This reminds you of just where you fit into the scheme of things!
 

The only connection this site has to aviation is the photographs were taken from a helicopter. However, I think it is worthwhile looking at the damage Ma Nature can inflict.

Imagine emerging from your storm shelter and seeing this amount of destruction to the entire town you live in!

Yeah, I feel for them! Wouldn't like to be in that situation myself!

Phil

sasless
it looks horrific were there many fatalitys i didnt hear about it on the uk news

Apparently there were only 12 fatalities. Most folks there must have steel reinforced concrete saferooms or basements. Amazing they only lost 12.

Ma Nature
 

Sasless, ain't that the truth, Mother Nature loves to demonstrate her immense power from time to time.

Coming from Scotland, I grew up with the steady trickle of bad weather but never saw the full force of nature first-hand until I arrived in New Orleans the day after Katrina passed.

On my way to New Orleans I flew along the coast from Florida and in the Biloxi area, I wondered what the uniformly arranged slabs of concrete were, some of them even had swimming pools cut into them....it really did take me a few minutes to realise that this was a housing area just the previous day, and the houses were not just damaged, they had gone. For some reason, I found that hard to grasp.

Apparently they had quite a bit of notice of the nasty weather that caused this so a lot of people were able to skeedaddle before the mayhem began...AND steel reinforced safe rooms.

HP

The morale seems to be: if a tornado is coming, find and hide in the nearest grain silo!

I have family, (cousin in-laws), who lost their home and everything they own in Greensburg. Yes, there was about 30 minutes warning, which is unheard of--normally it is less than 5 minutes. The sirens are only located in town. Once you get outside the main part of the town and into the more rural areas of town, there is no warning. Also some of the houses were just flattened in place, trapping people either in their cellars or bathrooms, (normally the strong room in the house).
What is scary is that there are also parts of the US that have no warning sirens--Most of Florida does NOT have tornado warning systems. Most people have their own NOA warning systems.

These photos compare with those from Katrina and the Tsunami in the amount of total complete destruction they produce.

A similar sized F5 Tornado hit Oklahoma City a few years back....a truck shop was in the path and upon its passage when folks started popping up like gophers....it was noticed three of our "beam" trailers were missing.

A beam trailer is about fifty feet long, four feet wide except for the three axles and weighs about 30,000 pounds and is used to transport large heavy over sized loads like bulldozers and the like.

Considering the compact shape and heavy weight....one would never think the trailers could be picked up and thrown so far away that they have never been found.

From looking at the pictures it begs the question why are so many houses in the US built from matchsticks (so it appears) - surely a more solid construction like brick would be better for a variety of reasons?

TC.

You're right, TabbyCat, because YOUR UK house is built to stand up to 200 to 300 MPH winds!

Give us all a break, you ignorant a*****e. The only solid construction lacking around here is inside your heart.

Tabbycat, having worked as a builder/roofer, and seen how english properties are built, there would be piles of rubble instead of wood. That is the only difference. Topography of most english towns would be the only beneficial thing compared to our US friends. :(

Tabbycat.

Wind speeds were recorded of at least 165mph. Not much survives at those speeds mate.

Actually the wind speeds were upto 215 Mph.

NOAA Report

"A NOAA quick response team surveyed Greensburg damage May 5 and gave a preliminary rating of low end EF5 with wind speeds of about 205 miles per hour."

I didn't say 'up to' :hmm:

I was in New Orleans a month or so after Katrina, helping my sister recover what was worth saving from her house in the Lakeview neighborhood.
The pictures and video that you see on the news just don't adequately convey the scale of the devastation. As I was standing on the street, packing items into a trailer, I looked at the houses on the block. Each house had the orange paint markings from the military search teams. Each house on the block, although standing, was devastated and would need to be torn down. All the houses were abandoned -- there were a couple other houses on the block where homeowners were recovering what they could. Looking up the road, the same conditions existed as far as I could see to the north. Turning the other way, the same was true to the south. Although I could not see to the east and west, I knew the same conditions existed for miles in those directions as well.

The scale of destruction was difficult to comprehend and just overwhelming.

Tabby dear fellow,

Having had the grand experience of being at ground zero of a much smaller Tornado strike upon the airfield I had just landed at a few minutes before....there is sweet fanny adams that will stand up to a proper F5 twister.

We are talking about a funnel cloud that throws cars, SUV's, and all manner of things miles from their takeoff point.

I was lucky on my experience....the Beechcraft Baron I had been flying took off without me and found itself in three pieces half way down the airfield. The fuel bowser was overturned, and the main hangar with 300 million dollars of corporate aircraft was plain ol' squashed. That was just an F2 or F3 event.

An old Army buddy turned corn farmer in Iowa told of some very interesting happenings during Tornado strikes. He tells of a neighbor's house that was left with just the flooring....walls, roof, ceiling....everything gone but the flat slab of the flooring.....that and a Grandfather clock that was happily ticking away right where it was before the storm.

A later storm destroyed a barn....roof and walls but leaving the hay loft on the second floor relatively unhurt....but with a full grown cow found munching hay and not a scratch on her. The trick was in getting her down from the hay loft! It took a crane and sling setup to hoist her down.

I agree, but it's simply something nothing compared to some of the stuff that I have seen that was "lifted" following cyclone (and flood) events