Re: [CH] Martinsviile storm

Chad A Gard (gard@indy.net)
Mon, 23 Sep 2002 11:29:29 -0500

At 10:39 AM +0000 9/21/02, Alex Silbajoris wrote:
>I just watched a news report about a violent storm that hit 
>Martinsville, Indiana which is about 10 minutes away from Jim's 
>fields.  The wind moved cars and lifted roofs.  Folks, we dodged a 
>bullet.


dammage survey from the storm (F3) is available now:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ind/Sept20/0920.htm

We really lucked out.  Actually, that's not entirely accurate.  We 
were blessed with a very efficient skywarn spotter network and 
statewide net control operator that really was essential to getting 
warnings out.  Several schools in the Indy area were hit, some with 
major dammage, yet no fatalities or major injuries.  Largely due in 
part to the amateur volunteers providing ground truth in an event 
with a rather confusing radar picture (I know - I was watching 
real-time on weathertap, as I was stuck at work, as if I was actually 
working....).  I've seen many tornados, though this is the largest 
urban area I've been involved with one in, and I've not heard a more 
efficient net with more professional reporting from the hams very 
often at all.  And, that says a lot in such an emotional setting 
(since the emotion isn't something you can really train for, and most 
hams won't ever be involved in that kind of situation at home in 
their whole volunteering career, so won't have a great deal of 
experience with it).

Well, skywarn plug over...

Before my 830 mile, 3 marching band contests, start at 6:00 am day 
saturday, I did a midnight-4:00 am comms shift for the Red +.  I 
wasn't actually in any of the shelters, but helping with comms for 
the guys coordinating supplies for them.  Reports were that people in 
the shelters were handling things really well, which is more than I 
can say for the folks from airplanes stranded in shelters on 9/11. 
Not sure if it's a nature of the event thing or because they were all 
local people who lived fairly nearby, or what, but it certainally 
made things more pleasant for the volunteers.  Everyone should be out 
of shelters and in hotels by now.

The dammage path through Martinsville should be south of the fields, 
and the roads should be fairly well cleaned up by them.  That's just 
based on a map and my vague recollection of where the fields are, 
though.  In addition to the tornados, however, there was a lot of 
rain and a lot of straight-line wind damage - microbursts and the 
like - which tends to be bad for apple trees.  Hopefully everything 
came out OK, but for folks traveling to the area from southwest or 
northeast, I'd suggest not having cameras out in the vicinity of any 
dammage.  Usually after the first 3 days of folks photographing their 
homes and businesses, at least one rude person who has no real reason 
for being there and hasn't asked permission has invaded someone's 
privacy and space, and people tend to be very sensitive.  Reactions 
can be abnormal.  That was actually a problem earlier this year in 
southern IL.  I helped with the dammage assesment, but it was a 
couple of days after the event and people were very reluctant to give 
permission to photograph dammage because of all the rude and 
thoughtless people (mostly media and what storm chasers call 
"yahoos") who had been there before.

Hope all the chiles are OK, and it's certainally a good thing this 
didn't take place 8 days later...


-- 
Chad Gard, KB9WXQ
INCHASE: http://www.inchase.org  Co-founder
INSWA: http://www.insw.org Unit #21