1974 Super Outbreak

This last week has had a major weather anniversary for the weather enthusiast, and a scary memory for quite a few middle aged folks.  On April 3rd & 4th, 1974; 148 tornadoes ripped across much of the heartland of America, bringing death and destruction.  315 people died that day and thousands more were injured.  Billions of dollars in property was leveled.  It has since been dubbed the super outbreak.  Nobody was prepared for it or expected it, but by the end of it, it would change the course of weather forecasting forever.

Back in those days, we did not have all of the sophisticated equipment or the super computers that we have today.  We did not have all the satellites in the sky either.  We were pretty much flying blind.  While there had been some research done on tornadoes, they were still very mysterious and no one really had a clue about their formation, or the conditions that caused them to form.  The radar being used was designed to spot enemy planes, not tornadoes.  The teletype machines could not type out all the warnings fast enough, nor could it prioritize tornado warnings over other forecasts.  As a result, warnings would go out after the fact.  These days changes all of that.



As a result of the massive loss of life and property, many pressed the government to take action.  Funding for the national weather service increased.  Grants to the scientific study of weather increased.  Scientists began going out into the field to study severe weather and tornadoes by observation.  NASA was involved in the effort putting satellites into orbit to monitor and measure the weather from space.  Computer companies lent their expertise to come up with more powerful computers to help predict, forecast, and warn the public.  An all out effort was made by all that in the last 40 years that has changed lead time from being after the fact to sometimes knowing days in advance of severe weather outbreaks and actual lead times in warnings of 20 minutes or more.

In April of 2011, on the 25th through the 28th, all of the learning and knowledge; all of the advancements in technology got put to the test.  Days in advance, computer modeling was showing that another super outbreak was about to occur.  It was one that would eclipse the 1974 record outbreak.  Over those 3 days there were 358 confirmed tornadoes across 21 US states.  There were 211 alone on the 27th.  324 people died as a result of those tornadoes.  While this is close to the same as 1974, the number of tornadoes was double.  We should have expected going on 800.  The 2011 storms seemed to hit much more populated areas as compared to 1974 as well. 

All of the technology worked.  All of the years of study and effort did pay off.  Lives were saved as a result.  There is still a lot we don't know about tornadoes.  Today we have an armada of researchers out there still trying to collect data that will help us further decode the tornado.  Some day it is hoped that we will be able to tell the difference between which storms only produce small tornadoes, and which ones will go on to produce those killer, massive EF 4s and 5s.

God Don't Play

It was the evening of August 13, 1987.  I was a young man struggling to make ends meet in the world, and also a very young man in the Lord.  I had a job from a temporary service that I had to walk about 10 miles to get to.  A pretty good walk, but one had to do what one has to do to get by.

The job I was working was at a factory working 3^rd shift, 10:30pm-7am.  It was one of those really boring monotonous jobs that did not require much brain activity, but at least it was feeding me temporarily.  It was a good company though so there was always the hope that the temporary job would lead to a permanent one.

I had to start off to work about 8pm to get there on time walking.  The day had not been a particularly good day.  Frankly, the month had not been a particularly good month, nor the year a particularly good year either.  I was bouncing around from home to home, job to job, living hand to mouth.  I was questioning my faith, wondering why all these bad things were happening to me.  I was mad at God and mad at the world.

On the way to work the clouds had begun building up, and building up rapidly.  As the sun was setting I began seeing a lot of lightning and the clouds began closing in as they grew.  The clouds seemed to match my mood as I was having it out with God on the way to work.  I was not happy about what was going on in my life and I was letting God know this in no uncertain terms.

Finally, about half way to my job, it began to rain.  I started to complain about that too. After a few minutes of getting wet, I looked up in the sky and said, “ok God, give me your best shot, I can take it.”  No sooner had I said that, the skies opened up it rained like I had never seen it rain before.  It was like standing underneath a waterfall.  Lightning bolts were crashing to the ground all around me, almost as if seeking me out.  Before I even got to work, the ditches had filled up and the roads were beginning to get flooded over.  The winds were blowing leaves and branches around and the non-stop thunder shook the ground.  I walked the rest of the way to work with my head down just repeating, “I can take it”.

Finally I got to work, soaking wet and exhausted.  Everyone just looked at me like the cat had just dragged something in.  At least I had been smart enough to have some dry clothes in a garbage bag so I went and changed.  Soon after arriving the power went out for an hour or so and everyone stood in the loading dock watching the incredible lightning storm and the deluge of rain that just kept falling.  Finally the power came back on and we went back to work.

At lunch time, the boss came over to my work station and informed me that I was no longer needed at that job, so it was time for me to go home at 2:30 in the morning.  It had already been storming for 6 straight hours and now I had to go back out into it. I had no place to go…  I now had no job…  and it was still pouring rain on me as I walked silently and humbly back to town.

It took a while longer getting back to town as I had to detour around several flooded out areas.  Finally about the first light of dawn the rains ended.  Exhausted, dejected, demoralized, and humbled, I could not go on any further.  I walked out into a field and lay down on the ground and was soon asleep.

I don’t know how long I had been lying there, but I opened my eyes and sat up to see a police officer jump back scared out of his wits like he had seen a ghost!  “GEEZ!  You scared the heck out of me!  I thought you were a dead body!”  “No,” I replied, “Not dead, but dead tired.”  The officer gave me a ride back into town and I went about my way from there.  Later on I found out, God had given me the best shot known in that area since the flood. 

