dead
  • A massive tornado struck parts of New Orleans late Tuesday, including the Lower 9th Ward, which had been heavily damaged by Katrina nearly two decades ago.
  • The National Weather Service said Wednesday morning that at least two tornadoes had been confirmed in the region
  • One of which tore through New Orleans East communities and the Lower 9th Ward, and another in the community of Lacombe, located across Lake Pontchartrain to the north of New Orleans. The most heavily concentrated damage was in Arabi.
  • Bernard Parish President Guy McGinnis says a tornado has caused “major damage” there. He said that at least so far, there are no reports of major injuries. Power is out to much of the parish.

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Kingston Oklahoma hit by Tornado

Important Takeaways:

  • Monster tornado sweeps Oklahoma, leaving residents trapped in their homes: report
  • While several injuries have been reported through the Kingston area, there have been no reported deaths.
  • The Oklahoma Department of Transportation was forced to close US-70 as its crews cleared the roadways for safe use, Fox 25 of Oklahoma City reported.
  • Photos taken at the scene show the carnage left behind as homes were wrestled down to their foundations, vehicles were flipped over, and debris sprawled for miles.

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F3 Tornado Rolls Through Central Iowa

 

Important Takeaways:

  • Official: 7 Dead After Large Tornado Roars Through Central Iowa
  • Madison County Emergency Management Director Diogenes Ayala said 25 to 30 homes were badly damaged by the tornado.
  • “This is the worst anyone has seen in a very long time”
  • The National Weather Service in Des Moines tweeted later Saturday that initial photos and videos from the damage around the community of Winterset suggested it was at least an EF-3 tornado, capable of causing severe damage
  • Officials reported a number of homes were damaged, roads were blocked by downed lines and tree branches were shredded by the strong winds.
  • At one point, power outages affected about 10,000 in the Des Moines area.

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Rare twister hits Fort Myers

Matthew 16:2-3 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

Important Takeaways:

  • Tornadoes Cause Massive Damage in Florida
  • Developing Story: Fort Myers appears to have received the brunt of the damage. The storms tore through an RV park as well as a yacht and country club. There are reports of injuries.
  • The same storm system dumped snow as far south as Jackson, Mississippi.

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Northeast expected to reach -40F, while there’s a fresh tornado threat in the south

Luke 21:25,26 “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Important Takeaways:

  • US is hit by fresh winter weather warnings of -40F weather that can cause frostbite in MINUTES, up to a foot of snow in the Northeast, and fresh tornado warnings for millions in the south
  • The National Weather Service warned residents: ‘If you must travel, keep an extra flashlight, food and water in your vehicle in case of an emergency.’
  • Meanwhile, a cold front tearing into mild, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico led to several tornadoes in the southern United States over the weekend, with five tornadoes confirmed to have touched down in southeast
  • Louisiana saw 4,124 outages according to PowerOutage.us,
  • Texas saw 4,010 outages and Michigan saw 3,575 outages.

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Kentucky rain turns more tornado survivors out of their homes

By Rod Nickel

MAYFIELD, Kentucky (Reuters) – Jimmy Galbreath counted his blessings too soon. His home in Mayfield, Kentucky, was battered but not broken last week by a tornado, and the 62-year-old former scrap iron worker planned to keep living there.

Then on Thursday rain soaked the state, with another downpour forecast for Friday into Saturday afternoon. As Galbreath watched, water leaked steadily into his kitchen, finding paths opened by two trees that had smashed into his house during the tornado.

“I can’t stay in here, it’s impossible,” said Galbreath, who collects social security. He said he was looking to buy a camper to live in.

“This is going to be a long haul, it’s not going to be no easy fix,” he said of his uninhabitable house.

Rebuilding hard-hit Kentucky cities like Mayfield and Dawson Springs will take years, with entire neighborhoods and numerous workplaces wiped out by the most severe U.S. tornadoes in a decade. At least 74 people in Kentucky and 14 elsewhere died in the storms.

GAPING HOLES

Many homes, businesses and churches in Mayfield, population 10,000, already have blue tarps nailed over their gaping holes, but on other structures, roofs and glass-less windows remain open to the sky.

As the rain began, water quickly pooled in streets as debris from the tornado’s destruction clogged storm drains.

Some residents opted to stay in their damaged homes after tornadoes struck last week instead of moving in with family, or into shelters, as others did.

Nearly all hotel rooms within an hour’s drive of Mayfield are full, forcing even some out of town emergency personnel to drive a long daily commute.

Mayfield expects a further half inch (12.7 mm) of rain on Friday, with potential for heavier amounts, and showers continuing on Saturday, according to The Weather Channel.

Once the rain passes, temperatures are forecast to dip below freezing on Sunday.

David Burke, chief program officer for non-governmental organization Team Rubicon, said the weather is likely to force more Kentucky residents out of their homes.

