Hold on tight folks...

[GMan 3,569]

BTW, have any of our forum friends from Falconland and/or PH checked in since Wednesday??? Getting kind of worried about them...

[BigD4VT 11]

Question for the weather experts: According to the NWS storm database, since 1950, there has never been a confirmed tornado in Tazewell, Buchanan, Bland, and Wythe counties. Yet there have been several in Washington, Russell, and Smyth... Why?

[Beamerball 566]

I'd say there's a few factors that go into it. More than likely there have been torndoes in each but they've probably been in more rural locatons (especially in Buchanan and Bland) and no one seen it or there wasn't anyone to officially report it and have someone assess the area. Could just be by chance and just been fortunate so far. Also may be due to the more mountainous terrain the storms have to continue to go over and by the time they get into some of those areas the storms have been torn apart. I said before that mountains won't stop a tornado but the mountains can and do inhibit storm structure some.

 

I would say its a combination of all the above factors.

[Lance 228]

i saw one years ago in Grundy that ran down one side of Little Prater taking out trees...luckily it was up on top of the mountain and there was no damage to anyones houses.

[Beamerball 566]

Two more tornadoes confirmed in eastern TN. An EF2 confirmed in Washington County near Falls Branch and an EF1 in Knoxville.

http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=MRX&issuedby=MRX&product=PNS&format=CI&version=1&glossary=0

 

Morristown's been busy. According to one of the statements they've divided up into 4 survey teams today.

[cityofRaven 2,449]

Wasn't there one touch down in Tazewell Co. during that Fourth of July storm back about '97 or '98?

[bluefieldRocks 14]

Doesnt Tom from on here live in Morristown, TN?

[BigD4VT 11]

Wasn't there one touch down in Tazewell Co. during that Fourth of July storm back about '97 or '98?

Listed in the database as "Thunderstorm Winds."

 

http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwevent~ShowEvent~307868

[tbgfan 856]

I went to Roanoke this weekend--- going up I-81 when you get to Exit 29 and see the utter devastation-- I felt cold chills. The pictures, as horrible as they are, can't compare to seeing the actual. On both sides of the interstate total and complete carnage. Looking over to the right, northbound, and seeing those semi's trailers just tossed and crumpled is amazing---no wrong word, heartbreaking. Looking to the left and seeing businesses and homes destroyed, where lives were lost---no words.

 

When you are getting close to Exit 29 you are seeing the sky hazy with smoke and the smell permeating the air, even with your car windows closed. I guess that is the clean-up effort underway. Coming back today, as I approached the exit southbound, again I felt such chill, I couldn't shake it.

 

Knowing the chills I felt just seeing the effects, I could not imagine or comprehend the fear that went through the Glade community that night. Truly, it is miraculous that more people were not killed.

 

A sight I will never forget, a night of such uncertainty with worry, lives forever changed in a matter of minutes--

 

 

Life has many choices---eternity two

[Beamerball 566]

More confirmed touchdowns today. I may missed some from before also but I see a couple of more scattered in between previous released statements like another one in Washington County, VA rated an EF0. So far from southeastern TN and up into southern WV (including the two over in Halifax and Rockbridge also) that's around 30 some tornadoes confirmed so...not sure if the NWS has any more survey's to come. About 3 or 4 strong (rated EF3 or greater) tornadoes. Have not seen anything on those reports in Tazewell County.

 

Some survey pics from the Morristown NWS including the Glade Spring tornado, the EF4 in Bradley County, TN, and an EF3 in Blount County, TN (which isn't listed in the statements yet). That one in Blount is more proof of strong tornadoes in the mountains as rolled right through the Smokies.

 

Morristown area outbreak map with a few photos (links below the plot map):

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mrx/?n=tor_outbreak_map

 

Public Info statements:

http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=MRX&issuedby=MRX&product=PNS&format=CI&version=13&glossary=0

 

Glade Spring damage video (there's a few more of these around on youtube):

Edited May 2, 2011 by Beamerball

[falconfan1 125]

Thanks. We've been trying to help with the clean up effort. One can only imagine the total destruction...pictures can't do it justice. Keep the people in Glade in your thoughts. It is going to be a trying time for that community. I wish them all a speedy recovery.

 

BTW, have any of our forum friends from Falconland and/or PH checked in since Wednesday??? Getting kind of worried about them...

[Deleted Account 5,203]

I'd say there's a few factors that go into it. More than likely there have been torndoes in each but they've probably been in more rural locatons (especially in Buchanan and Bland) and no one seen it or there wasn't anyone to officially report it and have someone assess the area. Could just be by chance and just been fortunate so far. Also may be due to the more mountainous terrain the storms have to continue to go over and by the time they get into some of those areas the storms have been torn apart. I said before that mountains won't stop a tornado but the mountains can and do inhibit storm structure some.

