Due to various unforeseen circumstances about 18 years ago, I now reside in the state of Arkansas, up in the Ozark Mountains, a few miles from the Missouri border, where all the beautiful people live. Unfortunately, most of them have yet to arrive.
Every spring we have the added excitement of dodging tornadoes. This past weekend, at the end of April in 2010, was no exception -- plenty of damage in the region and a few deaths.
There are approximately 1,000 tornadoes in the United States each year. The 10 most deadliest were:
1) March 18, 1925 in Murphysboro, Mo. & Gorham, Ill. – 695 dead, 2,027 injured
2) May 7, 1840 in Nachez, Miss. – 317 dead, 109 injured
3) May 27, 1896 in St Louis, Mo. & East St. Louis, Ill. – 255 dead, 1,000 injured
4) April 5, 1936 in Tupelo, Miss. – 216 dead, 700 injured
5) April, 6 1936 in Gainseville, Ga. – 203 dead, 1,600 injured
6) April 9, 1947 in Glazier, Tex. & Higgins, Okla. – 181 dead, 970 injured
7) April 24, 1908 in Amite, La. & Purvis, Miss. – 143 dead, 770 injured
8) June 12, 1899 in New Richmond, Wis. – 117 dead, 200 injured
9) June 8, 1953 in Flint, Mich. – 115 dead, 884 injured
10) May 11, 1953 in Waco, Tex. – 114 dead, 597 injured
Tornadoes are extremely dangerous. If you see one coming, you should head directly for your storm shelter. Whenever my ex-wife rolls into town, I also rush to the storm shelter and hide until the danger has passed.
In 2006, Matt Suder was a 19-year-old high school senior in Fordland, Mo., 20 miles east of Springfield. He lived in a rural mobile home with his grandmother, Linda Kelly, and his uncle, Robert Dewhirst.
On March 12, 2006, Matt told his girlfriend that he always wanted to see a tornado.
Later that evening, dressed only in his boxer shorts, Matt was watching TV when he heard an awesome noise approaching the mobile home. His grandmother was in the kitchen and his uncle was in a bedroom. Matt got up to shut the window in the living room.
That's when the tornado hit.
Matt hollered at his grandmother; then was struck on the head by a large heavy lamp, rendering him unconscious. When his grandmother turned around toward Matt, that entire end of the mobile home was gone.
Apparently, the tornado tore the walls and roof off the mobile home, and sucked Matt up into the funnel.
As the old saying goes – be careful what you wish for; it may come true. When you tell your girlfriend you want to see a tornado, make sure to add a "from a safe distance" clause. It's not wise to fool with Mother Nature.
When he regained consciousness, Matt was about a quarter mile (later measured at 1,307 feet) from what was left of the mobile home, in an open pasture, near a barbed-wire fence and a gravel road.
He looked back toward the mobile home site but saw no lights in the darkness and feared his grandmother and uncle were badly hurt or dead. Instead of returning back to the site, he made his way out onto the gravel road and ran to a neighbor's house in his bare feet. The neighbor called 911 and help was soon on the way.
Matt's grandmother was found wedged between a table and kitchen cabinets. His uncle was pinned between two mattresses. Both recovered from their injuries at a relative's home.
Matt suffered a cut on his head that required five staples and his feet were all cut up from the gravel road.
Tom Grazulis, author of THE TORNADO: NATURE’S ULTIMATE WINDSTORM, is a meteorologist and expert on tornadoes. According to Grazulis, somewhere around 400 feet is the general limit of being lifted and dropped in a tornado and surviving. The previously known distance record was held by a 9-year-old girl who, in 1955, survived a 1,000-foot ride. Basically, those who were tossed a quarter mile or more were either killed in the air or dead when lifted.
The following Tuesday, March 21, ABC did a segment on "Good Morning America" about Matt's tornado ride. He had also been contacted by representatives of "The David Letterman Show" about a possible appearance.
The only thing worse than being plucked out of your home, wearing only boxer shorts, and dumped a quarter mile away is being plucked out of your home, without the boxer shorts, and dumped a quarter mile away.
