The large storm system will intensify further on into the weekend. On Saturday, over an area stretching from northern Texas to southern Wisconsin, heavy rains, damaging hail and high winds will prevail. There also is a very real possibility that tornadoes will develop. Meteorologists are warning that some of these tornadoes could be quite “significant” and long-lived. Saturday is looking to be a very serious weather day in many states located in the center of the United States.

wichita has highest risk of tornado this weekend via weather.com

On Saturday, a massive, upper-air cold front will move out of the western portion of the country and meet up with humid, dry air that is over the Plains and portions of the Mississippi Valley. This, along with a powerful jet stream and winds which will be shifting direction often lead to a very real threat of tornadoes developing.

There will still be strong, severe storms in the nation on Sunday as well. The thunderstorm activity will stretch from the Dallas area up through southeastern Iowa. This is definitely a weekend to keep an eye on the weather as severe weather is going to occur. It is possible that the worst weather will occur after sunset and continue into the nighttime hours as often is the case with tornadic thunderstorm weather. The National Weather Service is warning that some of these storms can produce F2 or greater tornadoes.

There may be even more strong storms on Monday as the turbulent weather moves across the country. The Storm Prediction Center is forecasting severe weather for the Ohio Valley region and further east for the start of the new work week. This upcoming bad weather is a good time to remind families to have emergency plans in place. Everyone should know where to go if a tornado warning has been issued. An emergency kit should be put together which includes flashlights, batteries, prescription medications, bottled water, first-aid materials and a working cell phone. It is also time to secure large objects on properties such as water tanks and to see to it that eavestroughs and downspouts are cleared.

photo of flying semi trailer from texas tornado 4-3

Several twisters ripped through the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas Tuesday, causing significant damage and several reported injuries. At least two of the tornadoes were large and especially destructive, tearing roofs off homes and businesses, downing trees and power poles and tossing semi tractor trailers in the sky.

The violent thunderstorms and tornadoes which raked through the Dallas area Tuesday, knocked down a wing of a nursing home, tore roofs from many homes and left cars overturned on surface streets and local highways. The shoulders of many roadways were littered with smashed vehicles Tuesday as the estimated six to twelve tornadoes touched down in northern Texas.

In suburban Dallas, Lancaster police say that ten people sustained injuries as a result of the twister activity with two of the victims being seriously hurt. The nursing home which was hit hard was in Lancaster. Workers there told of the sheer terror they felt as they scrambled to move patients away from windows which were shattering.

Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport was forced to cancel hundreds of flights Tuesday afternoon due to the bad weather. Over 100 airplanes there were damaged by large hail. Tornado season in the region runs from April through June. The National Weather Service says that Tuesday’s storms suggest that the area is “on pace” to be above normal.

Considering that the Dallas-Fort Worth area is densely populated, it is a wonder that more people were not injured. Residents were told that there was a possibility for bad weather Tuesday, but most were caught completely off-guard. The weather became violent so fast and triggered the tornadoes with such ferocity that most people were surprised by just how quickly the weather became severe.

The tornadoes struck Texas just as “unsurvivable” new graphic tornado warnings were being tested by the National Weather Service in several states located in “Tornado Alley”. The new warnings are designed to grab people’s attention, telling them how severe the weather could be. We do not normally hear the words “mass devastation”, “catastrophic” or even worse, “unsurvivable” but those are among the new lingo being tried out.

The National Weather Service is forecasting severe storms throughout the Midwest again early Friday which will linger throughout the day. Then, yet another storm system is expected to arrive by Friday afternoon. The agency is sending a severe weather expert to the regional command center to provide on-going information before and during the severe weather. The tornado that hit Harrisburg arrived when people were sleeping. Tornado warning sirens did sound in the town which undoubtedly did save lives, but not everyone heard them. In addition to six people being killed in Harrisburg, another 100 or so were injured. The tornado was on the ground for several miles.

The latest tornado outbreak affected Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee and Kentucky. The National Guard stepped in to help police patrol streets and direct traffic in storm ravaged portions of Kentucky and Missouri. Three people in Missouri were killed in three separate towns and three people died in two central Tennessee counties. In Branson, Missouri, twisters damaged six of the city’s fifty theaters and fifteen of it’s two hundred hotels. The F2 tornado ripped through several miles of the city’s commercial strip, leaving dozens hurt.

