Killer Earth
Killer Earth
Hurricane Katrina and the Joplin Tornado
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On their inaugural episode, Kat and Vanessa cover Hurricane Katrina and the Joplin, Missouri tornado.
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Earthquakes, lightning, foreign rain, tornadoes, tsunami's in a hurricane.
SPEAKER_03Killer Earth.
SPEAKER_00Hey guys, welcome to the Killer Earth Podcast.
SPEAKER_01What'd it do?
SPEAKER_00What it do? It's our first episode.
SPEAKER_01I know.
SPEAKER_00This is a long time in the making.
SPEAKER_01It has been a long time, maybe like three years in the making, just because we've been wanting to do this forever for years.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And we're finally doing it. And the summer of COVID gave us the excuse to get our shit together.
SPEAKER_01I know. It's been a blessing in disguise. So, and today's election day, which we all know is insane.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And it's the end of Mercury retrograde, or it's the last retrograde in um 2020. So I'm so over it and I'm so ready for us to be out of it. And if you don't know what Mercury retrograde is, it's um a time where the planets align, where communication is really messed up, technology doesn't work or it breaks, travel plans, you know, get completely screwed up. And that's kind of been my month of a month. So I'm ready to be done with it.
SPEAKER_00I thought Mercury retrograde was when Mercury went in the opposite rotation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, something like that. I don't really know. I have no idea. It's something to do with the lining of the planets, so it has a lot to do with it. But sometimes like they're like, oh, it's in Sagittarius, or I don't even know what I've seen.
SPEAKER_00I read that it happens every 18 months.
SPEAKER_01Um, well, this year we had three of them. Weird. So I guess we'll have to do more research on that. But I guess this is not a Mercury retrograde podcast. It isn't. It is, it could be, could be eventually. Well, at least we're starting afresh without Mercury retrograde in our way. So yes, yes. Well, guys, this is a podcast. It's called Killer Earth, and it's about natural disasters and how we've all been affected by these things. Um, and we're really gonna dive in deep to um, you know, weather situations, volcanoes, um, earthquakes, all the things that hurricanes, yes, yes, tsunami, yeah, probably plane crashes too. Oh, yeah, because they to weather has totally made planes crash. So that's actually yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so so we were best friends and we met at work. Yep, and we share a mutual passion for cataclysmic natural disasters and weather events. Yes, and we thought, why not do a podcast where we tell each other stories and details about events and history and the history of weather?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And literally I walked into the office and I was like, oh, hi, Vanessa. Like, let's talk about this plane crash. And I still to this day can't remember, you know, or maybe I don't know what it was, but we talked about it for like a week, and then we were just like instantly best friends.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, it it was it was it was huge, and it was it was really bothering both of us, and we couldn't stop talking about it. I remember that I just can't remember which one we could probably figure it out eventually.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'll look into that more, but it was like something where we were like both both obsessed, and then Vanessa's like, you know, I watch the weather channel like as my hobby in life, and I'm like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Hurricane coverage every year is I always have it on in the background, it's the most exciting thing to me. It's like it's like comforting. I like to fall asleep to it. Oh wow, that's so funny to me. Isn't that weird?
SPEAKER_01I love it. I love it. Well, I fall asleep to like following stories, like you know, anything disastrous. So I guess it's the same thing, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Or like natural disaster movies.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, yeah. Like there's so many good ones. I just watched Twister like two times this summer just to fall asleep too, because I love it so much.
SPEAKER_00One of my favorite movies. Oh god, yes. Um, I recently purchased for like $16 on Amazon Dante's Peak.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. I don't even know what that's about, honestly.
SPEAKER_00It's about a volcano, but oh yeah, I have heard of that. It's not good, and there's just something about it that I just needed it, and I couldn't, it was it wasn't streaming anywhere for free. And I'm like, click. It's fine.
