Page 8 - Ef 5 News Today

So, as we go throughout the next couple days, yasmin, were going to watch how long it tracked, did it stay on the ground that long, is it an ef-4, ef-5. survey teams are going to look through everything and thats where were really going to be able to determine all the information. >> hey, i dont know if you can answer this, michelle. im sure you can, actually. but what was the kind of atmosphere to create a perfect storm like this? such devastation that we have really never seen. >> yeah. so, fr...

We havent had confirmed tornadoes or reported tornadoes since about 1:00 a.m. in the morning. most of the damage that you are seeing was done by one long track tornado. you will hear a lot of reports today. this was on the ground for over 200 miles. the thunderstorm that produced the tornado was showing the potential for producing a tornado for roughly four hours. i know about 250 miles through four states. that is almost unheard of. we dont know exactly if the tornado was on the ground, lifted ...

Ef-4 and ef-5s. 95% are ef-1s that do a little damage. this is what we call a wedge tornado or a stove pipe. its kind of hard to tell exactly, but this was an ef-4 or ef-5. its just a massive tornado that was on the ground reportedly for four hours over 250 miles. we dont know if it was continuously on the ground, maybe it lifted occasionally and dropped back down. we wont know that later today or maybe even tomorrow, but when the lightning illuminates it, its as scary as it gets. we know that t...

Compared to others that you have chased, mike? i mean, how do you compare them? >> the devastation here has been way, way greater than other storms that i have chased. i mean, putting it into -- just this tops all those storms. >> it would, huh? you know, were hearing the wind, mike. it seems like its pretty strong there. of course, nothing compared to potentially 200-mile-an-hour winds if indeed this clocks in as an ef-5, which youve said is possible. hasnt been confirmed yet. but when you were...

Hunkered down anyway and its an exponential level of alarm that if you hadnt gotten to shelter you should have been because you had minutes or seconds left. >> you talk with this thing going on for 200 miles, is that common? do you see a lot of that in your career? >> no. this will -- only 1% of tornadoes are, like, ef-4 or ef-5. typically theyre only on the ground for a little bit and this is what we call a long track tornado and it was at night. this could go down as one of the longest, strong...

Hits and can we survive it. i was saying sometimes cant survive an ef-4 or ef-5 unless you are underground in a tornado shelter. in the interior room, it may not be enough. >> viewers are familiar with hurricane scales, but tornado scales are different. tornadoes pack a lot of energy unlike hurricanes. you see the pattern of the storm moving and on the right side of the strong wall, you are okay other than flooding. tornadoes are a different situation. you know a tornado is coming by virtue of t...

How devastating it was? >> the sheer length of the storm itself but also probably being an ef-4 or ef-5 for a time in its path and this town being directly in its path. it wasnt a glancing blow, it went right through the middle. this is the candle factory back in january and february and this is what it was when this company flew over the top of it. theres very little left of anything. down here on the bottom, all the cars that were in the parking lot because they were working the double shift o...

Mind. it was a town that was wiped out from an ef-5 tornado, population was roughly a thousand people or so and the town was gone and they rebuilt it green and there are stories about that seeing these pictures from this town of mayfield, kentucky, it just makes you wonder how theyre going to rebuild and how theyre going to survive. sometimes we talk about this like mexico, florida when michael made landfall as a category 5 hurricane there and we were just saying how does this town ever rebuild?...

How much the trees were ripped apart. if theres only a foundation left. thats when we know we were dealing with an ef-5 tornado, which is the highest category. and look at the white van just sitting in the middle of that wreckage, whatever this building or structure was. you know, lynn, im just going to go out and say this is mayfield, kentucky. my guess is this was that candle factory, if theyre saying the structure collapsed and there was people in it. it was 10:00 p.m. at night. obviously we ...

I think thats a first thing were looking at. the other thing is these were nighttime tornados. even when we talk about the joplin tornados, the f-5 that hit in missouri, those occurred during the day when people were outside, able to see the storms, deal with it. at night, you cant see the storms, and as we saw, with, you know, late-night workers, people at home, these tornados were just devastating. it is a loss of life scenario. i mean, particularly when the weather service puts out a tornado ...