Weather Report
The weather has been nasty all day, as a front is moving through. The tornadoes that have devastated communities inland are forming over the Gulf and getting sucked to the northeast. The power keeps going out as transformers arc in the cloudbursts. We have been under tornado watches or warnings all day, and the thunder is really getting on my nerves.
The radar looks like it may finally passing us, so we can get some sleep tonight.
My problems are nothing to compared to Enterprise, Alabama. Schools are used for shelters down here, and most are not up to the task. The area will be a long time healing, because almost everyone in town would have known one of the people who died.
2 comments
I think most of that mess passed to the south of us, with only 3″ of rain last night and howling winds.
I hate it when these systems come through at night. My father actually used to stay up at night when there was severe weather around. He wore an old Army helmet and stood outside watching the sky, just in case he needed to wake the family and get us to safety.
I’m not sure there are many places totally safe as public tornado shelters; that school may have been the best available.
The problem is roof construction, especially in gyms. The roofs are just not well connected. It would be easy, and not very expensive, to build with reinforced concrete that would stand up to hurricanes and tornadoes, but it hasn’t been done.
The vaulted roofs of most school auditoriums and/or gyms are what get ripped off, and the walls collapse because they are so long and can’t handle the wind load. The solutions are known, but they aren’t used.