An unusually strong group of storm cells moved through Kansas yesterday (May 4, 2007) and spawned a tornado that has literally (I might say litter-ally) wiped out the small town of Greensburg. (About 1,600 population.)

While Kansas doesn't actually have more tornados than some other (mostly nearby) areas, this one was unusually strong and damaging.

Fortunately, good warnings were provided by National Weather Service and by Radio and TV, resulting in an almost astonishingly small number of injuries. Various reports place the death toll at 7 to 9, and "in the vicinity" of 50 or so injured. (A sheriff's deputy reported killed in the MSNBC report still up at this time was critically injured but is in a Wichita hospital, giving an indication of the uncertainty of all that happened.)

Comments by those in the area indicate 90 percent of homes damaged to the point of being "unoccupiable" and 60 percent or more of the "business district" is demolished.

Local TV in Wichita preempted normal broadcasting to carry full time reports and warnings at about 5 pm yesterday, some 4 hours before the tornado reached Greensburg.

At one point, a mobile reporter, using a satellite phone because all land-line and cell phone communications were out, had reached the outskirts of the town and said "the motel on the west side is gone."

When the local TV "communicator" asked him to describe the motel that was destroyed, he made an innocuous answer to the effect of "it's no longer where it was the last time I was in Greensburg"

During the "pregnant pause" preceding his answer, I thought I heard what he wanted to say as:

"Read-my-lips you dumb shit.

I said the f***g motel is GONE
,

as in ... IT ... IS ... NOT ... THERE ... ANY ...MORE!

(Photos indicate my interpretation was justified.)

Web reports at
9 killed when tornado hits Kansas. (There is a photo slide show, but I haven't looked at it yet.)

Currently, a small areas is under NOAA/NWS severe thunderstorm warning with 1" hail reported, and a slightly larger area under severe thunderstorm watch, with cells that may be capable of more severe weather as the sun goes down.

John