SPEAKER_01Oh man. Well, I've watched the wave like three times this summer, also, which we'll get into that whole story later um in the podcast. But it's about that like mountain that a mountain slide that literally a mountain just like fell into this like gorge thing. I don't even know what it's called. Like it's a no fjord, that's what it is. And it like wiped out a whole town, and it's just like, oh my god, this movie's so good. Like, but it's not, you know, it's it's very factual in what happened, but it's obviously about a made-up couple, you know, and family trying to survive it. So it's really intense and really good if you guys are bored. It's a foreign movie, but it's like what's it called?
SPEAKER_00The wave. The wave. Is that the one you're doing today?
SPEAKER_01No, no, I'm gonna do that later. That one's actually hard to find um information about. Um, it happened like in the 60s, I believe, 1964, but it's it's just a fascinating story. So I definitely want to dive deep and get into that one.
SPEAKER_00So I'm not doing that one today, but I am doing we're gonna we're gonna deep dive into a lot of things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's yeah. Um, should I go first?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so I'm gonna talk today about the arguably the most famous hurricane in the history of the world. Yes, definitely in the history of the United States. I'm gonna talk about Hurricane Katrina.
SPEAKER_01Oh gosh, that's a lot.
SPEAKER_00I know. So it actually was a lot to take on for the first episode because we don't really know what we're doing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and there's so much information. Um, I sourced most of the info um for the this episode from good ol' Wikipedia.
SPEAKER_02Of course.
SPEAKER_00Um, but also National Geographic, the New York Times, and this book called Stories from the Storm.
SPEAKER_01Ooh, I love it.
SPEAKER_00And then I just feel like I just know a lot of random information about it just from being obsessive about hurricanes um throughout the years. So I actually this happened in 2005 in August. And I was a freshman in college, so you would have been a sophomore.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Do you remember this happening?
SPEAKER_01Yes, absolutely. Like that it was everywhere, and it was so devastating. And I even the effects afterwards for years, even till this day. It's like you were in Texas, weren't you? Yeah, yeah. I had like, yeah, I had friends like driving on up to like help out. I think at one point I was trying to make my way up there.
SPEAKER_00I don't remember why I didn't yeah, you were so close to all of that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, I remember I had a professor who the first day of class um was like, if you go right now down to New Orleans and help out with the relief effort, whether it's through the Red Cross or whoever, I'll give you an automatic A plus in the class and you you won't have to do any work. Yeah. And but everyone was like, but what about the rest of our classes? Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like logistically, it didn't make any sense, but oh, but that was such a good move on his part.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, it was such a big deal, and the relief effort, I mean, it was really like all hands on deck.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, okay, so let's get into it. Okay. Okay, so ready from the top, just from the top. Um, Katrina is the deadliest US hurricane since the Okeechobee hurricane in Florida in 1928.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Um anything about Okeechobee hurricane.
SPEAKER_00I know. I didn't know about it either. Um, I'm sure we'll talk about it on another episode, but also I feel like, you know, of course it was super deadly in the 20s. They didn't have a they didn't have a warning system.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like what the hell were they supposed to do?
SPEAKER_01They probably didn't have the infrastructure either to like keep to protect themselves from that kind of wind and stuff.
SPEAKER_00I'm picturing like really weird things, but I just feel like like just their defenses back in the day. Like they just, yeah, they didn't have the infrastructure and the the you know know-how to deal with massive disasters.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, I digress. Okay. So the best estimate is that 1,836 people died. Wow. Um, in Katrina, with most of the fatalities occurring in Louisiana. Wow. Um, yeah, and there's also varying estimates. Some estimates are as low as like 700. It it was really all over the map, and there's still um debate about just how many people.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I'm sure, because they never like some of the of the people were never found.
SPEAKER_00Yes, they're still to this day missing people.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's so awful.
SPEAKER_00I know. It really is. Okay, so Katrina, everyone associates it with new New Orleans. Um, is that how you pronounce it? New Orleans. New Orleans.
SPEAKER_01I I don't know. People go either way. I know. I sometimes I've always said New Orleans, but yeah, New Orle New Orleans is correct, not New Orleans.
SPEAKER_00New Orleans, okay. Yeah. Um, I'll put it in.
