[Coldrsx]

Tornado survivors mark 20 years
Disaster killed 27 people on Edmonton's outskirts
Jim Farrell, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 6:38 am

EDMONTON - Few people who were in the Edmonton area when a tornado devastated the city's eastern outskirts, killing 27 people, will ever again take a hot and humid summer day for granted.

"Every day I think about it," says Thomas Taylor, a retired Leduc pharmacist. "It's become a passion for me. On summer days I'm always out looking for the next one."

July 31, 1987, was one of those hot summer days. A strong southeast wind was the only thing cooling Taylor's sweat-soaked shirt as he looked up to see a line of unusually shaped clouds drifting overhead.
Thomas Taylor stands on his Leduc property 20 years after the July 31, 1987, tornado outside Edmonton, which he was the first to report.View Larger Image View Larger Image
Thomas Taylor stands on his Leduc property 20 years after the July 31, 1987, tornado outside Edmonton, which he was the first to report.
Chris Schwarz, the Journal
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As the leading edge of a massive black cloud passed, large raindrops pelted down. Within minutes they were replaced by pounding rain mixed with hail, so Taylor ducked inside his acreage home. Lightning cleaved the air and the wind rose. Taylor looked out a second-storey window to see a huge dark cloud shrouding the Leduc area. Below the main cloud hung a smaller black cloud shaped like a malevolent wasp's nest.

It was a funnel cloud -- precursor to a tornado. The funnel briefly touched the ground, an act that officially made it a tornado, but it vanished within seconds.

That confirmed Taylor's hunch that major tornadoes don't happen in Alberta but he called Environment Canada's weather office anyway. It was 2:55 p.m.

"I officially became the first person to report the Edmonton tornado because I had the fastest dialling finger," Taylor says.

As Taylor snapped photos, new funnel clouds formed, touched down and united into a single, massive funnel cloud. Lightning shot out of the base of the twister. Chunks of debris were sucked up the funnel as it grew in size and ground its way north at 45 kilometres per hour.

As the funnel knifed into Mill Woods, one young boy saw cows pulled into the air from a nearby field. Light poles flew like matchsticks, so Aly Virani, his aunt and uncle fled to the basement, seconds before the wall blew off the back of their house. This was 25 minutes after Taylor called the weather office.

The tornado churned its way north, through Mill Woods, Strathcona County's industrial area and through the Strathcona Science Park. Circular winds reached 417 km/h and the tornado toppled buildings and hurled semi-trailers and storage tanks through the air.

Thirteen people died. It was now 3:40 p.m.

The tornado weakened slightly as it passed through Clareview, damaging 463 homes, but no one died because people had taken shelter in their homes.

Then the tornado reached Evergreen Mobile Home Park. It was now 3:55 p.m. Fourteen residents of the park were literally flailed to death before the tornado moved on to a farmer's field and petered out.

It was 4:05 p.m. Since Taylor first reported that a funnel cloud had touched the ground, 70 minutes had passed.

jfarrell@thejournal.canwest.com


© The Edmonton Journal 2007

[Coldrsx]

A twister's long shadow
THE EDMONTON TORNADO: On July 31, 1987, a black monster of a storm clawed its way through the city's eastern outskirts, killing 27 people and converting generations of Albertans into wary cloud watchers

Jim Farrell
The Edmonton Journal

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Tornado survivor Marin Wilson stands in the memorial garden at Evergreen Mobile Home Park where 27 trees were planted in memory of the people killed by the tornado in 1987.
CREDIT: Chris Schwarz, the Journal
Tornado survivor Marin Wilson stands in the memorial garden at Evergreen Mobile Home Park where 27 trees were planted in memory of the people killed by the tornado in 1987.

EDMONTON - In her mind, Marin Wilson kept fleeing tornadoes for almost two decades after the 1987 storm.

Wilson was one of 1,700 residents of Evergreen Mobile Home Park in Edmonton's northeastern corner. Fourteen people received fatal injuries in the 10 minutes it took the funnel cloud to plow through the park.

Wilson (then named Athanasopoulos) had watched as the monster storm approached, not grasping the grave threat it posed.

"We were watching these clouds going round and round, then the roof blew off a house down the street and I started to laugh, thinking, 'Boy, is he going to be mad when he comes home,' " she said in a 1997 interview.

