Hautmont Tornado
The 2008 Hautmont, France tornado was a powerful tornado which touched down near the town of Hautmont, France late on August 3, 2008. The tornado left a path of destruction about 19 kilometres (12 mi) long through several small towns. Météo-France, the French national weather service, classified it as an F3 (maybe reaching an F4) while an serious amateur site gave it an F4 rating. The hardest hit town was Hautmont, where three people were killed and another nine were injured by the tornado. Another man committed suicide after the tornado had destroyed his home. Among the four who died were the Deputy Mayor of Hautmont and his wife, who were found underneath the rubble of their home the day after the tornado struck.
The three other towns affected by the tornado were Maubeuge, Neuf-Mesnil and Boussieres-sur-Sambre. In total, about 1000 homes were damaged, with 250 rendered uninhabitable.
Read more about this topic: August 2008 European Tornado Outbreak
Famous quotes containing the word tornado:
“The sumptuous age of stars and images is reduced to a few artificial tornado effects, pathetic fake buildings, and childish tricks which the crowd pretends to be taken in by to avoid feeling too disappointed. Ghost towns, ghost people. The whole place has the same air of obsolescence about it as Sunset or Hollywood Boulevard.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)