 

I would say its a combination of all the above factors.

 

I have very reputable sources that confirmed two in Tazewell County, one in Abbs Valley and the other between Bluefield and Tazewell. I have multiple people who saw the second. Of course, they didn't officially report it, and good luck assessing damage to a few trees.

[VHSLhelper 571]

NOAA says 24-hour record set - 312 twisters

http://www.wvva.com/Global/story.asp?S=14555689

[BigBlueAlum 12]

This is a good story about a few young men from Emory and Henry College that helped rescue people in the aftermath of the storm that ripped through Glade Springs. One of the guys, James McVey, is from Richlands and a good friend of mine. Couldn't be more proud of him.

 

http://www2.tricities.com/news/2011/may/03/emory-henry-students-rescue-residents-after-deadly-ar-1012436/

 

By Debra Mccown

Published: May 03, 2011

GLADE SPRING, Va. --

 

After James McVey left his car on the shoulder of Interstate 81, it was towed away. Later, he had to pay $120 to get it back, but to him, it was money well-spent.

 

The 23-year-old Emory & Henry College senior left his car there in the wee hours Thursday, when the traffic backup caused by tornado debris had turned the highway to gridlock. His goal was to get into Glade Spring – because his friend needed help.

 

Among the first on the scene on Old Monroe Road, McVey was one of several young men from the college who came to the rescue after the tornado, pulling people from the rubble and helping to save at least two lives.

 

“I didn’t realize the gravity of the situation until I got down to the road where the Subway is and the entrance to the Petro [truck stop], and there were just power lines everywhere. The street lights were in the middle of the intersection,†McVey said. “I hate to use the term war zone, but it was just, it was like something you would see in a movie.â€

 

McVey and fraternity brother Jacob Reid found each other as both, having ditched their cars at the closest points they could reach while driving, ran down the road toward the apartment of their friend Kevin Heideman.

 

They’d both received a text from Heideman at 1:25 a.m. that read: “Someone please help. Come to my apartment. Bring a pair of shoes.â€

 

McVey said he didn’t know what had happened, but he knew it must be something pretty serious for his buddy to send that kind of mass-text in the middle of the night, so he came. So did eight other members of the fraternity.

 

First they went to their friend’s apartment, gave him some shoes and checked on his neighbors in the apartment complex. Then, in the rain and the wind and the hail, they fanned out to the surrounding area, looking for other people in need of help.

 

Heideman told them about a couple who lived in a mobile home across the street.

 

“We started looking for the mobile home and couldn’t find it,†Reid said. “Finally we were like, ‘The mobile home’s gone.’ And we realized that we were standing on their gravel … . We actually yelled for a long time and walked around the field.â€

 

Reid said he thought the couple who lived there – Bobby and Debbie Blevins – must have left to ride out the storm elsewhere. But then, walking back toward the apartments, they heard Debbie Blevins cry for help.

 

Through tears Friday, her family members recalled what she’d told them about that night.

 

“She laid there with her punctured lung, and she asked God to give her enough breath to cry out,†said her sister-in-law Alice Osborne. “The gentleman [who called Blevins’ daughter] said, ‘I’ve got your mother wrapped in a blanket.â€

 

According to family members, Debbie Blevins suffered major broken bones and a punctured lung. When the young men from Emory found her husband seconds later, he was dead from his injuries.

 

Up the road and across a field, where a brick house once stood, lay another seriously injured woman, Brenda Offield, who according to relatives suffered spinal fractures and severe lung injuries.

 

The Emory & Henry students also found her husband, Ronnie Offield, who had been killed when the tornado swept their house off its foundation and into the backyard.

 

The fraternity brothers said they got the attention of first responders and called in ambulances for the two women, who were barely alive in the wreckage of their destroyed homes.

 

“I know a bunch of the brothers were down by Mrs. Blevins, just getting around her and shielding her from the rain,†Reid said. “They were holding jackets over her and stuff like that … until the ambulance got there.â€

 

The fraternity, Dom-I-Necher, is exclusive to Emory & Henry College and takes its name from Saint Dominic, the patron saint of astronomers. Reid said their namesake used the stars to guide him as he traveled by night.

 

Also in the wee hours Thursday, the fraternity brothers carried Lesley Hicks, who had suffered less serious injuries, down the hill from a separate collapsed building, and helped two fellow students escape the rubble of their apartment.

 

Hicks said she had fallen and hurt her leg when she called for help and they rescued her.

 

The college women, Whitney Manning and Annelise Shelton, said the fraternity brothers helped them to escape their destroyed apartment through a window and then got them out of the cold rain and into cars, – and sheltered them from the sight of their neighbors’ bodies in the yard.

 

The fraternity brothers also helped those students – and the campus cafeteria workers who survived the storm in the destroyed apartment next door – get to campus.

