May 4 of this year marks a grim anniversary. It will be one year since the Greensburg, Kan. tornado. More than a mile and a half wide at its peak, the twister packed winds topping 200 mph. It remains the only EF5 rated tornado since the enhanced Fujita scale went into effect in February 2007.
NBC Action News storm chaser Sean Wilson chased the monster tornado into Greensburg. Sean watched as the twister grew from a small stovepipe-shaped tornado that turned into a killer wedge tornado. Three miles southwest of Greensburg he began to see damage. There were big trees plucked from the ground, injured cows wandering in town instead of grazing in a field and debris from homes scattered everywhere. But the worst was yet to come.
As Sean drove his SUV into town, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “My first thought was, we must on another planet—this can’t be real.” It seemed as if every square inch of town was covered with debris. The people left in the wake of the tornado were finding their way through the debris and into the streets. Sean said, “they acted stunned, not sure of where they were.” They were also confused, as rumors of another tornado on the way swirled through the air.
As a professional storm chaser who runs a business called “Blown Away Tours,” Sean drives an SUV with an on-board Doppler radar display. He was instantly able to calm a lot of people by showing them the weather was all clear. ”It was a horrible feeling to see people so scared and in such a state of shock and loss. To think 15 minutes before, everything in that town had been fine, and now it was thrown around in a mangled, unrecognizable mess,” Sean said. “Every storm chaser there that night says the same thing: ‘I will never be the same.’ As a storm chaser, I’ve seen damage from tornadoes, but nothing could have prepared me for this.”
The Greensburg tornado killed 11 people, but many more could have died if not for the efforts of forecasters and storm spotters. Most spotters, like Sean, volunteer for the SKYWARN Network. They are amateur radio operators, lawenforcement officers, firefighters and dedicated citizens. The National Weather Service (NWS) trains these storm enthusiasts to recognize the signs of imminent severe weather.
When spotters in the Kansas City area see a potentially dangerous storm, they radio or call NBC Action News or the local NWS office with information about the storm. The NWS forecasters combine the information from spotters with Doppler radar data to issue tornado warnings.
On May 4, 2007, everything worked. Storm spotters and NWS meteorologists got the word out. The people of Greensburg received warnings 20 minutes ahead of the tornado and most took cover.
The people of Greensburg have a lot to overcome, but they are courageous, resilient and we’re sure they’ll pick up the pieces of their town. The May 4, 2007 tornado will not defeat Greensburg.
