A true Miracle for Virginia
Meteorologist Jeff Ranieri
Nothing is ever "typical" or "normal" when it comes to weather, but something you might always expect with a major tornado is the possibility of death. While this may sound grim it is the reality we often live when natural disasters like tornados or hurricanes strike.
Monday I traveled to Virginia to cover the tornado in Suffolk and while I was expecting the worst, there was a glimmer of sunshine through the tragedy. I arrived with my producer at 5am for a Today Show live shot and as the sun started to rise, so did the damage. We would soon learn we were positioned at the heart of the damage outside a neighborhood where homes were completely flattened.
Click here for a look at all of Jeff's photos
As I was preparing for the live shot and contacting the local officials, I was more than surprised. While we learned over 150 homes were heavily damaged, there were no reports of any deaths. This major EF-3 tornado with winds topping 160 mph managed to spare the entire community. Truly remarkable, when you compare this to similar tornado disasters in the past. It became even harder to believe after hearing stories all day of how some survived when the twister cut a path 25 miles long.
Take a look at photos I took on the scene and I'm sure you will see the miracle in the Monday tornado that took just minutes to change a community forever.
Comments
Jeff, I am curious about the connection, if any between suburban sprawl and storm damage. Up until about 60 years ago, the American population was concentrated in urban areas--cities and towns. In what was then the countryside, people were relatively isolated, living miles apart. In the TV images and your photos of storm damaged dwellings, it appears to be a landscape of sprawl, with dwellings scattered across fields and woods that a few decades ago, were certainly rural.
As we continue to build in once-isolated, rural areas, are we not putting people and property in the path of tornadoes? I would be interested in your thoughts on this.
Posted by: Jesse Gardner | May 4, 2008 09:34 AM