2010 April Chase

2010 April Severe Weather Events

Yazoo City Tornado and French Camp Tornado April 24, 2010 Please visit this link YAZOO TORNADO PATH MAP for exceptional data on this event.

Update on Apri 25, 2010

Jeff and I decided to retrace the path of the tornado from where it crossed the Mississippi River to Yazoo City, Mississippi and what we found was not only an incredible path of destruction but some incredible stories of persons along the path of this most violent tornado who survived the storm.

We began at Yazoo City, Mississippi, where we spoke with Governor Haley Barbour, delivered our toys for Project Storm Relief to the Community Shelter, visited the local hospital where 2 children were hospitalized for their injuries and Jeff did a brief interview with CBS about the chase day. I met a sweet little girl, Kiera, and her mother before she was released from the hospital and was able to give her a precious stuffed pink poodle from Project Storm Relief. I can not thank everyone enough for supporting Project Storm Relief through your purchase of TwisterChasers Storm Gear. And that was just the beginning of a very long day.

After going to the Community Shelter we began taking photos and video of the Yazoo City Damage. Then we began retracing the path of the Yazoo City, MS tornado back to the Mississippi River. We traveled back down our stormchasing path sw of Yazoo City on Hwy 3. We encountered significant damage on Hwy 3 in a swatch 1.7 miles long. Then turned off of Hwy 3 at Satartia and traveled through the plains between the Delta National Forest and Hwy 3 to Hwy 465, on 465 is where we encountered the damage path once again and this time a shop was blown completely off of its foundation, east of 465. The man who owned the shop, Clifford Trammel, lived west of the road and his house was hit and he was in the house along with his granddaughter , Rachael and her boyfriend Jonathan Fullilove. Mr. Trammel suffered minor injuries. The photos below are of his home and what were the shops across from his home.

Jonathan Fullilove took the photos below of the tornado as it approached the home. The tornado looks to have reintensified just moments before hitting the home or the photo he has is of a satellite tornado around the massive wedge. These were taken with his cell phone and I have minimally enhanced the photo in photoshop to try and bring out the details more clearly of the tornado.

Governor Haley Barbour Jeff Piotrowski

Jeff doing interview with CBS

The ditch to road in front of house looking North

Shop southeast of home gone

Looking East of Across Street

Looking East from Trammel Home

Looking slightly southeast From Trammel Home

We continued on to on Hwy 465 to the Community of Eagle Bend on Eagle Lake and the damage was just as bad as anyplace we had seen so far but the damage width was narrower. Photos below were of the lake home of Bruce Mitchell, where he and his sons Jonathan and Adam were helping clean up the debris. There lake home was completely ripped off of the upper level deck foundation and oddly enough the only thing remaining on the platform was a small wicker basket of Readers Digest Magazines and a what was left of a hot water tank. The tornado took everything else and piled it up east of the lake home including one heavy refrigerator.

Photos above counterclockwise Jonathan Fullilove shot these photos with his iphone minutes before the tornado ripped by the Trammel home.

Prelimary NWS Storm Report says this was a probable EF4 - Tracked 149 miles - max width of 1.75 Miles - Started 5 west of Tallulah, LA and went to within 5.5 miles of Sturgis, MS

Damage in the Eagle Bend Community

A basket filled with Readers Digests and a water tank were the only items left untouched by the tornado otherwise sweeping the upper deck clean of their home.

Ronnie Tyler took the photos below with his cell phone of the tornado approaching Eagle Lake.

The Tyler residence was on the Northern Edge of the Tornado path. The photos on the left are in succession of being taken time stamps are Photo 1- 11:25, 2-11:26 and 3-11:27am respectively. I enhanced the images on the right in my browser, mirror images of the photos on the left.

Photos above looking pretty much due west

Notice the wind direction has shifted. Photo looking slightly to the South west

Notice the wind direction,trees blowing Photos above looking to the Northwest

Above video of our Yazoo Storm Chase - Photos from Yazoo City, MS to Eagle Bend, MS to the Levy Road of the Mississippi River. Please visit this link Yazoo Tornado Path Map for more info.

We want to thank everyone in the kind community of Eagle Bend for their help in tracking the path of the tornado from the Mississippi River and recounting their stories to us.

We traveled on to the Levee Road to see where the tornado crossed the Mississippi River. Here are the photos below of the tornado path on the Mississippi Levee.

Looking East toward Eagle Lake from Levee Rd Looking West towar the Mississippi from Levee Rd

Levee Rd Looking North

This is the Southwest and Northwest slope of Levee Road, you can see where the tornado pushed up the water line (dark line with debris) This is visible from the aerial footage from MEMA and also interesting in that footage...Where the tornado passed through shallow water you can see a distinct line through the water as if the bottom, under the water is scarred. Not visible in these photos but in aerial footage from MEMA or Civil Air Patrol.

Beautiful sight from the Levee Rd

We traveled miles and miles on the levee road and passed, maybe, a total of 10 cars heading toward Greenville, MS and on toward home in Oklahoma.

April 24, 2010 Stormchasing the Yazoo, MS Tornado

We spent the night in Greenville, MS on the 23rd and started the day of the 24th at 6:30am.

We we on the road storm chasing by 6:45am

It took us several hours, once on the road, to decipher the data and decide which area in Mississippi we wanted to follow storms that were already underway. Once we finally made a decision and a MD issued by SPC. We intercepted the storm near Yazoo, MS and it was an incredibly difficult chase. The storm was rocketing at around 55 to 60mph ...we literally had difficulty seeing the tornado because of the inflow fog going into it...it was insane. SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL THE MISSISSIPPI STATE GUYS WHO HELPED CLEAR THE WAY FOR US TO GET THROUGH THE DEBRIS...AWESOME!