ALERT Newsletter – April 2013

“There is no tornado in that storm” my English teacher sarcastically told us. “I’m from Kansas, and IF there were a tornado in that storm, there would be hail. There’s no hail.” What prompted the concern of my classmates and I that April day was the skies darkening pea green color and the rapidly increasing wind. Unknown to us, the students on the bottom floor of my school had correctly been told to crouch down in the hallway, while we teenage miscreants on the top floor of the high school were told nothing, except to “hush” and everything was business as usual. We were unaware that the F5 tornado which would become known as the “Smithfield Tornado” was passing us, two miles to the north. The next day the teacher wasn’t particularly interested in discussing her forecasting abilities, even though we were VERY eager to discuss it. “Hush”, she said, free speech being stifled again. April weather in Alabama is seldom halfhearted. Either it is beautiful spring weather, as if Heaven is blooming around us, or it is as if the Gates of Perdition have been swung wide open. Experience teaches us to look upon Aprils skies with a jaundiced eye. Notable April tornado dates include: April 3 & 4, 1974 “The Day of 100 Tornadoes”, which affected the entire Eastern United States and Southern Canada. This day saw 148 tornadoes, which killed 315 people and injured over 5,000 people. This includes 23 killed and 250 injured in Guin, which was literally wiped off the map by an F5 tornado. April 4, 1977 “The Smithfield Tornado”, mentioned above. An F5 tornado which left 22 dead 130 injured in North Jefferson County. April 8, 1998 “The Oak Grove Tornado”. This F5 tornado left 32 dead 259 injured in Tuscaloosa & Western Jefferson County. The sound of which is forever etched into my memory, as it passed only one mile from my house. April 15, 1956 “The McDonald Chapel Tornado”. A tornado now rated as an F4, since the Fujita Scale had not yet been invented, killed 25 and injured 200. April 25 – 28, 2011 this, the largest super outbreak on record, produced 348 tornadoes, including the EF4 tornado which swept through Tuscaloosa and Jefferson County on April 27. 62 tornados killed over 239 people in Alabama alone. As we enter April remember these dates, and keep an eye to the sky. Hopefully we will have the most boring weather April has ever produced. But, always remember that it is just a matter of time when the tornadoes of April will return. So prepare, and stay prepared. For history tends to repeat itself on a disturbingly regular basis. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. The 5 Main Ways To Push Up Daisies In A Disaster Part 2 As we continue with our series, I will remind you that this series is written with the intention that it will pique your curiosity and interest in personal emergency preparedness. Having done so hopefully you will take the time and effort to research these topics for yourself. I claim no expertise in these matters; I’m just discussing what I’ve read, watched and heard. You should study for yourself using multiple sources and come to your own conclusions. Then it will become YOUR knowledge. Something which no storm or person can take from you. Remember that the most important piece of emergency equipment you possess is your brain and the knowledge that you have stored inside of it. I will also add the disclaimer that neither I nor ALERT nor the NWS will be held responsible for consequences of actions tried or not tried based on the information discussed in these articles. With that said we now continue with part 2 of our series. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… How to Meet the Reaper #2 On March 11, 2011, Japan was struck by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake which triggered a 133-foot tsunami resulting in 15,878 deaths. News media referred to this as the “dual disaster”. They were wrong. It was a triple disaster. For after the two headline events, the temperature then dropped to freezing, and it snowed on the dazed survivors as they wandered aimlessly, struggling with neither shelter nor heat. How many survivors died due to hypothermia, we will never know. On October 29, 2012 Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast, causing massive damage on a regional scale, with block after block of houses and buildings flooded and smashed into rubble. Sandy then transformed into a Nor’easter, causing a major snowstorm to sweep across the region snowing on the now homeless survivors, and forcing more people out of their remaining homes. The storm took down the remaining power lines leaving 3 quarters of a million people without power and water during bitterly cold conditions. Whether due to the body core temperature rising too high due to hyperthermia, or falling too low due to hypothermia, the condition once commonly called “exposure to the elements” is the second most common way to “leave the land o’ the living” after a disaster. It is said by a rule known as the “rule of threes” that, given the severity of the conditions, without proper precautions and actions you can die of exposure within 3 hours. Freezing temperatures are not a necessity for hypothermia; just chill your body core temperature below 95 degrees, which is easily done if you are soaking wet in 45-degree windy weather. I’m zeroing in on hypothermia in this article. The reason for this being that on more than one occasion I have seen East Alabama being hit by tornadoes, central Alabama digging through the rubble after touchdowns and receiving reports of snow in Mississippi, behind the cold front which triggered the tornado outbreak. So this is far from a fanciful notion. The best way to protect yourself from hypothermia is to dress properly for winter, with a waterproof outer shell, sweaters or layers underneath, and a hat, since 70% of your body heat is lost through your head. But, realistically speaking, who is going to grab a parka when a tornado warning is issued? Especially if it is spring like outside, even though we may know that in Meridian it is 31 degrees and snowing. What can you do? One thing is to include a poncho and blanket in your emergency kit. Preferably a wool blanket, as wool retains 80% of its insulative value even if it is soaking wet. Common large trash bags or even better, larger 55 gallon construction grade trash bags can provide an instant poncho. Just cut a hole in the bottom for your head, so you can see and breathe and holes for your arms and you are in business. You may look like a giant prune, but, they work, keeping you out of the wet and wind, and you have probably used them before. Do you know how to make a shelter “on the fly”? All a shelter is designed to do is protect you from the wind, wet and cold. One of the easiest shelters you can build