Finally realizing the danger, she ducked outside, picking up her children's toys and carrying them to a back shed. As she closed the shed, the wind peeled off its roof and sent it skittering across the ground.

Wilson fought to get back inside her mobile home, where she gathered up her four children. As she backed out of an addition to her home with her two-year-old son, Joseph, in her arms, the addition collapsed. An airborne mobile home had landed on top of it.

With her own home now bouncing up and down like popcorn, Wilson and her children rushed to a master bedroom, where they took refuge under a doorway, hoping it would protect them from falling debris.

"I was praying to God that if some of us die, we all die," Wilson said. "Please God, don't leave one of my babies to wake up in this mess and find his mother and brothers dead."

Within 10 minutes the storm passed, leaving 126 demolished homes, a sea of debris, ruptured gas and water lines -- and 14 dead.

Wilson and her children lived but her sense of security died.

"Whenever I would see a certain type of cloud of a certain colour, I would be back in 1987," she said recently.

"Once again, I had four small children and I had to save them. One time I raced back from work and told my children, 'Get in the car -- now!'

"My son, who was a teenager by then, told his friends, 'There is no reasoning with her, so get in the car with us and she will buy us dinner. If you don't want to come, I will see you later.' "

Four or five years ago, Wilson was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and began treatment.

Like many front-line soldiers, she had to get rid of a lot of emotional baggage.

Twenty years ago, she had counted her children as they dug themselves out of the remains of their trailer. The magic number was four and four it was. All around them people were crawling out of the rubble.

To keep her children safe, Wilson put them into one of the few intact rooms of her home and shoved a bed and crib against the door to keep them inside.

Then she went to look for neighbours. Many were covered with blood. Some were in hysterics. Wilson choked down her own panic, returned to her home, got her children and began walking toward the trailer park entrance.

Water in places was up to their knees. It was filled with photos, paper money, garbage, sewage, furniture and shredded clothing. Wilson prayed she wouldn't step on a submerged body.

On the way to the park entrance she stopped at a pile of rubble, the remains of a friend's home. With a baby in her arms, she began to dig. Someone told her to take care of her own children. She resumed her walk.

An ETS bus pulled up to the park entrance and someone told Wilson to get inside with her children. They were going to be evacuated to Alberta Hospital.

Wilson went into survival mode. She told her children to sit near the back of the bus, over the rear wheels. If another tornado blew in, they were to climb under the seats where they would be protected by the axle of the bus.

Wilson continued to protect her children from that tornado for most of the next 20 years. Today, she's coping better.

jfarrell@thejournal.canwest.com

SEE MORE

For Global footage of the 1987 tornado, go to Journal Videos at www.edmontonjournal.com.

Watch Global News Edmonton on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. for a half-hour special, "Black Friday: 20 Years Later," for a look at the storm through the eyes of people who lived through it. The special will be replayed Aug. 6 at 5 p.m.
© The Edmonton Journal 2007

[Coldrsx]

Public warning system a legacy of tragedy

Jim Farrell
The Edmonton Journal

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Dan Kulak: "We ask questions."
CREDIT: Bruce Edwards, the Journal, File
Dan Kulak: "We ask questions."

EDMONTON - Weather forecasters use all manner of technological gimmicks so they can tell the public when a tornado is heading our way. But the best device is still a human eyeball connected to an objective brain.

"We usually require a reliable report of a tornado on the ground and even then we won't take someone's word," says Dan Kulak, extreme weather specialist with Environment Canada's Edmonton office. "We ask questions."

Last year, Environment Canada enlisted the help of amateur radio operators around the province to keep an eye on the sky. Fifty ham radio operators from the Edmonton area took a five-hour course on the basics of meteorology and what to look for in cloud formations.

Another 50 from central and southern Alberta took the same training, all of it intended to avoid false reporting of would-be major storms.

Now, whenever Environment Canada issues a severe weather watch, it alerts the network of amateur radio volunteers, usually through a text message or phone call to a co-ordinator. Volunteers then contact other members of the ham radio network, asking them to report signs of approaching severe weather, including lightning, hail, cumulonimbus or funnel clouds.

That eyeball-to-radio system represents a final stage of Alberta's tornado-warning system. Weather analysis done the day before possible storm conditions is the first stage.