A couple of things happened from this though.  I learned, do not tempt the Lord thy God.  And it was also confirmed that, yes indeed He was there, and that He was listening.   I got seriously spanked, but from it found a greater faith.

Here is the article confirming the record rainfall of that day.
http://worldhistoryproject.org/1987/8/13/the-chicago-flood-of-1987

Andrew Changed Everything

This last week we had the anniversary of one of the most devastating storms to eve hit the United States.  On August 24^th ,1992; Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Dade county Florida, Crossed the Peninsula, going back over the gulf and land falling again in Louisiana.  Damages were estimated at 25 billion dollars making it, at the time, the most expensive natural disaster in history.


Andrew was named on the 17^th of August as a tropical storm.  Andrew spent several days fighting off weather conditions that would have destroyed a lesser storm.  Then conditions became more favorable on the 21^st, and by the next day, Andrew was a hurricane.  In 36 hours it went from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane.  Going over the Bahamas it weakened significantly and it looked like the worst may be averted for the mainland.  It was not to be as Andrew rapidly reintensified to a high category 4 only hours before landfall.  It remained category 3 strength over the trek across S Florida, an unusual thing, wreaking devastation the whole way.  On the 26^th it made landfall again in SE Louisiana, then weakened as it became part of a front dumping flooding rains up the east coast.



Many people did not evacuate from hurricane Andrew.  In the aftermath of the storm, thousands were left in a landscape that looked like a war zone, and felt like one too.  The storm had sent large portions of the state back into the middle ages with no electricity or running water.  Authorities were overwhelmed and unable to keep order.  People banded themselves together in groups to protect their neighborhoods with a wild west feel of shoot first, ask questions later.   Social order had completely broken down and survival was all that was left.


As a result of hurricane Andrew, and its aftermath, the government began taking a new approach to disaster response.  In those days, response began locally, then county, state and lastly federal.  Since that time, disaster response has gone the other way, and in large scale disasters, it becomes a federal government takeover of the situation immediately declaring Marshall Law.  Survivors are not allowed to stay behind and are shipped off to camps set up for them to be provided for by government.


 We saw this use of camps extensively in hurricane Sandy where people had to literally live in concentration camps for weeks on end.  In hurricane Katrina, military went door to door confiscating weapons that owners might have used to protect their property from looters, while looters got to keep their guns and rob the now unprotected homes in undamaged areas.  Even in smaller scale disasters like tornadoes, local police use the federal militarized style plan for disaster relief by cordoning off the area completely and operating under Marshall Law style.


The legacy of Hurricane Andrew lives on in the memories of many and its effects are still felt to this day whenever a disaster strikes anywhere in the country.  August 24^th 1992 was a day that fundamentally changed everything.

How God Saved America

The year was 1814.  The United States was once again at war with Great Britain.  While the early years of the war had gone fairly well for the US, they had not gotten a victory over the British.  Most of Britians focus had been on the war with Napoleon at the beginning, but with Napoleon’s defeat, thousands of troops, already battle hardened, were coming ashore in the States and things had taken a turn for the worse for the fledgling nation.


By August, British forces had landed 5,000 strong and were making their way towards the capital.  On the 24^th of August they met up with the American forces that were 7000 strong.  Despite being outnumbered, the Americans were not very well organized and were quickly defeated and the road to the capital lay uncontested.    


By august 25^th, 1814, the British had set out to make an example of the city and was burning all the government buildings.  The capital, library of congress, treasury, state department, etc, were all set ablaze. The fires began burning out of control, and threatened to burn the entire city to the ground.  With the capital gone and the British in control, the new nation would once again be subjects of the King of Britian.  But, God had other plans.


Unknown to everyone around, and well in advance of the conquering troops even arriving, God was preparing a storm;  a Hurricane to be precise.  While the British had stormed in from the north, God was about to hit them with a real storm from the south, on the very same day, August 25^th, 1814.


As described by http://historicaldigression.com



The driving rain put out most of the fires threatening the city.  The storm was so fierce that it tore buildings apart, literally lifting them off their foundations. The winds uprooted trees and knocked men to the ground. A number of houses collapsed, killing the British soldiers taking shelter therein. One British officer reported seeing cannons lifted off the ground and thrown through the air. Redcoats out on the streets of Washington, trying to enforce a curfew, were forced to lie prostrate in the mud.


Based on the first hand accounts, weather historians generally agree that the storm that struck Washington on August 25, 1814 sparked one or more tornadoes. I can’t possibly imagine being one of these soldiers, completely exposed, with no choice but to cling to mother earth in the midst of a tornado.


As the storm began to subside, one of the British officers in command of the invasion emerged from his shelter and said to one of the inhabitants of Washington, “Great God, Madam, is this the kind of storm to which you are accustomed in this infernal country?!”


She responded, “No, sir, this is a special interposition of Providence to drive our enemies from the city.”

Three tornadoes struck near Washington that day. It was later reported that one landed to the northwest, another in the high country [which is now called Georgetown], and the one that struck the Capitol Hill area. Whether there was a single tornado taking a southeasterly course or a tornado swarm, it will never be known. What can be said for certain is that a powerful tornado with destructive winds did hit downtown Washington at a crucial time; forcing the British out of the city, and saving what was left of our Capitol.

And drive them from the city it did.  Troops had been scattered, injured, and killed.  Their equipment scattered to the winds like children’s toys rendered unusable.  Many British had already fled and what remained scampered off utterly demoralized and defeated without an American shot being fired.  The next day when American troops arrived in DC to fight for their city, they found no British to fight and simply walked back in unabated.  This was the true story of how God saved our nation.