___________
Quote for the Day -- “Climate is what we expect -- weather is what we get.” Mark Twain
___________
Bret Burquest is an award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and where mobile homes are magnets for tornadoes. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
___________
-
-
Showing posts with label Missouri. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Missouri. Show all posts
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
New Madrid Fault
On January 12, 2010, the Caribbean island nation of Haiti experienced an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude, claiming between 100,000 and 200,000 lives.
Earthquakes are not new to Haiti. In 1751, a quake destroyed every masonry building (except one) in Port-au-Prince. Twenty years later, a 7.5 magnitude quake again leveled Port-au-Prince, killing 200 people. In 1842, a quake on northern Haiti killed 10,000 people. In 1946, a magnitude 8.0 quake produced a tsunami that killed 1,800 people.
Earthquakes are not new to the USA either.
New Madrid, Mo., is on the west bank of the Mississippi River, about a hundred miles upstream from Memphis, across the river from the Kentucky and Tennessee state lines, just above the Missouri boot heel. The population in 2010 is approximately 3,200.
On December 16, 1811, the 400 people who lived in New Madrid were awakened by a powerful earthquake. It was the largest seismic event east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, over 8.0 in magnitude.
The tremor lasted from three to five minutes. The ground visibly rolled and most buildings were completely destroyed. Large areas of land sank, new lakes were formed and over 150,000 acres of forest were decimated. It also caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards for several hours and changed the course of the river.
The shake was felt as far north as Quebec City, Canada, and it rang church bells in Boston, Mass., over 1,000 miles away. The towns of Point Pleasant and Little Prairie, both in Missouri, located on points of land jutting out into the Mississippi River, were completely swept away without a trace.
During the next few weeks, there were 2,000 aftershocks, including three more quakes in the 8.0 range.
This event became known as the Great New Madrid Earthquake of 1811-1812 because its epicenter was in a sparsely populated area near New Madrid. The New Madrid Fault system extends 120 miles south-southwest from the area of Cairo, Ill., through New Madrid, down to Blytheville, Ark., all the way down to Marked Tree, Ark.
The New Madrid Fault averages some 200 measured events per year (1.0 or greater). About once every 18 months, there is a shock of 4.0 or more, causing minimal local damage. On Thanksgiving of 1996, there was a 4.3 quake which was felt by people in Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and Mississippi.
An earthquake of 6.0 or greater could cause serious damage to structures, particularly older masonry buildings, from St. Louis to Memphis. This occurs about every 80 years. The last event was in 1895.
The New Madrid Fault is overdue for a jolt.
An earthquake of 7.5 or greater would be felt throughout the entire United States and would cause damage in 20 or more states. This happens once every 200-300 years or every 500-600 years, depending on which seismological study one chooses to believe. The last such event occurred in 1812.
Earthquake prediction is not an exact science. Most experts believe there is about a 90% chance of a quake of 6.0 or greater by the year 2040. Some experts believe there is a 3% chance of a major earthquake (7.5 or greater) along the New Madrid Fault by 2040, while other experts believe there is a 25% chance by 2040.
The Earth's surface is made up of a series of tectonic plates, much like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. These plates are in constant motion, traveling a few inches per year. As these plates build up stress over time, energy is occasionally released in the form of an earthquake.
It's not a question of "if" there will be another massive earthquake along the New Madrid Fault, but "when." And when it occurs there will be catastrophic destruction, particularly in southeastern Missouri, northeastern Arkansas, western Kentucky, western Tennessee and southern Illinois.
We live on a very precarious planet. Besides dealing with the injustice inflicted upon others by evil people, we must also contend with natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, volcanoes, fires, floods, mudslides, droughts, meteors, extreme temperatures, pandemics, crop failures and so on.
And you can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
Beyond the folly of politics and the nefarious manipulations of global elitist greed-heads, human destiny is primarily a series of unforeseen events guided by invisible forces. Whatever happens tomorrow is meant to happen and there's nothing you can do about it.
If you live anywhere near the New Madrid Fault, don't despair -- just stock up on beans and ammo, and live life to the fullest.
The future is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you're going to get.