"Our numerical weather models will flag the forecast for the next day as having the potential for severe weather," says Steve Ricketts, acting regional director for Environment Canada's meteorological service. "A forecaster will issue a severe thunderstorm watch and can narrow it down to two or three or maybe five counties."

In the morning, Environment Canada will issue the severe thunderstorm watch and warn people in the forecast area to stay tuned to their radios or TVs throughout the day.

If the clouds begin to brew up, Environment Canada will issue a severe thunderstorm warning. If the agency's Doppler radar installations detect circular motion within a towering storm cloud, it will raise the thunderstorm warning to a tornado warning.

The circular motion of water droplets, or even clouds of dust or other particles within a storm cloud, indicates that cloud may be spawning a tornado or may have already given birth to one. At that point local radio and TV stations will interrupt their broadcasts with a single, high-pitched tone to get people's attention. A recorded message with a tornado warning will come on the air.

Alberta is the only province with this type of alert system. It was created by the Alberta government shortly after the Edmonton tornado. It can stand some improvement, however, since it only uses local TV and radio. If people are tuned into satellite television or an American cable station, for example, they will miss the warning.

"We are working with Public Safety Canada and the CRTC to issue the message at the cablehead, through all the cable TV channels," Ricketts says. "That project has been in the works for a couple of years through Public Service Canada. I don't know why it hasn't happened yet."

Doppler radar was first used to analyze the inner workings of a tornado when a twister swept through Union City, Okla., on May 24, 1973. That discovery led to dramatic improvements in accuracy and lead time in forecasting severe storms in the United States and a resulting ability to save lives and prevent serious storm-related injuries.

Between 1990 and 1997, the U.S. government acquired and installed a network of 158 Doppler radars, most of them operated by the U.S. National Weather Service.

Alberta got its first Environment Canada Doppler radar installation shortly after the 1987 tornado. Five units now cover the province.

In the U.S., Doppler radar increased the lead time of tornado warnings from five minutes to 13 minutes -- just long enough for most people to take cover if they've heard the alert on radio or television.

Those eight extra minutes can save hundreds of lives. That's especially true in the heart of the United States' tornado alley, where residents know enough to take cover. In 1999 an F5 tornado with winds of 418 to 509 km/h (the highest magnitude possible) slammed into Oklahoma City. Despite that city's high population density, only 12 people died.

In Canada, the chances of dying in a tornado are likewise small. There have been the occasional large clusters of fatalities -- 27 in Edmonton in 1987, 13 in the 2000 Pine Lake tornado, 12 in Barrie, Ont., in 1965 and 28 in Regina in 1912 -- but most fatalities come in ones and twos.

Overall, Canadians stand a one-in-12-million chance of dying in a tornado. Every year as many as 150 of Canada's 33 million people are injured by lightning strikes. Eight to 12 are killed.
© The Edmonton Journal 2007

[Xelebes]

And as we speak, a storm approaches Edmonton right now approaching Drayton Valley and another system an hour or two behind, a few km north. Looks like there are a few spots of 300 mm/hr precipitation in that couple of systems.

[98fb]

unreal

[Calgarian]

I wonder how long it will be before Calgary gets hit by a tornado, we have had a couple close by already this year.

[CanadianCentaur]

And as we speak, a storm approaches Edmonton right now approaching Drayton Valley and another system an hour or two behind, a few km north. Looks like there are a few spots of 300 mm/hr precipitation in that couple of systems.

That one by Drayton Valley was a supercell, which is a thunderstorm with a rotating updraft often called the mesocyclone and can be capable of producing tornadoes and large hail. I knew it from looking at the radar - it had a hook-shaped echo, which is a strong indication that it is rotating and a large inflow notch on the north side of it. I also saw that storm approach and pass just to the south of where I was. That thing had a large bell-shaped mesocyclone with cloud striaitions and an inflow band to the right. Though it wasn't as electric as last night's storm, it was still putting out large cloud-to-ground lightning bolts immediately to the right of the meso every several minutes.

[Waterlooson]

My home at the time (on 20th st. which is the eastern end of 137 ave.) was damaged in the 1987 Edmonton tornado. Some of my neighbours' homes where totally destroyed.