is to simply tie any type of cordage, be it rope, DEAD extension cords, weed eater line, etc to two uprights and drape, tie or tape sheeting over that line making a crude tent. The sheeting can be a tarp, shower curtains; garbage bags taped together – anything waterproof. You will need a “floor”, which may be as simple as garbage bags stuffed with leaves, newspapers or clothing or blankets. The object is to keep your body from losing heat by it being drained into the ground due to conduction. Only do this AFTER you have looked up to make sure there is no danger of objects falling on you and that you have looked down to make sure you won’t impale yourself on nails or glass, get electrocuted or be laying on an anthill. Another type of shelter is the “debris shelter”, which instead of using a suspended line between uprights, it uses a horizontal or sloping pole with debris, such as plywood planks leaned against the central pole making a crude, but effective sloping roof, either as a one sided “lean to” or preferably in a double sided “A-Frame” configuration. Remember that these are emergency measures meant to keep you alive until help arrives. More details are readily available in books and on the web, including information on the next topic – fire. What of fire? Fire, properly used, can provide warmth, light, cook your food, purify your water and ease your fears by “chasing away the boogie man”, on an otherwise pitch dark night. Improperly used it can burn down the remains of your neighborhood, especially if there is a fuel or natural gas leak. Learning how to safely build and manage a fire is a valuable asset. If you have this knowledge, having a “fire kit” in your emergency supplies is a wise move. There are two types of fire technology. “Friction based” aka “rubbing sticks together” & “spark based”, which uses lighters, matches and other spark producing devices. The easiest to use is spark-based technology. A basic fire kit should contain multiple fire lighting options and some sort of fluffy tender to help start the initial flame. Multiple options should be used because of two principles. The first principle being the “Two makes one and one makes none” principle. Which means if you rely on one method or one single item and it breaks or you lose it, you are out of options, aka “up the creek”. But, if you have two or more methods or tools, even if you lose one, you have one or more backups. The other principle is “The conservation of nonrenewable resources”. Which deals with wasting resources you can’t replace by using and losing the wrong tools, in the wrong conditions, on the wrong materials to achieve a desired goal. Again multiple options may save the day. A fire kit might include: A Butane or “Bic” lighter. These are inexpensive, and readily available, but, they won’t work if they are soaked, stepped on, or in most cases, empty. “Strike anywhere” matches, with the matches and the striker from the side if the box stored in a waterproof bag or canister. Making sure that you wrap the striker in plastic wrap so that the matches won’t self-ignite by the matches accidently rubbing against the striker. The drawback of these matches is that they are not waterproof. “NATO lifeboat matches” or “survival matches”. These are windproof and waterproof, and will spontaneously reignite even if they are dropped in water. A ferrocium rod and striker, which when scraped produces a shower of 3000 degree sparks. A magnesium fire starter, which is used by scraping a quarter size pile of magnesium shavings and igniting it with an attached ferrocium rod. This produces a 5600-degree flame. A small bag of dryer lint, preferably cotton. This is a free resource, used as a fire tender that catches fire easily, but burns very rapidly, 5 seconds or less. A small bag of cotton balls rubbed in Vaseline or impregnated with candle wax. This used in conjunction with dryer lint, will help sustained the flame, so you have time to build your fire. A pile of Fritos will do this also, by the way. The term “Build a fire” means just that. You start with a small ember or flame and build it into a larger but, not too large fire. You don’t need the Olympic Torch, just a small “campfire”. After making sure the area is safe for a fire, you gather your fuel which is wood, NOT kerosene, gasoline or charcoal lighter fluid. Make a contained area for the fire, to isolate it from other materials. This can be a circle of rocks, a garbage can lid, or if you go “hobo style”, build the fire in a bucket or barrel. If building the fire on the ground, make a layer of wood and build the fire on this platform, to insulate the fire from the wet ground, as the wet ground will draw heat away from the struggling fire. Make a nest of drier lint, with a cotton ball in the nest and place it on the wood layer. Ignite the lint & cotton ball and then slowly and patiently add your other materials, going from smaller size to larger. For instance, pine straw first. Pencil lead size twigs next. Then add twigs half the size of a pencil, then pencil size, cigar size and so forth. Eventually baseball bat thickness, but nothing larger, Wood that is wet on the outside usually dry on the inside, so if you have a way to split it, use it. At this point I will reemphasize that unless it is absolutely safe to do so, or you are not familiar with fire craft or fire handling, don’t even try building one, as you may do far more harm than good. But, I will also say this. I know a lady “Miss Julie” who is originally from the Philippines. She and her husband survived the April 27th tornado. She told me that after three days without power she told her husband “when I was little girl, we used to cook by campfire in the back yard, so my husband built a fire and we had hot soup!” If it worked for “Miss Julie”, it can work for you also. ———————————————————————————————————————— Mark’s Almanac The Romans called April “Aprilis”, probably from the word “aperire”, which means, “to open”. This being the time of year when buds open. It was originally the second month of the Roman calendar, before Roman King Numa Pompilius added January & February in 700 BC. April is less wet than March & rain becomes more localized and less widespread in nature. The sun heats the lower atmosphere near the ground and since the upper atmosphere is still cold, the warm air rises, reaches the dew point line, forms clouds & then it may rain. April is the first time in the Spring season that favors local convective activity, which is why you have “April Showers”. While April is the beginning of the Spring season in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the beginning of Autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere, being their equivalent of October. April is peak tornado month, with wide scale outbreaks possible. There are 2