W5 Assignment "Tornado Alley"

On May 4, 2007, severe thunderstorms formed across the Midwest, resulting in the formation of 12 “supercells” that developed into devastating tornado activity throughout several states.

•At 9:25 p.m., the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Kiowa County, Kansas.

•At approximately 9:45 p.m. an EF 5 tornado struck the rural farming community of Greensburg, located in Kiowa County. The tornado cut a path through the town that was estimated at 1.7 miles across, killing 10 of the town’s residents. Greensburg is located in what U.S. weather forecasters refer to as “tornado alley”. Despite this, the town had few areas of refuge for tornado emergencies other than the basements of private homes.

The 2011 Joplin tornado was a catastrophic EF5 multiple-vortex tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, late in the afternoon of Sunday, May 22, 2011. It reached a maximum width of nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) during its path through the southern part of the city.  The tornado killed 158 people, injured some 1,150 others, and caused damages amounting to a total of $2.8 billion. It was the deadliest U.S. tornado since 1947 and the seventh-deadliest overall. It also ranks as the costliest single tornado in U.S. history.

During the afternoon of May 20, 2013, an EF5 tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, killing 24 people and injuring another 240.   The aftermath would reveal that this tornado cut a 17 mile path across a highly populated area which had few storm shelters in the residential and business areas and none in either of the schools that were severely damaged.

In a two page paper, respond to the following questions:

1.How does time of day and day of the week potentially affect the response to a disaster?

2.What kinds of emergency services are needed during and after a disaster such as those described above?