One question, didn't the city in Mississippi have sirens or phone alerts to tell the people

[debm55]

that a tornado was approaching them? Heck, we get alerts on our phone for snow, heavy rain with flooding, etc. Some come and some don't. I haven't read anywhere were the people were warned of the approach, Thank you.
Edit, I saw the weather reporter on television and they knew of the approach. Why didn't the towns alert the people.

[BlackSkimmer]

1. Warnings were issued for many, many counties yesterday.

Tornadoes form and hit very quickly. It’s not like a hurricane, where you have plenty of time.

All the warnings in the world won’t stop the damage

[debm55]

3. Thanks, BlackSkimmer. The place was destroyed ,

[BlackSkimmer]

9. It's horrible.

I’ve lived through hurricanes, but tornadoes have always terrified me.

[debm55]

12. We had a microburst here in my neighborhood. Huge pines topped over, The sound, I can still

Last edited Sat Mar 25, 2023, 05:00 PM - Edit history (2)

remember and the greenish tint of the sky. Alarms went off and I took my toddler to the basement.We didn't have i Phone at the time. It was about 20 some years ago. One person died. Yes, it was during the afternoon. I had a glass top table on the patio and watched as the wind lifted it about five feet and threw it into the side of the house. There was glass everywhere. People said they saw a funnel. However, the official ruling was microburst.

[ananda]

31. Agree. You can get a warning that a tornado might happen.

But once it hits, there's no time.

[ProfessorGAC]

36. And, Like Last Summer...

...I think it was in Missouri, the entire storm took an unexpected hard right and what was supposed to be the edge of the storm that might get heavy rain took a direct hit.
Meteorologists were shocked at the radical change of direction.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Given the destruction, I thought the death count was kind of low...nt

[debm55]

6. So did I. They are saying 24 dead and 4 missing.

[questionseverything]

4. They don't have many basements in the south

The ground is too wet so no good places to hide

[debm55]

8. Yes, I noticed alot of slabs of concrete in place of basements.

Last edited Sat Mar 25, 2023, 04:43 PM - Edit history (1)

[Scrivener7]

15. I've been wondering: where did they go?

[questionseverything]

17. Idk, I'm from central Illinois (which is pretty flat)

My folks said if I was out driving and saw a tornado 🌪️, to drive in opposite direction or lay in a low ditch, that the tornado would bounce over the low spot. I have never had to do it but I know others that have, they lived so it worked for them.

Looking at the pictures I don’t even see any low spots. The news said the tornado had a 100 mile path. Terrifying!

Yet here at 8-9am in central Illinois, it was snowing but now at 4pm it’s 47 degrees so I think there’s not much hope in out guessing climate change

🫤

[ProfessorGAC]

37. Experts Say...

...if you can see rotation, to get the heck out of the car.
North of you, Plainfield, Illinois got smashed and to their east there were a few deaths due to a semi & a couple of cars being picked up & thrown off of I-55.
I was working at a lab about 20 miles away, and we just got an inch of rain. But, about 30 people got killed.
The safety people said if those people went & laid in the ditch, they almost certainly would have survived.
My parents' home lost 30% of the roof & the storm had lost 50% of the energy by then.
Scary storms.

[questionseverything]

39. With the huge fast weather swings, it's just going to keep getting worse

I’m afraid

[questionseverything]

34. People hid in the walk in freezer @ the dairy barn (ice cream shop)

[JanLip]

18. Would love to have a basement

We do have a storm cellar and we use it when we have to. We are in western Tennessee near the Mississippi state line. We’ve dodged the bullet a few times. I hate the nighttime storms. I can cope with daytime ones. I would love a basement with a bedroom and bathroom. I would at least be able to sleep when it’s stormy. I just don’t believe the folks last night had a chance. Those storms form so quickly you don’t have much time to do anything. I saw drone video of the town that was hit and it was shear hell. The video is on Utube.

