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Hope by Martin Lisius Over the years, the National Weather Service(NWS) and various emergency management groups have worked hard to establish an effective warning system to protect communities from dangerous weather, particularly tornadoes. The combination of improved forecasting techniques, new tools such as the WSR 88D Doppler radar system, and well-trained and coordinated storm spotter groups have made the NWS an effective force against nature's deadly fury. On May 27, 1997 these elements came together and provided the public in Central Texas with sufficent warning. It was up to the public to heed the warnings and act. Many times in the past, the NWS has issued warnings well in advance of an impending disaster only to see the public not act accordingly. Such was the case in Andover, Kansas on April 26, 1991. Many Citizens who lost their lives at the Golden Sur mobile home park there were aware that a dangerous tornado was approaching, but for some reason or another did not evacuate their trailers and seek safe haven in the park's shelter. The Jarrell tornado was a violent tornado like the one that tore through Andover just six years earlier. Official surveys categorize the May 27 twister as an F5 tornado, the most powerful storm on earth. Unlike Andover, most residents residents in Jarrell did the RIGHT thing. Information that they had aquired either from the NWS or their experience with another tornado a few years earlier, had prepared Jarrell citizens for this event. Many abandoned their trailer homes and vehicles to take cover in their interior of sturdy structures. They did the right thing in the wrong storm. In most cases, the action the victims at Jarrell took would have saved lives. The NWS, emergency management groups and the media all did their part to get the warning out, And, surprisingly, the public took action. This tornado, however, was much too powerful wven for the well-executed system. Up until the moment the tornado struck the Jarrell subdivision the system had worked that day. Everything went right, until the end when so many lives were lost so quickly. Practically speaking, the only truly safe shelter in a tornado like the monster that struck Jarrell is underground. Anything less, would had proved fatal. Without subterranean shelter available, escape proved to be the only option for survival. some citizens actually survived by driving away from the tornado. In most cases, that would be the WRONG thing for the public to do. The Jarrell storm was in a category of it's own. It was a tornado of F5 intensity moving slowly across the ground. Roofs were removed from homes, followed by walls, then the occupants and, finally, even the carpet. Foundations were left bare as if they had just been poured. There was nowhere left to hide. What can we learn from Jarrell? We can't do a much better job with the warning system that we did that day.The citizens of Jarrell did the best that they could do. In the end 27 person died there. Some things in nature are so powerful that, despite man's most valiant effort and good intentions, cannot be stopped. The Jarrell storm was one such freak of nature. Nevertheless, we must continue to improve our understandings of dangerous storms. Research and education will continue to acquire and diffuse this knowledge. Organizations like the National Weather Service, emergency management groups and the Texas Severe Storms Association will do what they can to expand and improve their role in the system. In the end we will save lives. by Martin Lisius Chairman of the Texas Severe Storms Association "Hope", an article of the "SPECIAL COVERAGE - MAY 27 CENTRAL COVERAGE TEXAS TORNADOES", from "THE TESSA WEATHER BULLETIN" |
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