Peak tornado activity in the US occurs from March through June. Although no state is immune from tornadoes, most tornado activity occurs in what is referred to as Tornado Alley. This area stretches from northwestern Texas across Oklahoma and Kansas. If a storm or tornado warning is issued for your area, it is very important to heed warning so that there will be no needless injuries or deaths. It is important to stay vigilant, even though you may lose some sleep doing so but it’s far better to lose a few hours sleep then your life or the lives of loved ones.

Early Saturday morning several semi trucks left Harrison Township, Michigan filled with water damage cleanup and hurricane repair supplies. Jarvis Property Restoration, a leading national disaster recovery company, headquartered in Harrison Township, has committed resources from several company locations, including Illinois and Florida, to assist property owners in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and New York from destruction caused by Hurricane Irene. The semi trucks will help supply dozens of team members already en route with roof tarps, water damage drying equipment, board up materials and non perishable food items. Jarvis expects to have upwards of fifty team members on the ground by Monday, and has committed all of its resources to helping property owners recover from this weekend’s historical storm.

Jarvis has a strong track record of being one of the first companies on scene following catastrophic storm disasters. The company spent several months in Minot, North Dakota this year, helping rebuild the local community from historical river flooding. The potential for significant flooding and storm damage from Hurricane Irene, will likely place services for water damage cleanup companies in high demand over the next few weeks, and Jarvis responded to the call for additional help to these areas.

Jarvis will focus repair and recovery efforts for commercial and industrial properties. The company’s large fleet of power generators and desiccant dehumidifiers will enable it to tackle projects in excess of one million square feet. Jarvis has tremendous experience with repairing hospitals, retail stores and high rise buildings following flooding disasters and hurricanes. The water damage restoration team is filled with dozens of members certified by the IICRC, the industries highest standard in restoration training. Jarvis’s water damage restoration team is involved with all phases of repair, from water extraction, thru drying and on to reconstruction.

Jarvis Property Restoration in a privately held company founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1979 by Sheryl and Bill Jarvis. Jarvis presently has offices in the States of Illinois, Iowa, Florida and Michigan. Jarvis has worked extensively in FEMA declared emergency zones including New Orleans, following Hurricane Katrina and is registered through FEMA as a first responder. In the summer of 2008, Jarvis spent over six months in the City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa leading a team of 1600 workers to cleanup flood damaged government buildings after the Cedar River flooded the entire city and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

If you own or manage a commercial property that has been damaged by Hurricane Irene, you can reach a member of Jarvis’s first responders by calling 1-866-452-7847 or visiting Jarvis Property Restoration online.

Contact Information

Don Marks
1-866-452-7847
dmarks@jarvisconstruction.com

http://www.jarvisconstruction.com

As of Wednesday morning Irene was pounding her way across the Caribbean as a category 3 storm. According to experts, the low and flat geography of the Caribbean islands provides the optimal conditions for hurricanes to strengthen as they move through the region. All signs currently point to Irene becoming a category 4 storm by the time it reaches the eastern coast of the United States. However, whether it actually makes landfall is still unknown. Some experts believe it will remain out over the ocean and simply brush the coast with some heavy rains and winds.

If the storm continues its current path and projections, it could potentially gain even more strength when it reaches the Chesapeake Bay. This could mean significant damage from the winds, flooding, and storm surge in Virginia, putting cities like Hampton, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach at risk for serious problems. Residents are being urged to board up their windows, stockpile necessary supplies, and fill their gas tanks just in case evacuation orders are issued.

The U.S. has not seen a hurricane of this magnitude since Ike made landfall in 2005. Fortunately, most of the states on the east coast are well-versed in hurricane preparedness and know just what to do to ensure the safety of residents. Yet even if Irene does make landfall in the Carolinas or Virginia over the weekend, she’s not expected to be as strong as Hugo, one of the most powerful hurricanes that hit the U.S. coast. When Hugo came rolling through in 1989 he caused more than $7 billion in damage and killed nearly 30 people.

In addition to the usual precautions Virginia residents are also being urged to document their personal possessions by either writing a list or taking pictures and videos. Being able to document one’s possessions makes it much easier to complete an insurance claim should it be necessary. They are also being urged to come up with a family plan which includes both evacuation procedures and proposals for riding out the storm. According to officials, with four days to prepare there’s no reason for Virginia residents to be caught off guard.

