10 May 2006

Westminster F3

One branch of the Adame Clan had quite an eventful night. What has been preliminarily classified as a class four tornado (later revised as an upper-end F3 on the modified Fujita scale) formed just to the south and west of Westminster, Texas, last night at around 22:30. Weather service analysis reports that an initial funnel formed just east of Anna, Texas, and began heading east-northeast. It soon dissipated and was resorbed, only to return much larger and wider a few moments later, just south and west of Westminster. The twister then continued toward this rural Collin County community, before veering to the left and heading north. Preliminary power readings reveal the instability readings of this storm to have a "K"* level of 7000-7500 (average instability of North Texas tornados range from 3000 to 5000).

Elizabeth and Herman received a call from John at 21:04 indicating that he and his family had survived the storm "okay" and relatively unharmed. The storm had, however, cut across the back of their property and destroyed a portion of the equine enclosure and two of their three horses were missing. John also stated that "[their] neighbors house is... Wow!..." It would eventually be learned that the house just to their north was leveled.

A follow-up report arrrived this morning.

John, Christy and the boys sought refuge from the storm by huddling in an interior closet. Damage to the Adame domicile was minimal. There was a hole in the roof, three windows in the family truck were blown out and the horse trailer was... gone... literally. As of 06:45 this morning it had yet to located. In addition, both the van and the truck had been slightly "moved" from their previous locations by the wind. Conflicting reports indicate that the truck may have sustained the window damage as the resulkt of being overturned.

The missing horses had been accounted for by dawn. One was somewhat shell-shocked and wandering about in a neighboring pasture. The other, Coby, was found dead in a tree up to 450 meters from the enclosure. Apparently, he had been lifted by the funnel and flung over the fence into an abutting pasture. Zenah remained in the enclosure, but was as equally dazed as the other survivor.

When interviewed by the AP, Christy offered the following information:

Christy Adame, who lives a half-mile from the home where the elderly couple died, took shelter in a closet with her husband and two sons.
 
When they emerged, she found her horse barn gone, one of her horses dead in a tree and the smell of propane so strong — and the risk of an explosion so high — that officials would not let a neighbor shoot his suffering cow, which had been impaled on a two-by-four.**
 
"Now I know what an earthquake feels like," Adame said.

Though their home was completely destroyed, a neighbor managed to get himself and his entire family to safety as the tornado approached. They had originally sought refuge in the bathroom, huddled in the tub. However, the father grew increasingly concerned at the sound of the approaching cyclone and rallied his family to flee to their vehicle in an effort to escape the path of the storm. As it turns out, they were extremely fortunate in this regard, as they did manage to make a safe escape. They returned to find their home obliterated and the tub in which they had originally sought refuge relocated to a pasture over 500 meters distant.

Others were not so fortunate, however. As of 09:00 this morning, there had been three fatalities reported with at least thirteen others transported to area hospitals for treatment; half a dozen homes were completely destroyed and many others damaged to varying degree. The Collin County RACES Net was activated and radio traffic this morning indicated that it was a busy night with damage surveys ongoing, as well as search-and-rescue activity.

UPDATES:
20060510, 12:00 — revised the text after hearing from Mark that truck may have been damaged after being overturned.
 
20060510, 17:00 — more detail added after hearing a news item on KERA.
 
20060511, 20:35 — text further revised following the discovery (thanks to Sandy) that the KERA news item originated with an Associated Press story which appeared in the 11 May edition of the Daily Oklahoman.
 
20060512, 09:00 — information on the storm, proper, revised as the result of information shared by the Garland Races WX appointee during the weekly net last night.

* the "K" value of a tornado is defined as "the thundrestorm potential as a function of vertical temperature lapse rate" and represented as Joules/kilogram

** Weber, Paul J. Tornadoes Tear Through N. Texas, Killing 3. Associated Press, 2006.05.11:17:05.

 

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