 

Heideman, a 22-year-old senior from Lynchburg, said he’s still thinking about the good luck that brought him into harm’s way – and brought his buddies to the disaster scene when it counted.

 

“I was on campus probably an hour and a half before this all happened, and I just decided to randomly come back to my apartment,†he said.

 

“I was in the apartment when it happened, so it was really scary, but looking back, if I hadn’t been in the apartment, I wouldn’t have been able to text my friends, and my friends wouldn’t have come, and ... I worry what would’ve happened if nobody was here searching for all these people.â€

 

McVey dismissed the hero label, saying he’s just glad they were in the right place at the right time.

[Beamerball 566]

Seriously?

http://bdtonline.com/columns/x1071584531/Extreme-weather-Are-tornado-watches-becoming-typical-in-the-two-Virginias

[deuceswild 15]

Seriously?

http://bdtonline.com/columns/x1071584531/Extreme-weather-Are-tornado-watches-becoming-typical-in-the-two-Virginias

 

I stopped reading when it said he flipped over to FoxNews to get the facts.

 

Extremely violent storms are not new to our region, they're just sparse. One year out of every 25 some violent tornadoes will muck us all up. He's acting like the apocolypse is upon us....chill out people.

[GMan 3,569]

Bluefield has never had a Tornado WARNING until last Wednesday night/Thursday morning...and we had two within three hours of each other...so, yeh, that is kinda "new"...

[deuceswild 15]

Bluefield has never had a Tornado WARNING until last Wednesday night/Thursday morning...and we had two within three hours of each other...so, yeh, that is kinda "new"...

 

New to Bluefield. Not the "two Virginias" as a whole.

 

And you're not going to buy into Global Warming like us liberals are you?

[Deleted Account 5,203]

Seriously?

http://bdtonline.com/columns/x1071584531/Extreme-weather-Are-tornado-watches-becoming-typical-in-the-two-Virginias

 

This is one of the poorest pieces of writing that I've ever seen. Not only does it ignore facts entirely ("thar ain't never ever ever been a tornader watch in Makdowl County"...when there have been a great many), but he also uses anecdotal evidence to write a science-based article. Then, he segues into the Osama Bin Laden capture, begging the question of how this could even possibly relate to tornado outbreaks. Finally, he returns to the issue of severe weather, equating one historic outbreak with "now I have to batten down the hatches every time I see a raincloud", or something like it.

 

I am now for simply closing the BDT. When one of your most senior writers publishes an article that Koko could write, it's a sign that your newspaper should cease to exist.

[Deleted Account 5,203]

Bluefield has never had a Tornado WARNING until last Wednesday night/Thursday morning...and we had two within three hours of each other...so, yeh, that is kinda "new"...

 

The NWS does not issue watches/warnings for towns, only counties/cities.

As a matter of convenience, they do list cities that may be impacted, but that is not a watch/warning in itself.

 

Now, if you're talking about Bluefield, WV, this may be a different story, as it is a city.

[GMan 3,569]

The NWS does not issue watches/warnings for towns, only counties/cities.

As a matter of convenience, they do list cities that may be impacted, but that is not a watch/warning in itself.

 

Now, if you're talking about Bluefield, WV, this may be a different story, as it is a city.

 

Yes, Bluefield, WV...and there were two...the first one included Bluefield and Mercer Co. The second one explicitly stated BLUEFIELD, only, in the warning...and yes, I've never seen clouds like that in Bluefield as we had with that second warning. Not afraid to admit it, I started getting a little nervous with that one...

[Deleted Account 5,203]

Yes, Bluefield, WV...and there were two...the first one included Bluefield and Mercer Co. The second one explicitly stated BLUEFIELD, only, in the warning...and yes, I've never seen clouds like that in Bluefield as we had with that second warning. Not afraid to admit it, I started getting a little nervous with that one...

 

I'm not disagreeing, no need to get up in arms. Just wanted to clarify.

[GMan 3,569]

I'm not disagreeing, no need to get up in arms. Just wanted to clarify.

 

Just clarifying, not getting up in arms...

[Hacker 82]

Yes, Bluefield, WV...and there were two...the first one included Bluefield and Mercer Co. The second one explicitly stated BLUEFIELD, only, in the warning...and yes, I've never seen clouds like that in Bluefield as we had with that second warning. Not afraid to admit it, I started getting a little nervous with that one...

 

Knowing how many days you spent looking up the valley at storms, your last sentence speaks volumes for the kind of storms those were.

[futbolking 766]

Yes, Bluefield, WV...and there were two...the first one included Bluefield and Mercer Co. The second one explicitly stated BLUEFIELD, only, in the warning...and yes, I've never seen clouds like that in Bluefield as we had with that second warning. Not afraid to admit it, I started getting a little nervous with that one...

 

I ran for the basement...