[feepa]

I wonder how long it will be before Calgary gets hit by a tornado, we have had a couple close by already this year.

I'm sure this made the papers? Is there a link to these near misses...? I know there was a tornado that was reported near Stony Plain, which later turned out to be just high wind

[mersar]

I'm sure this made the papers? Is there a link to these near misses...? I know there was a tornado that was reported near Stony Plain, which later turned out to be just high wind

Closest one to Calgary that I recall was one that just about came down (there was a visible funnel and it got pretty close to the ground) on the NW edge of Cochrane in the early 90's. If it had touched down it would have been a mess, since it would have came down pretty much on top of the gas extraction plant.

Other then that there've been some down south of High River, but not anything closer to my recollection.

[Xelebes]

That one by Drayton Valley was a supercell, which is a thunderstorm with a rotating updraft often called the mesocyclone and can be capable of producing tornadoes and large hail. I knew it from looking at the radar - it had a hook-shaped echo, which is a strong indication that it is rotating and a large inflow notch on the north side of it. I also saw that storm approach and pass just to the south of where I was. That thing had a large bell-shaped mesocyclone with cloud striaitions and an inflow band to the right. Though it wasn't as electric as last night's storm, it was still putting out large cloud-to-ground lightning bolts immediately to the right of the meso every several minutes.

Yeah, I saw it on the radar too. However, we went north to St. Albert for dinner and saw some spectacular but innocent clouds there. Spectacular as in the cloud looked like a wall of balloons.

[CanadianCentaur]

Yeah, I saw it on the radar too. However, we went north to St. Albert for dinner and saw some spectacular but innocent clouds there. Spectacular as in the cloud looked like a wall of balloons.

Those balloon-shaped clouds you saw were mammatus clouds, and yes, they were spectacular. The word "mammatus" means "breast" in Latin - and it's not very hard to see why. :naughty:

[Calgarian]

I'm sure this made the papers? Is there a link to these near misses...? I know there was a tornado that was reported near Stony Plain, which later turned out to be just high wind

There was one that touched down briefly just outside Strathmore that leveled a barn, that was all over the news. I don't care to find a link, but if you look hard enough, you will probably find one. The rest were funnel clouds around the Cochrane and Carstairs (I think) areas.

[feepa]

There was one that touched down briefly just outside Strathmore that leveled a barn, that was all over the news. I don't care to find a link, but if you look hard enough, you will probably find one. The rest were funnel clouds around the Cochrane and Carstairs (I think) areas.
I seem to remember the Strathmore one in the news now - just didn't trigger before... Thanks..

funnel clouds are fairly common, but tornadoes average about 20-30 a year in Alberta... most only last 5 minutes.

[Coldrsx]

Those balloon-shaped clouds you saw were mammatus clouds, and yes, they were spectacular. The word "mammatus" means "breast" in Latin - and it's not very hard to see why. :naughty:

taken last night...

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x164/coldrsx/DSC01364.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x164/coldrsx/DSC01365.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x164/coldrsx/DSC01366.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x164/coldrsx/DSC01374.jpg

[Calgarian]

I seem to remember the Strathmore one in the news now - just didn't trigger before... Thanks..

funnel clouds are fairly common, but tornadoes average about 20-30 a year in Alberta... most only last 5 minutes.

Yeah, I don't know if it was actually a tornado, but it still leveled a barn so...

Funnel clouds may be a lot more common than tornadoes, but it is still un nerving to know that there is a potential tornado a short distance from your city. If it happened in Edmonton, it is very likely that we will have a tornado in Calgary, it's just a matter of when.

[feepa]

Yeah, I don't know if it was actually a tornado, but it still leveled a barn so...

Funnel clouds may be a lot more common than tornadoes, but it is still un nerving to know that there is a potential tornado a short distance from your city. If it happened in Edmonton, it is very likely that we will have a tornado in Calgary, it's just a matter of when.

I am a severe weather fan myself, though I wish no harm on anyone or anything, I just think its very awe inspiring

[sdimedru]

I am a severe weather fan myself, though I wish no harm on anyone or anything, I just think its very awe inspiring

ditto here, cool shots cold

[Calgarian]

I am a severe weather fan myself, though I wish no harm on anyone or anything, I just think its very awe inspiring

Oh absolutely!!