If evacuation orders are issued officials expect residents to obey them if at all possible. They remind residents that evacuation orders are not issued without a great deal of forethought. Therefore, when they do come it is because weather experts and emergency preparedness officials believe there is a significant threat to public safety.

If you live in a hurricane-prone area, now is the time to prepare your home and family. You should have storm shutters on your house and be ready to take outdoor items inside. It is also advisable to keep a hurricane preparedness kit packed which includes batteries, flashlights, radio, blankets, medications, non-perishable food items, can opener and fresh water. You also should make a “take-along box” that has everything you need to put your life back together in the tragic event that you lose everything. Your passports, birth certificates, insurance policies and other such documents should be included. If you do not wish to take the original copies with you, make copies and store the originals someplace out of range of the hurricane such as in a safety deposit box at your bank.

Sitting down with your family now to discuss a disaster plan is a very good idea. We learned many hard lessons from Hurricane Katrina so be sure that you designate an out-of-town contact person everyone can call in the case that you are not together at the time a storm strikes. Show everyone in the family whom is over the age of 12 how to turn off your home’s utilities. If you do not know how to do this, call the gas or electric company and ask as you do not want to waste any precious time when a storm is approaching.

It is essential to know your city’s evacuation routes. Be sure to stay abreast of the news when you know a storm is approaching. It is always best to be safe than sorry so leave your home before you are told to evacuate as you will avoid traffic snarl-ups. If you wait until the last possible moment, you could end up sitting at the end of your street waiting to get on the main roads out of town.

A plan is underway to direct some of the water into the Morganza Spillway which will flood farmland in many areas. Up to 25,000 people may have to leave their homes when the spillway is opened and Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is urging residents to be prepared to flee.

The Morganza Spillway is located about 47 miles upriver from the state capital of Baton Rouge. It is a long channel that can divert water from the Mississippi into another river system. The spillway has only be used once, back during the flooding that occurred in 1973. Last week the US Army Corps of Engineers basted a 2-mile wide hole in an earthen levee in Missouri in order to keep cities and towns in Kentucky and Illinois free from flood waters.

According to the insurance industry in the US, natural disasters have caused over $5 billion worth of damage already this year. The mighty Mississippi has been setting records in cites such as Vicksburg, Mississippi. However, experts report that things would be far worse if it were not for the many levees and spillways in place along the swollen river. These were put into place after the devastating and deadly flood of 1927 that killed over 1,000 people.

The flooding of the Mississippi River is set to go down in history for its calamitous, multi-billion dollar impact on the economy in the Midwest, so says the president of the Insurance Information Institute, Mr. Robert Hartwig. In addition to the many homes and farms being flooded, commerce along the river’s banks will take a direct hit as well which is just as disastrous. Barges will not be able to transport raw goods down the river, which will impact farmers who cannot ship their grain downriver, risking the chance of spoilage.

When the Morganza Spillway is opened, water will inundate thousands of homes and farms in Cajun country. Up to 25 feet of water may overtake some communities but it will help to protect Baton Rouge and New Orleans as well as numerous oil refineries and chemical plants along the lower reaches of the Mississippi.

One of the two most severe tornado rocked Tuscaloosa just after five o’clock in the evening. The other worst tornado hit Birmingham right before six o’clock. As a result of the incredibly harsh conditions that came down on Alabama, at least 249 residents of the state were killed.

The tornadoes damaged six Alabama libraries. Three of these libraries endured so much tornado and water damage that officials believe they are beyond repair. There may be up to twelve more libraries that are seriously damaged. Information about these libraries is currently unavailable as a result of communication lines being down.

The town of Phil Campbell endured significant damage. Officials currently estimate that 40% of the town’s houses were completely destroyed. In Mario County, the storm damage stretches for more than twenty-five miles.

Hackleburg is another town that was ravaged by tornado damage. The storm completely ruined the town’s high school. Reports have surfaced that entire subdivisions in this town were destroyed. Additionally, over one hundred different buildings were leveled all the way to the ground.

Alabama’s poultry industry was significantly harmed by this storm. This industry has an annual impact of $8.5 billion. This accounts for a full 10% of the state’s entire economy. Unfortunately, over two hundred poultry houses were damaged during the tornadoes. This amounts to 25% of Alabama’s poultry industry.