SPEAKER_01Correct us if you're if we're wrong.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Let us have it. We are not journalists. We're not okay. Let's also make that clear. We are not experts or journalists or fucking climatologists. We don't know anything.
SPEAKER_01We really have no idea. We're just bringing the stories to you from sources that we trust.
SPEAKER_00We fully accept corrections and whatever else you want to throw our way. It's all good. Yeah.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01We should have made that clear in the beginning, but then I think you'll start to realize that we're not experts as we get more into this.
SPEAKER_00You definitely will, you will know that by the end. Um okay, so um, it's associated with the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, um, because that's where it caused the most death and destruction, but it actually formed in the southeastern Bahamas. Um, I always just pictured it like just swooping up through the Gulf, but it did not. It was a Bahamas and it was like a Florida hurricane first.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. I think I forgot about that too.
SPEAKER_00I know, I feel like a lot of people don't know that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so um it hit New Orleans, New Orleans on the 20th, uh, August 29th, but it actually formed um six days earlier on the 23rd, as just like a tropical depression. So do you know what a tropical depression is, Kat?
SPEAKER_01You know what? I don't. I always just assume it's like a tropical storm, right? But like it's used so it's used so often that I should know what it is, but I'm always just like, oh, it's a storm, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so it's it's just a tropical cyclone that has winds of 38 miles per hour or less.
SPEAKER_01I mean, 38's pretty hardcore.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's not, you know, it's it's up there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but um like when we get gusts of 40 up here and the trees are going nuts, it's like woohoo.
SPEAKER_00Right, right, right. So yeah, I mean it's just you know, just like a storm, just a storm over the ocean.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, it was the 12th tropical depression of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Um, so a cyclone, it's a rapidly rotating storm system with a low pressure center, strong winds. And this is kind of terrifying a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms. Oh, weird. I don't like that.
SPEAKER_01I don't either. So it's like a bunch of thunderstorms like spiraling around each other. That's what a hurricane is.
SPEAKER_00No, this is what a cyclone is. This we are this is not we're not even at the hurricane stage yet.
SPEAKER_01Oh, wait, is that like a tornado?
SPEAKER_00Well, so the same? It isn't, it's similar. Okay. So it's yeah, a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produces heavy rain or squalls. And squalls are sudden violent gusts of wind. Okay. So yeah, it's I mean, it's just like a shitty storm basically. Yeah. Um, okay, so Katrina, she's not even Katrina yet, she's just tropical depression 12.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So uh the next day, the 24th of August, she Tropical Depression 12, picks up moisture and heat from the ocean. Um, and that makes storms intensity and speed increase. Once a storm picks up to 39 miles per hour, it becomes a tropical storm.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So it was a depression slash cyclo, now it's a storm. So she officially becomes her tropical storm Katrina and she heads west towards Florida. Um, and a state of emergency is declared there because she's coming for them. Okay. Okay. So Thursday, August 25th. Um, so we're four, we're four days before landfall in the Gulf in New Orleans. Um Katrina strengthens into a hurricane over the Atlantic and makes landfall as a cat one hurricane in Florida.
SPEAKER_01Which cat one meaning like what kind of wind speed, I guess? Is that what how they determine it?
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, okay. So I have it right here. Um, okay, so to be classified as a category one hurricane, um, there have to be sustained winds for one minute of at least 74 miles per hour. Whoa. That's pretty fucking that's like that's crazy. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. So from 39 to 73, you're a tropical storm, but she strengthened to 74.
SPEAKER_01And it has to be going at 70 miles an hour for a whole minute. A 70.
SPEAKER_0074. Oh my gosh. For at least for for one minute. That's what sustained winds mean.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I know I've felt gusts of 70, but like not for a whole minute. Like, that's insane.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And you're picking up like ocean water. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03So you're like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So this, okay. So she hits um about 20 miles north of Miami. Um, so there's super heavy rainfall in Miami. There's flooding all throughout the county, a bunch of homes are damaged, um, you know, millions are without power, and 12 people are killed. Um, which is kind of that's a lot.
