Natchez Tornadoes

Tornadoes can reach up to 300 miles per hour and the damage paths can be an excess of 1 mile wide. Also, they can reach an amazing length of 50 miles long (Ready.gov, 2012)! The second deadliest tornado recorded in the United States is called the Natchez Tornado. It hit Natchez, Mississippi and traveled along the Mississippi River; creating destruction to the river and Vidalia, Louisiana. This devastation occurred on May 7, 1840 (Hall, 2014). Tornadoes create large amounts of damage and are deadly to people if they are not prepared properly. To begin, there are many causes of tornadoes. A tornado is a dangerous rotating column of air stretching from a thunderstorm cloud to the ground. Before they occur, a thunderstorm has to hit. The warm,

During this time period, scientist did not rank tornadoes on their strength. On May 7, 1840, this disaster wiped out Natchez, Mississippi then swooped up the Mississippi river. While it was traveling, it created destruction to the Louisiana village of Vidalia. As a result, hotels, homes, and churches were either missing roofs or completely leveled. Barely, a house was left undamaged or completely ruined. Also, all but four of the 120 flat boats at the landing that day were lost. Possibly as many as 200 of the men operating them, were killed. The steamboat Hinds was thrown into the river and sunk. The boat was swept down to Baton Rouge, where it was with 48 dead males and 3 dead females. The cost of damage was estimated to be at least 1,260,000 dollars, which would be about 30 million dollars in modern times (Hall, 2014). In the meantime, the tornado killed 317 people, but the official death toll may not have included slaves. The total amount of people who got injured was 109 people (CNN Staff, 2014). Furthermore, many people were left homeless because of all of the destruction caused by the massive tornado. A lot of boats, hotels, houses, and churches were demolished, so people did not have a structure to go to for shelter. There was also no Red Cross in the 1840’s to help, nor did they have much help from other states to rebuild their community (Hall, 2014). In essence, the

One way forecasters do this is use weather radars to view thunderstorms. This radar is called a Doppler radar. These radars show changes and the direction in which the thunderstorm is going. Storm spotters watch tornadoes, from the ground, as they form. They report what they see to the National Weather Service (Aboff & Sotirovski, 2012, p. 11). It also helps if someone has a NOAA Weather Radio, it will alert for people to watch for a tornado. People can access a local T.V., radio, or internet for more information. Beforehand, people can create safe rooms or wind shelters to provide an area for them and their family to go for high levels of protection. The rooms below the ground provide the most protection, but a safe room on the first-floor can provide the necessary protection. Families should practice tornado drills so that everyone knows what to do during a tornado. They should also find out the community’s warning system. A warning system can include a special sirens that the community has put together to warn everyone that the natural disaster is on its way (Ready.gov, 2012). People should also store enough food and water for at least 3 days (Wicker, 2015). Then, people should remain in their safe rooms or wind shelters until the tornado is confirmed to be over (Ready.gov, 2012). When the tornado is confirmed to be over, people should help look for