Six state parks in Alabama were closed as a result of storm damage. Although the power company is working hard to restore homes with power, at one point approximately 400,000 homes were without it.

Because of the incredible scale of damage caused during these tornadoes, it’s believed that the total cost for insurers will be over one billion dollars. This includes over 5,000 homes throughout the state that were severely damaged.

Because of the severe damage throughout Alabama, there are currently twenty-eight counties that have been approved for federal disaster relief. The counties are Washington, Walker, Tuscaloosa, Tallapoosa, St. Clair, Sumter, Marshall, Marengo, Madison, Limestone, Jefferson, Jackson, Hale, Green, Franklin, Fayette, Etowah, Elmore, DeKalb, Cullman, Choctaw, Cherokee, Calhoun, Blount, Bibb and Autauga.

So far, the death toll stands at 45 across six states as tornadoes ripped up trees, downed power lines and damaged homes and businesses. Over 20 of those killed were in North Carolina. The governor of that state has declared a state of emergency. Despite damaged and destroyed homes, many residents of the state are happy to have survived. Preliminary disaster assessments show that nearly 500 homes were destroyed and more than 1,000 were damaged in North Carolina. Some of the hardest hit areas are still inaccessible and officials say that over 1,000 families in the state are now homeless.

Red Cross workers sheltered hundreds of people over the weekend. Mental health workers are available to help people cope with the aftermath of the storm. People in North Carolina are not used to tornadoes, let alone 60 of them. When the deadly storm system which had already released tornadoes across the South was approaching the state, residents were outside in their yards gazing at the darkened skies. Within four hours they quickly learned that hurricanes are not the only major threat that can hit their state.

This past weekend’s tornado activity will go down in history in North Carolina. And, considering that over 200 tornadoes spun out from the massive storm system, it will also be one for the history books in other affected states. The widespread devastation across the southern portion of the US is stunning. Homes and lives have been shattered as the deadliest swarm of tornadoes in three years battered fifteen states.

The weather conditions that created the severe weather systems usually appear a couple of times a year in the Great Plains but rarely in North Carolina. The first twister to hit the state demolished the Lowe’s store in Sanford and then cut a path through heavily populated neighborhoods in the city of 25,000 which is 40 miles southwest of Raleigh. Within a few minutes tornadoes were slamming Raleigh where a twister hit a trailer park five miles from downtown, killing three family members. As that tornado was doing its damage, another smashed into another trailer park two hours to the south. Emergency workers are still sifting through debris, assessing the damage and searching for survivors, many of whom are still unaccounted for.

The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for Chicago as this dangerous storm that’s swooping in from the South could dump up to 20 inches of snow on the area and pack 40 mile per hour winds. The warning is in effect from mid-day Tuesday through Wednesday afternoon. The snowfall rate of two to three inches per hour is possible. Other cities directly in the path of this monster storm are Wichita, Kansas City and Detroit.

As a homeowner, you should be aware of the fact that this type of storm can do some damage to your property. The most obvious potential damage is having a large amount of snow on your roof which puts an enormous amount of strain on the structure of your home. If the snow turns to rain, the load is made much heavier which could result in a partial roof collapse often brought on by the building of an ice dam in your home gutter system. It is therefore a very good idea to buy a roof rake and remove the snow so that it cannot cause harm to your roof. These rakes can be purchased at most large hardware and home improvement stores. They are lightweight, easy to handle and feature extendable pole handles. Roof rakes do a great job of pulling large sections of snow down and off roofs, eliminating the danger heavy snow brings.

It is also advisable to keep snow out of your basement window wells. If time allows, buy window well covers. You can also pack snow around the tops of the window well openings so that a barrier is made, which will help keep melting snow from entering your home. Be sure to also keep snow away from outside basement doors so as to avoid any possible melting which could cause water to seep indoors.

If you happen to have a home heating oil tank on your property, be sure that the tank and connections are kept clear of snow and ice. Heavy snow and ice can damage tanks and falling ice from nearby rooftops is a real concern. It is therefore advisable to remove icicles that are forming near tanks and to periodically remove heavy snow from the top of your fuel tank. The last thing you want during a snowstorm is an oil leak so consider having your tank covered in the spring to avoid worries next winter.