SPEAKER_01That's a lot. And I'm sorry, that's in Florida.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like right above Miami is where is where he makes landfall as a cat one.
SPEAKER_01That's so scary. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So the next day on Friday, um, so we're three days before hitting um New Orleans. Katrina briefly weakens back to a tropical storm. Um, but then she starts hooking north into the Gulf of Mexico and within one hour strengthens to a category two.
SPEAKER_01That's a lot to transform into one hour. And how fast is that? Like, how fast are the wind speeds for a category two?
SPEAKER_00So that's between 96 and 109 miles per hour. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So can you even like stand in that wind speed? I don't think you can. How I don't, I don't believe so. I'd like to try it, like just stand and see like if you could like keep standing up.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you know, like my ultimate fantasy is to ride out a hurricane with like with like weather people.
SPEAKER_01Okay, sorry, sidebar. Um, my dad, um, I think there was one hurricane that he used to tell me about up in Maine. It came all the way up to Maine, and I don't know what year it was, but they made cardboard, they took cardboard pieces and would like fly with them. Not fly, but like they'd hold it behind their backs and like try to get air. Like a wouldn't I can see you being like, this is my my favorite dream. I would, I would do that. Oh my god. I would go out with you, but I wouldn't want anything to like hit me. I would just like want the wind to hit me.
SPEAKER_00I would want to post up in like, you know, a reinforced like storm chaser building with like all the technology, but like you have access to the outside, so you could go outside and see what's happening for just like a minute.
SPEAKER_01You can go out and like explore it, and then you can like run back in and be safe.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but like you're totally safe inside the building.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's like I would do that with you.
SPEAKER_00That is one of the goals of this podcast, is to get funded to do that, to get sponsored to do that.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I'm ready. I will do that with you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay. So um, so hurricanes can cause tornadoes, which is like fucked up. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_01Are you foreshadowing right now?
SPEAKER_00Well, well, Katrina causes a tornado in Marathon, Florida, which is the keys.
SPEAKER_01Wow, I had no idea.
SPEAKER_00I know. I I don't ever associate tornadoes with the keys, but it happened.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00So overall, uh, she causes 153 million dollars in damage to to just South Florida. Wow, and most of it is crop damage, so she just like takes out tons of crops, crops, but I don't know what kind of crops.
SPEAKER_01What kind of crops?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Oh, just lots of crops. Okay, what do they grow in South Florida?
SPEAKER_01Like oranges.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. Cranberries, grapefruit.
SPEAKER_01No, isn't it cranberries like they're in the water, but like maybe that would no? I think well, I don't know. Can someone tell us out there if cranberries are grown? No, they're in the Everglades, I thought.
SPEAKER_00Cranberry. Well, I there's a there's a cranberry bogs in Massachusetts that's grown for. I don't I mean maybe they grow elsewhere though.
SPEAKER_01Who knows? I don't know. You guys can tell us what kind of crops are looking.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So it's originally predicted that Katrina is going to hit the Florida panhandle. Um, but nope, she heads for Mississippi and really quickly they activate their National Guard in anticipation of mass devastation. Um and around this time, so we're like three days out um before landfall, the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, and the governor of Mississippi, Haley Barber, who is a dude, by the way, even though his first name is Haley. Yeah, they declare states of emergency. So taking it seriously, shit's getting real.
SPEAKER_01But that's in Mississippi, though.
SPEAKER_00And Louisiana. Oh, and Louisiana, sorry, I miss that. Okay. Yeah. Because they're not exactly sure where she's gonna really like fuck all the shit up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so the next day, Saturday, um local officials along the Mississippi coast begin evacuating people. Uh Katrina, she's still swirling out in the Gulf and she becomes a category three. And she's heading for Mississippi at this point. Um, so she has 115 mile per hour winds. Which, like, what would that even be like being out in the ocean in that?
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Like what is it? Like, what happens? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I don't know. That's like so terrifying for me to even think about.
SPEAKER_00I know. So at this point, um, she's now the third strongest hurricane of the season. And she's now heading directly food for New Orleans. Um, so New Orleans is like, you go, y'all gotta get the fuck out. Like everybody should leave. So um there's a mass evacuation. Um there's 18,000 cars per hour like on the high like leaving on the highway.
