April 27 , 2011 - Michigan · April 27, 2011 F5 - 72 Fatal, 145 Injured Plus 69 other F0, F1, F2,...
Transcript of April 27 , 2011 - Michigan · April 27, 2011 F5 - 72 Fatal, 145 Injured Plus 69 other F0, F1, F2,...
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