Roofers Slammed By Storm; Heed Those Severe Warnings, Folks!

Screen shot of construction workers hunkering down on a roof
as sheets of plywood fly by during a severe thunderstorm in
Nashville, Tennesee on Sunday. 

A month or so after a terrible tornado, a wicked severe thunderstorm rolled through Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday.

There wasn't a tornado this time, but it didn't matter. The National Weather Service office there recorded a wind gust of 72 mph during the storm, and I'm sure a couple places around the metro area reported winds of around 80 mph.

So yes, it was very dangerous.

National Weather Service in Nashville saw the storm coming and issued warnings well in advance, telling people to get indoors or else.

Anyone should have been wise to heed the warnings.  The storm proved once again that a severe thunderstorm warning is as serious as a tornado warning.

At least one person died in the storm, and there was a lot of property damage. The Tennessean reported at least 100,000 people were left without electricity from the storm, which is nearly double the number left without power in the tornadoes awhile back.

Quite a few buildings and houses were damaged or destroyed, and it seems like a zillion trees blew down.

Then there were the four roofers. I don't know if they didn't hear the storm warnings or just didn't heed them but they kept working as the dangerous storm approached.

A house was under construction in South Nashville, and the roofers were hammering plywood on what would become the three-story structure's roof.

They must have seen and heard the storm coming, as everyone in the neighborhood scurried inside as the skies darkened. But the roofers kept working, apparently wanting to get this Sunday job done as fast as possible.

As you can see in the video at the bottom of this post, that was a mistake.

According to television station WSMV, a neighbor, Tiffany Holt was filming the approaching storm from inside her home, near a window.

The storm hit in dramatic fashion with a wall of wind and rain. Several large sheets of plywood flew off the construction site, narrowly missing the roofers. One of those sheets of plywood might have actually hit one of  them, judging from the video.

The roofers lay down, and at least one of them fell through an opening in the unfinished roof ito the room below.   Meanwhile, blinding sheets of rain, mixed with roofing shingles, pieces of gutters and siding and tree branches continued to race by in the wind.

Holt said she could hear the men screaming in terror,

Luckily the storm was a fast mover and soon tapered off. She saw the men climb down after the storm eased and they were OK.

'We talked to them they were right here and said do you want to come in and take shelter. They wanted to get in the car and get out. So they were fine," Holt told WSMV. 

Yeah, but they were lucky they didn't get clobbered by one of those sheets of plywood. Coulda killed them.

When you hear a severe thunderstorm warning (None expected this week in Vermont, that's for sure!) get indoors and stay there until the danger passes.  These storms can be super dangerous.

Watch:

Old Crow Medicine Show Tornado Relief Song Does Us All Good

Last month, as you recall, devastating tornadoes blasted through Nashville, Tennessee and surrounding towns, killing 24 people and causing widespread destruction.

As in virtually every disaster, people come together and help those whose lives are upended.  Of course, people are trying to do that on a much larger scale, what with the coronavirus pandemic killing so many people.  

In any event, one of the Tennessee recovery efforts came from the group Old Crow Medicine Show, which has always been a favorite of mine.  "Nashville Rising" is a benefit for Nashville tornado recovery of course, and proceeds from sales of this music is going toward that recovery effort.

It also works a bit as a little glimmer of hope as we try to get through the pandemic.  Plus, it's just a terrific, terrific song.  If you can do a little for Tennesse tornado victims, or the pandemic fight in your own town, maybe this great song will inspire you a bit:

Spring Sprouts, Tornado Joggers and Googly Eyes. A Few Notes

Look very closely  and you can see daffodil shoots trying to
emerge from the soil next to the retreating ice on Thursday
in my St. Albans, Vermont gardens. 

It's been a relatively warm week for early March in Vermont. The snow is retreating the sap is running and it feels like spring might get here. Eventually.

True, it's going to be on the cold side tonight and Saturday and we surely have more cold spells and snowfalls to come. But we've made a little progress.

It's hard to see in the accompanying pboto, but I spotted such progress in my yard amid the Thursday afternoon sunshine.

Next to the retreating ice in one of my garden beds, the first hint of daffodil shoots appeared.  It's not much, but a guy looking forward to spring will take anything he can get.

I don't anticipate anything blooming until April.  Still, it was nice to see something green, however tiny, instead of the shades of white, gray, black and brown we've been limited to since November.

Daffodil shoots are tough, so I'm not too worried about what will happen in cold weather. Today, a  huge nor'easter that's developing well off the New England coast today but it will miss us. The storm will throw a brief shot of gusty winds and chilly air at us, but nothing odd for early March.  It'll warm up again Sunday afternoon.

Given that the weather is relatively quiet, here's a couple other odd, unrelated things I've noticed recently, including an odd jogger and a googly-eyed TV reporter in a snowstorm:

THE TORNADO JOGGER

As soon as those awful tornados in Tennessee passed early Tuesday, first responders, as always, swooped in and did their best to help.

