Volume 10,3 Disaster Recovery Journal Articles- Summer 1997

Volume 10, Issue 3
Summer 1997

The Perspective of Ed Devlin

Who did it? Who did it? As James Cagney said in his role as captain of a naval ship in the movie Mister Roberts, “Who did it?” Who did what? Made Mother Nature angry! Remember the old commercial that ended with: “It doesn’t pay to make Mother Nature angry! Well somebody obviously has made Mother Nature angry. The last two years have produced more hurricanes than normal, and the flooding during the last four years has been devastating. In the first half of 1997, Mother Nature has not slowed down. As I reviewed some of my information for this issue’s column, I planned to discuss two fires— the one at Diversified Records Services Inc’s storage facility in West Pittston, PA, the second at Delaware Trust’s building, a 21-story highrise in Wilmington, Delaware. As I accumulated the information from my computer files, it became apparent that the story of Mother Nature’s rampage would take up all the space I had available. Let’s review some of Nature’s activities this year.

Tornadoes
Jan. 1997 (Pasadena, TX)— A tornado damaged several buildings and overturned mobile homes. One side of a two story office building was torn away. Part of a mini-storage warehouse was reduced to rubble. No serious injuries were reported.
Mar. 1997 (Arkadelphia, AR)— A 40-block area of the city was devastated after a giant funnel raged through the town at 2:20 PM, Saturday, March 1. Five died; dozens were injured. Arkadelphia is a university town of 10,000 people and is located about 50 miles southwest of Little Rock. Saturday’s tornado outbreak was the worst since the Palm Sunday storms on March 27-28, 1994, which killed 40 in Alabama and Georgia. Nine counties were declared disaster areas after tornadoes slashed a deadly 250-mile path. May 1997 (Miami, FL)— A towering, swirling tornado blew through Miami Monday then tracked the shore past the high-rise condos. It touched down just before 2:00 p.m. The storm tore apart the roof of a police station, tore the roof off a 24-unit apartment building in East Little Havana, and blew out some windows in The Citadel, a three-story office building downtown.
May 1997 (Jarrell, TX)— The tornado that struck Jarrell, Texas, a farming town of fewer than 1,000 people, was classified as a rare F-5 storm, one with winds of more than 260 m.p.h. The tornado stayed on the ground for about 30 minutes, leveling an entire subdivision of 50 homes, killing 27 people, and injuring scores of other people. It ripped a path a mile long and 200 yards wide. This same small town of Jarrell was badly damaged by a tornado in 1989 that killed one person and injured 28. Local authorities called Tuesday’s storm the area’s worst natural disaster in recent memory.

Classifying Tornado Severity:
The severity of tornadoes is charted on the Fujita-Pearson or “F” scale.

F-0 Wind speed up to 72 m.p.h.
F-1 Wind speed from 73 to 112 m.p.h.
F-2 Wind speed from 113 to 157 m.p.h.
F-3 Wind speed from 159 to 206 m.p.h.
F-4 Wind speed from 207 to 260 m.p.h.
F-5 Wind speed from 261 and higher

Floods
Jan. 1997 (Manteca, CA: San Joaquin River)— A levee along the San Joaquin River broke, flooding a mobile-home park Wednesday, Jan. 8. Washed out tracks prompted Amtrak to cancel passenger train service on the Coast Starlight between Oakland, CA and Eugene, OR until at least Jan. 24. California officials put flood damage so far at more then $1.6 billion.
Feb. 1997 (Illinois: Rock River)— Record-high flooding of the Rock River in northwestern Illinois prompted Gov. Jim Edgar to declare a disaster in Henry, Rock Island and Whiteside counties. About 150 residents of Hillsdale, IL scrambled to higher ground when the Rock River broke through a levee. In Erie, IL, sandbag crews worked to stem the water flowing from a breached levee. About 300 of the 500 residents evacuated since the rains began. Much of the town is under about two feet of water.
Mar. 1997 (South & Ohio River Valley)— Flooding aggravated by heavy rain Monday added to the destruction caused by powerful weekend storms that pummeled the South and Ohio River valley. The death toll reached 50 late Monday, Mar. 3. Ohio officials asked the president to declare 14 counties disaster areas. In Kentucky, 13 people have died in floods. Officials were scrambling to get bottled water to hard-hit Falmouth, Cynthiana and Paris. The water treatment plants in those areas have been devastated.
Mar. 1997 (Houston, TX)— Thunderstorms dumped up to five inches of rain across southeast Texas. The resulting flood forced the Northside General Hospital to evacuate.
April 1997 (Grand Forks, ND: Red River)— “The largest and most tragic disaster in North Dakota state history.” The Red River crested at 54 feet on April 21, 26 feet above flood stage. It has overflowed its 60-yard channel and stretched 40 miles across one of the flattest valleys on earth.
The downtown area was struck with a fire on Saturday night that destroyed 3 city blocks. Firefighters were unable to get into the area with their regular fire trucks because of the six feet of water that flooded the area. In order to gain control of the fire, federal planes, normally used to fight forest fires, dropped chemicals on the fire. On the ground, two fire department pumpers were ferried in on big-wheeled flatbed trucks and a specialized Air Force fire truck, able to operate in eight feet of water, got close enough to fight the fire from the ground.
I’m sure that by the time I write the next edition’s column, I’ll have more examples of Mother Nature’s anger - probably a spate of hurricanes. Whoever angered Mother Nature, please apologize!

Edward S. Devlin, CBCP, is an Executive Consultant with Peak Consulting.

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