April 27th, 2011

When all else

Presented to the

2020 Michigan Statewide Interoperability

Communications Training Conference

February 13, 2020

By: Tom Cash, WS4M

fails

This briefing is drawn from:

AAR of the

Huntsville/

Madison County

EMA

Event synopsis

from the NWS

Huntsville

Personal

experience

In an online database of all tornados

1950 to 2017, it shows this for the

Huntsville / Madison County area:

April 27, 2011 F5 - 72

Fatal, 145 Injured

Plus 69 other

F0, F1, F2, or

F3 Tornados

April 3, 1974 5:15 PM F5 - 28 Fatal,

267 Injured

April 3, 1974 6:35 PM F5 - 16 Fatal,

190 Injured

May 18, 1919 F4 - 1 Fatal, 55 Injured

tornadohistoryproject.com

Madison County

2,127 Tornados in the state of Alabama since 1950

In 2013, Dr. Greg Forbes of The Weather

Channel issued his list of the 10 cities

(with population greater than 250K) most

likely to have a tornado. Those were:

9: Wichita, Kansas

10: Nashville, TN

8: Atlanta, Georgia

7: Oklahoma City, OK

6: Tulsa, OK

5: Little Rock, AR

4: Tuscaloosa, AL

3: Birmingham, AL

2: Jackson, MS

1: Huntsville, AL

Dixie Alley Tornado Alley

In his discussion about Huntsville as his #1 city,

Dr. Forbes specifically mentioned the April 27th,

2011 outbreak that hit Huntsville. This briefing

discusses that outbreak and the aftermath.

It all started 5 days in advance when the NWS Storm Prediction

Center issued a heads up for the north Alabama region stating

there was a High threat for severe weather on the 27th. The EMA

started having planning sessions with all county agencies /

organizations (50+ organizations).

April 27th, 2011

On that day, the U.S. experienced an outbreak of 207 tornadoes.

April 27th, 2011

tornadohistoryproject.com

On Wednesday April 27th, 2011, the Huntsville /

Madison County Alabama ended up being hit by three

waves of severe weather.

Early Morning Midday Afternoon/Evening

Tornado warnings issued between 4AM and 9PM (NWS HUN)

92 TORs issued (26 in Madison County)**

67 TORs - 2010** Speed of storms influenced # of Warnings

Cullman, AL

As a comparison, the Huntsville NWS Office

only issued 36 Tornado warnings in all of 2019

What does an EF-5 look like on radar?

What does an EF-5 look like on video?

9 in Madison County

The impacts in Madison County:

• A total loss of power county wide.

• Ditto grocery stores.

• 24-36 hours later Cell towers that

were still standing lost power.

• Lost the internet.

• Very few gas stations had backup

generators, therefore very few

stations could pump gas.

Why did we lose all power?

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) provides the power

and they have multiple sources around Madison County.

First, where and from whom did we get our power?

There are 8 power feeds from TVA into the county.

= Nuclear= Hydroelectric= Renewable

Why did we lose all power?

All 8 power transmission lines into the county had one or

more towers that looked like this:

The initial

estimate from the

TVA was that it

would take 15 days

to start restoring

power.

The good news is

TVA beat that

estimate and got

power back to the

hospitals on Day 5.

Total county wide restoration took weeks.

Why did we lose cell phones?

• At first all towers still standing

switched to their backup generators

and during the initial stages of

disaster response provided

communications.

• For one reason or another the

backup generators did not get

refueled.

• Therefore, as their fuel supplies ran

out they one by one dropped off line.

Why did we lose the internet?

• According to the EMA’s AAR,

Huntsville’s ISP went down and locked

up the LAN in the EOC. Why, I don’t

know.

• With no internet, all City and lots of

the County VOIP phone lines were out.

• We did manage to get a LAN operating

in the EOC so the EMA could still use

the WebEOC program in house.

Amateur Radio Networks

The N Al Skywarn Network

NWS HUN Coverage Area

Networks during the Response Phase

Skywarn Madison County

Net Control Operator Net Control Operator

WX4HUN

Radio station at the

NWS HUN office

Liaison

(N4CZ)

W4HMC

Radio station at the Madison

County EMA’s EOC

W4HMC

Huntsville / Madison

County EMA’s EOC

ARES/RACES

Radio Room

WX4HUN

HAM Radio Station

NWS HUN Work

Stations (6 positions)

Audio of Ham communication from the

evening of April 27th, 2011…

(2:02 in length)

Networks during the Recovery Phase

Support

Net - Red

Cross

(HARC)

Main Net -

Madison County

EOC (W4HMC)

Volunteer

Net - VRC

Resource

Scouting

Net - EOC

Team 1 . . . Team “n”Field Supervisors / Relays

MRC Clinic

VOAD Chain Saw

Groups

Food BankRadio Station

NWS

Monrovia

SA Canteen

SC Baptist Relief

7th Day Adventists

There are 38 2 m and 70 cm Repeaters in Madison County AL Nets stood down after 14 days of support operations.There are over 2,000 Amateur Radio operators in Madison County AL

EMA AAR Statement r.e. Amateur Radio:

Can tornadoes happen here?

April 3, 1956 1 Fatal, 25 injured

May 8, 1964

June 26, 1969

September 13, 1961

tornadohistoryproject.com

How about Statewide?

tornadohistoryproject.com

Since 1950 there have been 1,037 tornados in MI:

20 were F4 or F5259 Fatalities3,547 Injuries

Can other WX disasters happen here?

August 2nd, 2015 - Straight Line Winds (Derecho)

Lots of trees down on cars and

houses and power lines

Lots of trees down across roads

making it difficult to get in to

repair the downed lines

This is the weather system that occurred on Aug 2, 2015:

Weather events like what occurred

in the Huntsville / Madison County

Alabama area on April 27th, 2011

are why we plan for the worst …

.why we prepare for the worst …

and why we practice.

It CAN happen!!

In Summary . . .

Questions?Thank you