The damage from the Boston, Georgia tornado at about 1:00AM on February 19, 2009

You know... I have seen on television, the devastation of an EF5 tornado such as when 95% of Greensburg, KS was destroyed in May 2007 by a 1 1/2 mile wide EF5 wedge tornado, which stole 11 lives, and the near total destruction seen in Parkersburg, IA, where the 1/2 mile wide EF5 wedge tornado stole the lives of 7 people. I have seen the utter catastrophic devastation left by Hurricanes Andrew, Katrina and Ike... on video, in pictures, but nothing can fully prepare you for seeing it first-hand. Nothing can truly prepare you for that human element that you experience when you look around at the faces of the family, whose home has been destroyed, and they have no idea what to do. Their expressions summarize a feeling of utter confusion and helplessness. The overwhelming appearance of the scene is staggering. Nothing can prepare you for a 300-400 400-500 yard wide swath of destruction just mere feet from a lonely house on a hill, demonstrating God's merciful grace, as His hand clearly worked as a shield protecting the lives of those in Thomas county on this fateful February 19, 2009. As I mentioned in the previous post, Rick, Meso Mike and I went into Thomas county Saturday afternoon to survey the damage in both Boston, GA (yes, there is a Boston, GA) and Thomasville, GA. The report from the National Weather Service in Tallahassee had mentioned that they had upgraded the tornado that dropped in Boston to an EF3 after surveying the damage on Salem Road, where bark was literally ripped off the trees in the path of this monstrous beast. Our first stop worked to somewhat prepare me for everything. Nothing I hadn't seen before, trees down, a mess in the yard, root systems of large pine tree lifted up into the air, ripped from the ground. Trees were twisted and snapped, and homes were just barely missed with blue tarps revealing some roof damage. It was when we traveled over to Salem Road in Boston that we saw the true power of an EF3 tornado. Fortunately, it was not a heavily populated area, and as I mentioned, God's hand worked as a shield to protect the Lowe family's home, which they were hiding in the tub of... I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. and Mrs. Lowe, and he was kind enough to share his story with me. He said that they were up watching channel 6 because it looked like the weather could get bad. Finally, channel 6 announced that the last cell had gone, and the threat was past (Mr. Lowe is very upset--understatement--with Channel 6 for announcing such ridiculousness. How did channel 6 not see that once the low incredibly moisture-fed boundary off the Gulf interacted with the cold frontal boundary approaching from the south that there would be a potential explosion of forcing, which would potentially generate a strong tornado?! I couldn't have been the only weather geek who saw that!!!). He went on to bed, but hadn't fallen asleep when the weather got really horrible outside, and his wife expressed some grave concern. The way things were looking, they decided to take cover in the tub of the interior bathroom, and held on for dear life as an EF3 tornado roared around their house, tearing a swath of debris about 300 450 yards wide just to their north. The barn erected in the 1950's, with some recent steel framing add-ons, was left a pile of rubble (which the Lowe family and many of their friends) had mostly cleared into piles by the time we arrived, but here is where it had stood when they went to sleep on Wednesday... ... and here are the piles of rubble. A silo, that had been on the southwestern side of their property was torn to shreds, leaving sheets of metal wrapped around trees to their north. Some of the barn was found dangling in a pine tree on a branch 100-200 feet in the air. A pick-up truck had its tailgate twisted on it's hinges and left just dangling there. Their pool house had the back-side blown out of it. The fence once surrounding their pool and yard, now part of the wood pile mixed up with the barn debris. Insulation littering a peripheral tree like fallen snow.This scene alone was staggering... the realization that they were spared by a hair... I could if only it to death, but the bottom line is they were spared. Thanks to God. What a horrific night that was for the Lowe family. Walking north into the area where the 300-400 400-500 yard wide wedge EF3 tornado actually touched the ground... it was mind-blowing. I will just share pics.3 football fields! One lonely house, under siege by a vicious beast of destruction the size of 3 football fields!!! Holy guacamole! So, you walk east, clearly seeing where the tornado cut its path along a strip of trees, missing a house down the way, but flipping their rv over, stripping what remained of trees of their bark, leaving them barren and obstacles for the pine trees that had become flying debris... wow. Wow.That was Boston. I am going to take a break. I will cover the Thomasville tornado in a separate post. This one is a little picture heavy, and during the Thomasville photography, I was more impacted by the human impact. I was strongly moved.

Remember, this is the same tornadic supercell that was on course for me. A tornado was reported just south of me, but I was not able to find sufficient damage to justify such a report. I spoke with the emergency manager in my county who confirmed that a spotter reported it, but he was not able to find anything either. As tree filled as my road is, and with the relative velocity looking the way it did, I wouldn't doubt that it was a funnel that dropped, but as tree filled as the road is, it would have left a mark. Regardless, we were in our "safe spot" because of what I was seeing on radar and the tornado warning... thanks, guys (Tally and Brigade), better safe than sorry!

Here is a link to the local storm reports from the tornado event.

Respectfully,
~Dewdrop