15 dead, more than 150 injured in overnight Tri-State tornado

[skooooo]

http://www.courierpress.com/

A tornado ripped through Henderson, Vanderburgh and Warrick counties in the early morning hours Sunday, killing at least 15 people, causing extensive damage and injuring more than 150 others.

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I think the death toll is going to be significantly higher, unfortunately. Whole communities were destroyed.

[malaise]

1. Yep sadly I think you're correct.

Apparently several trailers were flung into the lake. That must have been a nightmare for people caught unaware. Most must have been sleeping. Too sad.

[KerryOn]

2. Very sad..

I live in Ohio and my weather radio went off during thee night sending me to he ceiling. (Fortunately it was just an alarm for a tornado watch.)

Evey one should invest in a weather radio. Most can be programed for your county or surrounding counties. You an also program the alerts that will go off, such as tornado watch, tornado warning, flood warning and so on.

Available at Radio Shake for about $35. They are well worth the investment.

[sufrommich]

10. Thats a good idea.

I always worry about a tornado coming at night.Isn't this a little late in the season for a tornado?

[smirkymonkey]

3. Is there usually any warning with a tornado?

They seem terrifying.

[blonndee]

6. Yes, usually, at least in tornado-ridden states like mine. The

meteorologists are very good, and they are able to keep up with the latest radar technology. I'm not sure where the funding for that comes from, but it's an absolute necessity here in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, there are a few smaller towns whose siren systems are out of date, and I remember this past spring watching a tornado on TV quickly approaching a little town called Geary, whose sirens hadn't worked in quite a while, apparently. The meterologists were asking viewers to call people they knew in Geary to let them know a tornado was about to hit. That was sad.

Tornados can pop up unexpectedly, but most of the time around here the meteorologists are able to tell a few days ahead of time whether conditions MIGHT be favorable to produce tornados. The storms often don't, but I always know when to be extra careful to monitor the news and the weather.

ETA: At this time of year, it's understandable that there might be less warning, and it's especially dangerous when the storms hit at night when it can be almost impossible to get a visual on funnel clouds.

[SheilaT]

11. There is usually very little

warning of tornadoes. Not at all like hurricanes where there's almost always several days warning, and not as bad as earthquakes which simply happen, but not much.

I live in Kansas, which is prime tornado country, and I've spent my share of time in the basement with the weather radio turned on. If you're lucky, there's an hour or so when conditions for tornadoes are ripening, and sometimes a tornado will be on the ground for as long as an hour, giving those in its path opportunity to seek shelter. But if you're unfortunate enough to be right where it first forms or touches down and you're not already in the basement, too bad.

And they're highly localized, completely destroying one side of a street while the other is untouched. If you don't happen to have the radio turned on, or if the sirens don't go off, or if you live where there are no sirens to be heard, again, too bad.

Nature is an amazingly powerful force, and we can (at this point at least) do absolutely nothing to tame the power of it.

[smirkymonkey]

12. What are the weather conditions that are usually present upon

the formation of a tornado? Are they seasonal like hurricanes?

[SheilaT]

13. Yes, they are typically seasonal.

It takes a particular combination of hot and cold air at the right levels of atmosphere to form tornadoes. In my part of the midwest they almost always happen in the late afternoon, early evening, when the land has been heated up from a day of hot weather. A thunderstorm will be forming, which brings down cold air from the upper atmosphere, and sometimes (although not always) tornadoes can form.

This is an extremely oversimplified version of what takes place.

Tornado season here starts in April or May, I think, and goes through September. Again, I'm in Kansas. But a tornado as late as November is another indication of global warming making summer-like conditions last so late in the year.

[Boomer]

15. Emergency sirens, if you're lucky

Most mid-west communities have a siren system to give people some warning, but as the news has noted, the tornado struck in the middle of the night when people were less likely to hear the alarm.

And by the time you hear the tornado itself, there's not much time left to run.

I have a Tornado Alert cat -- she disappears into the basement anytime a storm is dangerous. Not just any storm, mind you, only the ones that have a potential to turn ugly. So, in addition to keeping one eye on the weather channel, we keep the other eye on her. If she heads downstairs, so do we.

[skooooo]

4. Tornado Kills 17, Injures 200 in Ind., Ky.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1286055


--snip---

The death toll was expected to grow, they said. About 200 people had been injured.

The tornado touched down near Henderson, Ky., and jumped the Ohio River into Indiana at around 2 a.m.

At least 12 people were killed in the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park in Evansville, said Annie Groves, chief deputy coroner for Vanderburgh County. She said she expected the death toll to grow because an unknown number of people were believed still trapped in debris at the park, which has about 350

[oregonindy]

5. uh guys... I grew up there...there are NEVER tornadoes this time of year.

weird.

[blonndee]

7. Really? I just heard on the news that the worst tornado to hit that

area until now happened at the same time of year, during the seasonal shift. Hmmm. We had tornadoes at this time last year here in OK, although it's much less common than in the spring.

[Benhurst]

8. My experience groing up in central Illinois was the same as yours. NT

[skooooo]

9. what area?

I grew up in evansville / boonville.

[ElaineinIN]

14. Bloomington IN here-So. central IN

woke up to the tornado sirens at about 2:30... got the child and the cat and spent an hour or so in the basement. There was a cell that was capable of producing tornados the next street over according to the local news, pretty scary. Terrible for our neighbors in So. Indiana.

[Frustratedlady]

16. Any damage to Pittsboro, IN?

I have some relatives from there, but haven't heard anything. I can't find the path of the tornado.