SPEAKER_01I remember that. I remember people were trying to get out, but there was like so much traffic that like some people couldn't and like I remember like watching the news and people being like, I can't afford to get to leave my house, like I have nowhere to go.
SPEAKER_00Well, what do you do? That's well, that's why this storm ended up being so fucking devastating because and we'll get to that. There were a lot of people who were too poor to leave and didn't couldn't afford, didn't have a car, couldn't afford a hotel, didn't know anyone they could go stay with. Yeah, that's where it gets like really devastating and terrible. Yeah. Okay, so um at this point, so this is Saturday, um, August 27th, Katrina actually starts losing some of her intensity due to a thing that happens with hurricanes called the eyewall replacement cycle. And I looked it up and it's super complicated and confusing, and I really could not figure it out enough to like explain it in layman's terms. Um, but basically it means that the the eye of the storm is replaced by a new eye. What? For whatever reason, and that the storm temporarily weakens, but it expands because of it.
SPEAKER_01Whoa! I never even heard about that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so she's getting weaker but bigger.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, like this new eye was just like, get out of here, old eye. I'm coming.
SPEAKER_00Basically, yeah. Okay, yeah. Whoa. Like, time to switch eyes. Okay. Okay, so here's another really shitty thing that was going on at this time this summer, which did not help. Um, there's a thing called the loop current. Okay. It's a flow of warm water that travels up from the Caribbean, past the Yucatan Peninsula, through the Gulf, past the Keys, and up the Atlantic seaboard. It's just it's a current that is always there. Um, it was unusually warm in 2005. And warm water feeds hurricanes. Like it's it's not good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So Katrina hits the loop current and she becomes a category four. Wow. Um, it's yeah, she like really, really intensifies.
SPEAKER_02So what's that wind speed?
SPEAKER_00Um I didn't write that down, but I but she okay, so she does she eventually becomes a category five after becoming category four, which is wind speed of oh, it's the highest category, obviously, and it's wind speed over 156 miles per hour.
SPEAKER_01No thanks.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So at this point, um, New Orleans is in the direct path of Katrina. The U.S. Coast Guard is like, peace out. We're le we'll we'll be back. We're not gonna stay here for this.
SPEAKER_01Um, the US Coast Guard said that. They were like, We're out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're like, we're not putting our our people in danger, and we'll we'll be back as soon as we can, but there we can't stay in the path of this. Like everybody should have left.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's so sad because some people couldn't leave. It's like, what are you gonna do? And I don't like I know blame, I don't blame the US cart uh Coast Guard for being like, well, we have to go. Well, but it's so sad though.
SPEAKER_00They later, I guess, come back and kick ass and won a bunch of awards for how awesome they were. But yeah, okay, good. That's good to know. So um, President Bush declares a state of emergency um in parts of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. Um, so this is like so um like elementary school geography, but um, you know, it goes Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana. Yeah. You probably know that, especially in Texas. I just wanted to say that. That's a that's important for the the you know what?
SPEAKER_01A lot of people don't know their US um geography. It's really sad.
SPEAKER_00I know.
SPEAKER_01A lot of people don't even know where Maine is, like from the south. They're like, where's Maine? I'm like, dude, it's a state.
SPEAKER_00They clump all the little New England states together.
SPEAKER_01I know.
SPEAKER_00Um, okay, so there's there was a lot of controversy with how um the the whole like emergency warning and relief of Katrina went down. Um so President Bush doesn't declare a state of emergency in the coastal parishes of Louisiana for some reason, which is like what were in the direct path.
SPEAKER_01But weird.
SPEAKER_00I really I read a lot about it, and I'm not gonna go over all of it because it's too much, but there was a lot of miscommunication between all of these different agencies and like the federal government, the state of Louisiana, the city of New Orleans. So um makes sense. Also, okay, I learned this doing this research. Did you know that counties are called parishes in Louisiana?
SPEAKER_01I do, and that's only because my husband works there.