This brief video is a little strange. It shows firefighters arriving in a tornado-battered Nashville neighborhood. The power was out, and you could see little in the darkness.  But in firetruck headlights and firefighters' head lamps, you could see downed power lines, glimpses of debris and hints of chaos.

As the firefighters started heading into the neighborhood, presumably to pull people from the wreckage, a female jogger zips on by.

No, she's not running from the wreckage. Nothing, not even a tornado, complete darkness, debris and possibly live downed wires is going to interrupt her odd 1:30 a.m. running routine.  I love the look on the face of the firefighter at the end of this brief video:



SNOWSTORM REPORTER'S MANY FACES

In late February, a snowfall hit Asheville, North Carolina,  Justin Hinton, a reporter for television station WLOS was out in the snow, giving a live update for viewers via Facebook Live.

He said he somehow activated some sort of Facebook filter and this is what viewers saw as Hinton gave his report.

Breaking: Downtown Nashville Slammed By Overnight Tornado

Widespread damage in Nashville from this
UPDmorning's tornado. 

UPDATE: 

As of 10:30 a.m., Tennessee Emergency Management says the death toll from the tornado or tornadoes is up to 19 people in four counties.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

A tornado went right through the heart of Nashville, Tennessee early this morning, causing widespread destruction and at least nine deaths in and near that city.

It was probably the worst possible scenario for a tornado. A large, strong tornado going through a major metropolitan area in the after-midnight darkness.  People were sound asleep at that hour, and not in a position to hear tornado warnings and take cover.

Dramatic videos are at the bottom of this post

Early reports suggest that the Nashville Fire Department responded to calls regarding at least 40 collapsed buildings, says the Weather Channel.

The tornado apparently touched down a little west of Nashville a little after 12:30 a.m. and continued eastward for about 50 miles to a spot well east of Nashville. That's a long track for a tornado, and dangerous, considering much of its path covered heavily populated areas.

An airport west of town was heavily damaged.  It looks like the tornado went by just barely to the north of the highrises in downtown Nashville. Eastern parts of the city were heavily damaged.

Election workers were checking reports that Super Tuesday polling stations were damaged, too.  In any event, the tornado and its aftermath will surely disrupt voting today in parts of Tennessee.  Polls across Nashville are opening an hour later than scheduled today because of the twister.

Last evening and overnight, there have so far been eight confirmed tornadoes in Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. Tornado warnings blared through the night in parts of these three states.

The extent of this tornado outbreak caught at least me by surprise.  That's not to suggest there weren't adequate warnings, because there certainly were.  It's just that forecasters often see tornado outbreaks days in advance. This one snuck up to an extent.

By late Sunday, forecasters were predicting the risk of severe storms and perhaps a tornado or two in this region.  By Monday afternoon, it was clear that things were beginning to escalate in the atmosphere, so a tornado watch was wisely issued for the area that eventually was hit.

By evening, rotating supercell thunderstorms were firing up, and the damage started.

Another image of tornado damage in Nashville, via Twitter.

It's not necessarily over. Severe thunderstorms and possibly a few more tornadoes are expected today in a long strip from central Texas, across the Gulf Coast states and on into North Carolina.

Some strong storms, and possibly a tornado or two, are even possible roughly 100 miles in any direction from Washington DC.  This could further disrupt voting in states that are in thick of Super Tuesday today.  

Severe weather and flooding is likely across much of the Deep South on Wednesday and Thursday, too

Back in Nashville, this isn't the city's first go around with a tornado going right through the middle of the city. In April, 1998, an EF3 tornado, with winds of between 156 and 200 mph, swept through the middle of Nashville in a path somewhat similar to this morning's.

In the 1998 storm, 300 buildings in downtown Nashville, including the State Capitol, were damaged. Sadly, the 1998 tornado hit East Nashville particularly hard, just as this morning's twister did.

The Nashville tornadoes reinforce the fact that tornadoes can and do go through the middle of cities.  There's a prevalent myth that tornadoes can't do that, but of course that's not true.

Destructive tornadoes have hit other urban areas, both historically and in recent years.  Damaging twisters went through  downtown Atlanta, Georgia in 2008,  Raleigh, North Carolina in 2011, Oklahoma City in 1999 and even Brooklyn, New York, twice, in 2007 and 2010.  (The video of the 2010 tornado in Park Slope, Brooklyn, is pretty wild).

Just last year, tornadoes swept through heavily developed areas right in Jefferson City, Missouri and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  It can happen here in New England, too: Witness the big tornado in Springfield, Massachusetts in 2011 and the even bigger one in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1953.

Videos:

The immediate aftermath of the tornado in East Nashville.  I always find the sound of alarms going off in busted buildings after a disaster haunting. Watch and listen:



Meteorologist Henry Rothenberg at NewsChannel 5 in Nashville gave the play by play as the tornado swept past the television station early Tuesday:



It's frightening to watch a tornado go through a big city, even when you can't see it well in the darkness. Sam Shamburger of television station WRKN tracked the tornado as it passed through. You can see it with the power flashes it was causing:



First light this morning reveals some of the destruction: