Publication of an Associated Press article about the Tornado Debris Project prompted the following letter dated October 24, 1995:
I just finished reading an article in the Norfolk Daily News entitled "Tornadoes, debris topics of study." I noticed that the record trip for a canceled check was 210 miles. In the spring of 1991 while fixing fence I found a cancelled check [from Stockton, Kansas] in the shelterbelt just north of the house. ... I returned the cancelled check to the bank [in Stockton. They] sent me a letter stating that they had received the canceled check and that [the person to whom the check belonged] lived 3 miles west of Stockton and that her home had been destroyed by a tornado. They stated that the tornado left one vehicle in her basement and another a half mile from her house. According to the person from the bank who wrote me the letter, the canceled check traveled about 230 miles. According to your article this would be a record.The check was found in Winnetoon, NE, about 60 miles north and west of Norfolk, NE, approximately 20 miles south of Niobrara, NE. The tornado occurred on April 11, 1991, and was rated F3 on the Fujita Intensity Scale.About 3 weeks after I received the letter from the ... bank I received a letter from [the check owner] thanking me for returning her canceled check.
I found the article by John T. Snow, Amy Lee Wyatt, Ann K. McCarthy and Eric K. Bishop on "Fallout of Debris from Tornados" extremely interesting in particular the great Worcester tornado of June 9 1953 that killed 90 people and did many hundreds of millions of dollers [sic] of damage.The Worcester tornado was rated F4 on the Fujita Intensity Scale.I have a friend who, like me, is an amateur meteorologist who saw the deadly cumulus mammatus cloud pattern and then saw up in the sky a complete mattress. He kept looking and it came down in his yard in Brookline, a distance of approximately 41 miles from the Worcester tornado. A college, Assumption by name, was almost wiped out and the guess is the mattress came from there.
In the greater Kansas City area there were numerous reports of small debris falling out over the city at a distance of 10 or more miles north of the tornado's path. Much of the debris consisted of small pieces of wood, corn husks, wheat straws, and occasional articles of clothing. This occurrence immediately suggested to the public that a second tornado had passed aloft over the main portion of the city. However, the debris is believed to have originated from the one tornado farther south for the following reasons: (1) The only source of debris was from the one tornado; (2) debris in the tornado was carried to great heights (a jet pilot flying at high altitude in the storm area observed debris rising to a height of 30,000 feet), and (3) winds at 30,000 feet (210°, 90 knots) were quite capable of carrying the debris to the north of the path during fallout.This tornado was rated F5 on the Fujita Intensity Scale.
The last evidence of the ... tornado path was at the state line, but in South Haven [KS] ... there was a destructive wind from the northwest about 10 p.m. Television antennas, tree limbs, and a few trees were blown down and plate glass windows blew out of a filling station as if by an internal explosion. Letters from Blackwell, Oklahoma were found a few miles northeast of this town.
One mile southwest of Udall [KS] where a farmstead was completely destroyed, the owner stated that one of his cancelled checks had been found west of Florence, Kansas, 50 miles north of Udall.Both tornadoes were rated F5 on the Fujita Intensity Scale.
I came home today [and] found in the horse's field next to our house...two pieces of fiberglass corrigated [sic] roofing material. Each was about 12" x 20" one is green and the other beige. There are no structrues within atleast [sic] a mile from me that they could have come from. We live in a *very* rural location with lots of trees. I am quite sure that what I have found are remains of building(s) that until last ight were in Great Barrington [MA] which is about 35-40 miles WSW of here [Westhampton, MA]. The same storm that tore apart sections of that community passed over us last night. My son and I had played catch in the field last night just before the lightning drove us inside. We would have seen the fiberglass if it were there.Westhampton is located 10 miles west of Northampton, MA; 20 miles north of Springfield, MA.
An article from the March 11, 1995 Lincoln (Neb.) Journal points out some of the danger posed by tornadic debris. On March 13, 1990, an F4 tornado swept through a number of farms that were quarantined because of the pseudorabies virus. The tornado "flattened a shed housing infected hogs, ... carrying away debris, straw and manure infected with the virus." As a result, another hog farm three miles away was infected with the virus, and within 72 hours about 2,000 baby pigs died. The Nebraska Supreme Court then ruled in favor of a settlement to cover veterinarian and lawyer fees, costs and interest from the farm's insurance company. The court ruled that, although the hogs were not killed by the tornado directly, the fact that the tornado combined with other factors to cause the death of the hogs required the insurance company to pay on the tornado insurance.
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