___________
Quote for the Day -- “Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, ‘Thank God, I’m still alive.’ But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again.” U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Cal)
___________
Bret Burquest is an award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and where the New Madrid Fault, a two-hour drive to the east, awaits patiently for the right moment to cause a ruckus. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
___________
-
-
Earthquakes are not new to Haiti. In 1751, a quake destroyed every masonry building (except one) in Port-au-Prince. Twenty years later, a 7.5 magnitude quake again leveled Port-au-Prince, killing 200 people. In 1842, a quake on northern Haiti killed 10,000 people. In 1946, a magnitude 8.0 quake produced a tsunami that killed 1,800 people.
Earthquakes are not new to the USA either.
New Madrid, Mo., is on the west bank of the Mississippi River, about a hundred miles upstream from Memphis, across the river from the Kentucky and Tennessee state lines, just above the Missouri boot heel. The population in 2010 is approximately 3,200.
On December 16, 1811, the 400 people who lived in New Madrid were awakened by a powerful earthquake. It was the largest seismic event east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, over 8.0 in magnitude.
The tremor lasted from three to five minutes. The ground visibly rolled and most buildings were completely destroyed. Large areas of land sank, new lakes were formed and over 150,000 acres of forest were decimated. It also caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards for several hours and changed the course of the river.
The shake was felt as far north as Quebec City, Canada, and it rang church bells in Boston, Mass., over 1,000 miles away. The towns of Point Pleasant and Little Prairie, both in Missouri, located on points of land jutting out into the Mississippi River, were completely swept away without a trace.
During the next few weeks, there were 2,000 aftershocks, including three more quakes in the 8.0 range.
This event became known as the Great New Madrid Earthquake of 1811-1812 because its epicenter was in a sparsely populated area near New Madrid. The New Madrid Fault system extends 120 miles south-southwest from the area of Cairo, Ill., through New Madrid, down to Blytheville, Ark., all the way down to Marked Tree, Ark.
The New Madrid Fault averages some 200 measured events per year (1.0 or greater). About once every 18 months, there is a shock of 4.0 or more, causing minimal local damage. On Thanksgiving of 1996, there was a 4.3 quake which was felt by people in Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and Mississippi.
An earthquake of 6.0 or greater could cause serious damage to structures, particularly older masonry buildings, from St. Louis to Memphis. This occurs about every 80 years. The last event was in 1895.
The New Madrid Fault is overdue for a jolt.
An earthquake of 7.5 or greater would be felt throughout the entire United States and would cause damage in 20 or more states. This happens once every 200-300 years or every 500-600 years, depending on which seismological study one chooses to believe. The last such event occurred in 1812.
Earthquake prediction is not an exact science. Most experts believe there is about a 90% chance of a quake of 6.0 or greater by the year 2040. Some experts believe there is a 3% chance of a major earthquake (7.5 or greater) along the New Madrid Fault by 2040, while other experts believe there is a 25% chance by 2040.
The Earth's surface is made up of a series of tectonic plates, much like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. These plates are in constant motion, traveling a few inches per year. As these plates build up stress over time, energy is occasionally released in the form of an earthquake.
It's not a question of "if" there will be another massive earthquake along the New Madrid Fault, but "when." And when it occurs there will be catastrophic destruction, particularly in southeastern Missouri, northeastern Arkansas, western Kentucky, western Tennessee and southern Illinois.
We live on a very precarious planet. Besides dealing with the injustice inflicted upon others by evil people, we must also contend with natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, volcanoes, fires, floods, mudslides, droughts, meteors, extreme temperatures, pandemics, crop failures and so on.
And you can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
Beyond the folly of politics and the nefarious manipulations of global elitist greed-heads, human destiny is primarily a series of unforeseen events guided by invisible forces. Whatever happens tomorrow is meant to happen and there's nothing you can do about it.
If you live anywhere near the New Madrid Fault, don't despair -- just stock up on beans and ammo, and live life to the fullest.
The future is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you're going to get.
___________
Quote for the Day -- “Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, ‘Thank God, I’m still alive.’ But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again.” U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Cal)
___________
Bret Burquest is an award-winning columnist and author of four novels. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Buddy Lee and where the New Madrid Fault, a two-hour drive to the east, awaits patiently for the right moment to cause a ruckus. His blogs appear on several websites, including www.myspace.com/bret1111
___________
-
-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
