Tornado Event
In Mid-March 1933, most of the Tennessee and Mississippi Valleys experienced a very warm late winter season due to a warm southerly flow coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, which bumped temperatures into the upper 70s and low 80s on March 14 while normal temperatures at that time are in the upper 40s and low 50s. Two low pressure systems were moving across the central part of the continent with one storm centered over the Great Lakes and another one over Arkansas. With the southern storm, a fast moving cold front approached from the west and produced a squall line of thunderstorms along it.
At around 6:45 PM, one thunderstorm was approaching the Nashville area and just after 7:00 PM, after sunset, a tornado touched down a few miles west of downtown Nashville, damaging the Tennessee State Capitol. Damage was more severe in the eastern sections of Nashville. A total of 1400 homes, five factories, 36 stores, 16 churches, four schools, one library and a lodge hall were damaged or destroyed by the storm in Nashville. In Lebanon, about 228 structures were damaged or destroyed while additional structures were also destroyed in Donelson. The maximum width was estimated to be around 800 yards. After tracking for about 45 miles, the storm dissipated after affecting portions of Smith County. The tornado killed 15 and injured 45. Eleven of the fatalities were in Nashville and four in Lebanon. It was estimated (by the damage) that the tornado was an F3; the Fujita Scale had not been implemented at that time. Damage was estimated at $2.2 million ($27.5 million in 1998 dollars) with little damage reported outside of Davidson County as the tornado weakened considerably before dissipating. After the storm, National Guard troops, Red Cross and Salvation Army officials and Boy Scouts quickly responded in the cleanup and recovery efforts. Due to the fast and heavy response of local police, looting and panic was minimal.
On April 16, 1998, another tornado (which started near the same point as the 1933 tornado) affected the downtown area, causing mostly F1 or F2 damage to skyscrapers and businesses, with isolated F3 damage to poorly constructed structures. One person was killed by that tornado one month after the event and damage was estimated at around $100 million in 1998 dollars.
As a result of the death in Centennial Park, the City of Nashville added a system consisting of 72 ATI tornado sirens in 2002 to alert residents that were outdoors at the time about incoming severe weather.
Read more about this topic: March 1933 Nashville Tornado Outbreak
Famous quotes containing the words tornado and/or event:
“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)
“The Republican convention, an event with the intellectual content of a Guns’n’Roses lyric attended by every ofay insurance broker in America who owns a pair of white shoes.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)