With rain on the way, he said, Team Rubicon volunteers have accelerated the pace of fixing tarps to homes across the state and helping residents move valuables to more secure areas.

“There are a lot of homes that are a total loss, but a lot of homes that can still be repaired if they can keep the water out,” Burke said.

Some shelter beds are available. Fourteen emergency shelters are open in Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas, enough for 550 people, said American Red Cross spokesperson Jenelle Eli.

One, recently opened in a Mayfield church, was empty when the rain started on Thursday but is expected to fill once the weather turns cold, a worker on duty said.

Mark Bruce, 64, who works for farm machinery dealer John Deere in Mayfield, salvaged sheet metal from tornado debris to patch holes in his roof. As rain fell, he looked up and said he hoped it would be enough.

“We think we’re in the dry. We feel very fortunate.”

(Editing by Gareth Jones)

Rare tornado rips through southern Czech Republic, killing five

By Jason Hovet

HRUSKY, Czech Republic (Reuters) -Emergency workers and residents combed through wreckage in southern Czech Republic on Friday after a tornado ripped roofs off buildings and sent cars flying through the air, killing at least five people and injuring hundreds.

The tornado, which hit towns and villages around Hodonin along the Slovak and Austrian borders on Thursday evening, may have reached windspeeds above 332 kph (206 mph), a Czech Television meteorologist said.

“It was terrible what we went through,” said Lenka Petrasova in Hrusky who recounted taking shelter with her 11-year old-son after spotting the tornado minutes before it hit. “It was unbelievable. I saw a car fly, and dogs flying.”

Firefighters searched the rubble on Friday while the army sent in a team with heavy engineering equipment to deal with the aftermath of the strongest storm in the central European nation’s modern history and its first tornado since 2018.

In the village of Hrusky with a population of 1,600, a deputy mayor estimated that a third of the houses were destroyed and many needed inspections before people could safely return.

“Part of the village is levelled, only the perimeter walls without roofs, without windows remain,” Marek Babisz told news site iDNES.

“The church has no roof, it has no tower, cars were hurled at family houses, people had nowhere to hide. The village from the church down practically ceased to exist,” he said.

South Moravia regional administration chief Jan Grolich said that five people had died in the storm, and regional hospitals treated some 150 injured while others were sent elsewhere.

Emergency crews from neighboring Poland, Austria and Slovakia fanned out across the region, 270 km (167 miles) southeast of Prague, to assist.

Officials said thousands of homes had been destroyed and appealed to people not to drive to the affected areas so rescue services could work, urging them to send donations instead.

More than 100 residents of a home for the elderly in Hodonin had to be evacuated.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis cut short his attendance at the European Council summit in Brussels to visit the area where electricity and water remained shut off in a number of villages.

Speaking on his return, Babis said the government’s priority was to tap the European Union’s solidarity fund in which around 1.3 billion euros are put aside for such situations in member countries.

“The footage I saw is absolutely catastrophic,” said Babis, who also toured damaged homes in Hrusky. “We have offers of help from across Europe and many prime ministers have approached me to offer assistance.”

Czech TV reported as many as seven small towns were “massively” damaged, citing an emergency services spokesperson.

Residents on Friday surveyed the damage.

“There used to be two rooms above this,” Mikulcice resident Pavel Netopilik said pointing to the rubble surrounding his house where the upstairs floors collapsed. “Now they are not here. The ceiling collapsed.”

(Additional reporting by Robert Muller in Prague, Writing by Michael Kahn; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Philippa Fletcher)

Thunderstorms batter Chicago area, leave thousands in the dark

(Reuters) -Severe thunderstorms tore through the Chicago area on Sunday night after the National Weather Service said a “confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado” had touched down in a western suburb of the city, causing damage.

Chicago-area utility Commonwealth Edison’s (ComEd) website showed that more than 22,000 customers were without power as the thunderstorms swept through the region, near Lake Michigan in the north of the U.S. state of Illinois.

The tornado touched down near Route 53/75th Street in Woodridge, DuPage County, around 11 p.m. ET on Sunday. About a dozen homes were damaged, and four people were rushed to area hospitals with minor injuries, CBS Chicago reported.

A CBS Chicago reporter tweeted that six people were injured in total and some residents were evacuated to nearby shelters. The news outlet added that there were no fires, but there were lots of gas breaches.

Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis said that anyone who was displaced from their homes could go to Ranchview Elementary School, which was designated as a place of shelter, according to CBS Chicago.

The website of ComEd, a unit of Exelon Corp, showed about 12,000 customers were without power in DuPage County alone while about 8,000 customers were in the dark in Cook County, which includes Chicago.

“The severe threat has diminished/ended for most of the Chicago metro area. Severe T-storm Watch remains in effect for a bit longer for Will, Kankakee, Ford, Iroquois, and northwest Indiana counties,” NWS Chicago said on TwitterQ.

(Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Mark Heinrich)