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Thursday, May 6, 1999
Tornado researchers look to bolster efforts
with field research in Oklahoma
By CHRIS NEWTON
Associated Press Writer
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Amid the destroyed homes and tornado-ravaged
towns of Central Oklahoma, scientists and researchers are looking
for clues to unlock the mysteries of violent storms.
Researchers from Texas Tech hope to find the Holy Grail of
tornado research — the key to using radar to predict the
path of tornadoes.
The tornado system that tore through Oklahoma might be especially
revealing because it produced so many twisters and was tracked
for so long by radar, researchers said Wednesday.
“There are many things that are special and even historic
about this storm,” said Tech meteorologist Steve Weinbeck.
“It was exceedingly long-lived and cut an incredible path
across many areas.”
While storm chasers traditionally are interested with what
causes one storm to produce a tornado while another fizzles, “rubble
rooters” in Oklahoma are trying to find better ways to warn
people which tornadoes are going to pose a serious threat.
“We try to learn from looking at the path of the tornado,
with the goal of being able to look at a radar and know how powerful
it is and where it's going,” Weinbeck said. “Right now,
people have to rely on reports from the ground. If you could get
that from radar, you'd get more emergency personnel where it's
needed, as it's happening.”
Other Texas Tech teams are combing through the rubble to learn
which rooms in a house are most likely to survive twisters.
“Among all the devastation there is usually a safe area
in homes,” said Tech researcher Larry Tanner. “We seem
to find that many times a small interior space towards the middle
of the home can withstand incredible devastation.”
That may be because rooms in the center of the house benefit
from all of the house's structural support, Tanner said. Also,
the destroyed homes in Oklahoma seem to support the theory that
a tornado strips a house in layers, working toward the center.
The theory would explain at least some of the incredible survival
stories from Oklahoma.
In Del City, a mother and daughter dodged a flying coffee table
and dove into their bathroom, emerging an hour later to find that
while the bathroom was untouched, the rest of their home had been
blown away. Near Oklahoma City, an elderly woman hid in a closet
and later found that every other room in her one-story home had
the roof torn off and had been sucked empty.
Tanner said his scientists, who are continuing to develop an
indoor shelter construct, have heard the stories and are investigating
each one.
Ernst Kiesling, an engineer who works with Tanner and heads
the indoor shelter research, said efforts will be bolstered by
examining how some rooms survived the storms while the houses
didn't.
“We feel that if you could take the center room —
which all of our data shows may be the safest place — and
reinforce it even more and then harden it to resist flying debris,
you could have a shelter that could survive a tornado like those
Monday,” Kiesling said. “This is the kind of thing that
research can lead to.”
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Copyright ©1999,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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