By Dave Crockett, WA9ZCE, Indiana Section PIC
 

The National Weather Service had been tracking a line of strong thunderstorms, associated with a cold front.  The ingredients for a tornado outbreak simply did not exist.

Shortly before 11:00 a.m., the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma issued a Tornado Watch for the Southern half of Indiana.  This watch was soon followed by a report of a touchdown in Posey County in Southwest Indiana. Subsequent watches and warnings were issued by the NWS.

The violent turn in weather was caused by the easterly moving cold front mixing with warm moist air. A combination of varying upper level wind speeds, directions, and height, caused the thunderstorms to rotate.

A second touchdown was reported at Monroe City, in Knox County at 11:45 a.m.  

The NWS began to receive frequent damage reports.  Activation of spotter groups became critical.  The NWS requested spotter information be relayed as quickly as possible to the NWS so to could keep counties in the path of the storm could be alerted well in advance. The Central Indiana Skywarn net operation, in Indianapolis, commenced with Indy, NWS station W9NWS as NCS, John, KC9BRX and Garth, KB9TSQ, operators.  Skywarn nets in counties within the coverage area of the Indianapolis NWS radar were also launched.

Around 1:00 p.m., an F3 tornado touched down in Ellettsville, in Monroe County. Two Ellettsville hams, Mike, KB9SGN, and Russ, N9DHX, had close encounters with the tornado.  According to Monroe County Spotter Dwight, WB9TLH, “The tornado went right past Mike’s house.  He was in his driveway, trying to get away in his truck, dodging flying roof parts from his neighbor’s house, while transmitting the warning on the 146.64 repeater in Bloomington.” Russ excitedly reported roofs and other debris flying through the air near his home.

Mike, N9RGI, Net Control, called 911 and requested the county sirens be activated and emergency personnel be dispatched to Ellettsville.
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After the storm past Mike’s home, Mike pursued the tornado in his truck and gave continuous updates back through the Bloomington repeater.

Dwight relayed Mike’s tornado sighting and related reports to W9NWS on the Indianapolis 146.97 repeater.  His reports immediately got the attention of everyone listening.

Spotters tracked this single, fast moving twister from Ellettsville, Northeast through Martinsville in Morgan County, to Indianapolis, to Northeast of Anderson, in Madison County, on into Delaware County, and Hartford City, in Blackford County, a distance of close to 112 miles.  Skywarn spotters forwarded reports of the tornado’s movement to their respective county public safety officials, who, in turn, activated county warning sirens. The broadcast media interrupted regular programming to deliver continuous storm progress reports to the public, largely based on what was heard on the 146.97 weather net. 

According to Dave Tucek, NWS Warning Officer, the responsive actions of the spotters helped the NWS increase watch and warning lead times to near 25 minutes or more, saving lives and minimizing injuries. “Amateur Radio played a very important role. Many of the ground truth reports about tornado damage came from Amateur Radio.  Some came from law enforcement. Combined, these reports helped us to continue issuing TOR’s for the duration of the storms.  The reports helped to confirm in a listener’s mind that the warning is valid, and if they're in the storm's path, they need to take action.” 

After the storm passed, many of the individual county spotters groups teamed up with their local Red Cross and Emergency Management agencies to provide communications between shelters and county EOCs, with damage assessment teams, and with National Guard clean up crews.  Hams were also dispatched to area hospitals to help track the walking wounded. A Salvation Army’s SATERN communications group was also active. Operations continued through the weekend and into the first days of the following week. 

The greatest amount of damage occurred in Ellettsville, Martinsville, Anderson and Indianapolis suburbs of Lawrence, Southport, Beech Grove, and Greenwood.  The path of destruction ranged from Poseyville in Posey County to Hartford City, in Blackford County.  All total, 36 counties reported damage.  In Marion County alone, property damage and loss estimates exceed 50 million dollars.

Two individual storm cells are blamed for producing five tornados, ranging in intensity from the weakest – an F0 on the Fujita scale, with winds up to 72 mph – to an F3, with winds from 158 to 206 mph.  The speed of the storm was approximately 50 mph.   

Indiana Governor Frank O’Bannon said, after performing an aerial survey of the destruction, “This is the longest path of tornados that I remember hearing about in the State of Indiana.”   

Special thanks to the following who contributed to this story: Mike Palmer, N9FEB; Mark Shaffer, N9GDR; Dwight Hazen, WB9TLH; John Mills, KC9BRX; Ernest Clark, KB9SKI; and Mike Enyeart, N9RGI, Russ Ryles, N9DHX, and Dave Tucek, KC9CNF, NWS Indianapolis.