[questionseverything]

20. Thank goodness you have a cellar!

[friend of a friend]

21. My relatives have built rounded mounds with small doors next to their houses.

[questionseverything]

22. Sounds like a storm shelter? Good thinking!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. Night tornados are more deadly simply because people are sleeping. If they are awakened by

alerts or sirens -- neither of which are a given -- they are likely to react more slowly than in the middle of the day.

It's also possible they didn't have sirens, or the sirens were broken or not activated. It's happened before.

[debm55]

7. Thanks, Whisky Grinder. It also appeared that some homes were built of slabs of concrete.

Last edited Sat Mar 25, 2023, 04:51 PM - Edit history (2)

[demigoddess]

11. slabs of concrete!

[debm55]

16. Sorry, I was trying to post in a hurry because it is very windy here. Transformer was making noise

and I knew we were going to lose power. Transformer blew and we lost electricity before I had a chance to fix. We are being warned of severe storms this evening. Thank you for your concern.

[catrose]

28. True for many Southern Coastal areas

[Tetrachloride]

10. 45 years ago, a friend's home got damaged.

After the power went out, that tornado had a short mile to travel.

[Nanuke]

13. I heard on NPR that the noise of the storm drowned out sirens and many people were in mobil homes.

[2naSalit]

14. I can imagine that could be so.

One storm chaser caught it from afar and posted the video on the tweet thing. It was massive.

Here:

Link to tweet

[mountain grammy]

33. Terrifying video.

[crickets]

35. I can confirm this from experience.

During one particularly bad storm / hurricane warning last year, I poked my head out of the door to see how bad it was before scurrying into an interior closet. While on my porch I could barely hear the sirens over the wind and rain, and I am well inside the city limits. I was alerted by my NOAA phone app and by watching online. Had I just relied on sirens, there's no way I would have heard them. Fortunately, there was no real damage done in our area other than downed limbs and a few blown roof shingles.

My heart goes out to all of the people in Mississippi affected by this storm. It's heartbreaking to see this much destruction as well as loss of life. 😢

[xmas74]

19. Night time tornado,

No basements, many mobile homes and prefab buildings equals a recipe for disaster.

[blueinredohio]

23. When I lived in the country

it was 5 miles out of town and we never heard tornado sirens even though they had them.

[debm55]

27. The Fire Department sets off the fire sirens for bad weather and we also have street sirens. I live

outside of Pittsburgh and have heard them go off. But very rarely.

[Texasgal]

24. I'd be surprised if they were not alerted.

I'll bet you most people were seeking shelter.

[JanLip]

29. The experts

Say move to the center of the house away from windows but by the video and pictures of the storm damage the houses were completely destroyed. About the safest place would be underground. I feel so bad for the people that lost everything they had plus losing a loved one.

[Talitha]

25. Had one go over my house at night - they really do sound like a freight train.

During the day though, you can at least watch the color of sky. When it starts to look like pea soup, head for safety.

[ProfessorGAC]

38. Happened To Us In Early 2000s

Hit the town at the east edge of the next county over, bounced over us & creamed a town to our northeast.
It snapped an 8" branch off our silver maple. Ran on generator for 8 days, there was so much line damage.

[Chainfire]

26. Where I live, a storm shelter would become a pond overnight.

I was visiting family in Northern Alabama (near Talladega) last year and I noticed that everyone had storm shelters...

[JanLip]

30. That area

Is prone to storms. So is south and central Mississippi. Many years ago a tornado destroyed Tupelo, Mississippi.

[pinkstarburst]

32. I'm sure they did

Tornadoes that come at night are always more deadly because people are mostly asleep. During the day a lot of people will be sitting by the TV watching the radar.

I'm sure they did send out text alerts. They did a news story on the problems with tornado siren systems in our area after the last major tornado outbreak including that it's hard to keep them in good working order, they don't always go off correctly during a tornado, and people can't always hear them depending on where they live relative to the closest siren.

Many areas do not have basements. If there is a tornado, you go to the center of your house like a bathroom, which will help you survive if it's a small tornado, but if it's a big one, those can rip the concrete foundation straight out of the ground. It's hard to survive those if it's a direct hit.