SPEAKER_00Right. I did not know that.
SPEAKER_01I didn't know that until recently. Um I know that is really weird.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I never understood that. I've heard that word forever, and I'm I'm almost like, what the fuck does that mean? Like a church town?
SPEAKER_01Like what is a parish? Well, maybe. I mean, but like what did they why? Do you know why they call them that? I know that they're called that, but I don't know why.
SPEAKER_00So it's a remnant of when the Catholic Church basically ruled Louisiana and they they broke areas up into parishes, like where each like basically counties where each county had a church that like ruled over it, but parish is like a religious term.
SPEAKER_01So it was like priest, so like priest Bob was like, I'm gonna have this like plot of land over here with my church in my area, and then like priest like Gary did the same thing. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00Gary and Bob. Are those your cats' names?
SPEAKER_01No, Gary's one of them.
SPEAKER_00Just Gary oh, not Bob. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Bob's my uncle's name, but I just it's just a good name to use, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I'm sure it fills in it, gets the point across.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So they just never got rid of that term parish, they just always kept it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's so interesting because I I knew that that's what they were called. They just didn't know why. So that's like really interesting to me.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so Sunday, August 28th, the day before the big landfall. Um, Katrina is now a cat five, which is terrifying.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, she she remains well north of Cuba, but she like fucked up the western side of Cuba, which we don't really hear about. Wow. Um that's sad. Yeah, like horrible flooding. 8,000 people were displaced from their homes. Oh, there was this one area of Cuba that was like completely underwater, this little like coastal city, little town. I I went on Instagram and looked up photos of it.
SPEAKER_01Isn't that so sad how it's like all about Katrina and like Cuba and like Florida and all these other places, like even the well, I don't know how did the Bahamas get a lot of damage? I know that's where it started. They but still, yeah. It what it's just crazy that like there's so much other damage to it, you know.
SPEAKER_00Because of what happens in New Orleans with the the death and destruction, other places, like I remember, you know, eventually people were like, Yeah, Mississippi is screwed too. Like Mississippi got had horrible destruction, but you you just didn't hear about it because of what goes down.
SPEAKER_01I know.
SPEAKER_00Um okay, so the mayor of Louisiana at the time, the mayor of Louisiana. Oh my god, the mayor of New Orleans. I said the mayor of Louisiana.
SPEAKER_01The mayor. I was like, what's wrong with that? And then sorry.
SPEAKER_00The mayor of Louisiana, Ray Negan, holds a press conference and he New Orleans of New Orleans. Ray Nagan.
SPEAKER_01You just said mayor of Louisiana.
SPEAKER_00God damn it.
SPEAKER_01You just said mayor of Louisiana again after you corrected it. It was funny. Okay, anyway. We get it. Mayor of New Orleans.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Oh my god. Okay, he orders I love it. He orders the first ever mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. Um, he says, quote, Katrina is a storm that most of us have long feared.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and the city begins to set up shelters of last resort for people who cannot or will not leave.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so 80% of New Orleans uh residents evacuate. Um, and then 26,000 people start filtering into the Superdome, which is where um like most of the people that couldn't leave or like wouldn't leave ended up taking shelter.
SPEAKER_01The superdome is that like the football stadium?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's where the Saints play.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, okay, and I guess they had some supplies there, they had food and water, yeah. Um okay, so 1 p.m. on Sunday, Katrina reaches her peak intensity. She's still out in the Gulf, 175 mile per hour sustained winds. Like holy F.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, the National Weather Service in Baton Rouge and New Orleans issues a bulletin um basically saying like this area is going to be uninhabitable uninhabitable for weeks. Um devastating damage will occur, and it's gonna be as bad or worse as Hurricane Camille, um, which was the 1969 hurricane that devastated the Gulf Coast. And yeah. Um okay, this is also important. The director of the National Hurricane Center, um, I guess calls President Bush and is like, dude, I'm really worried that the storm surge is gonna be the issue. It's going to push over the levees and the flood walls in New Orleans.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So he, you know, is kind of one of the first um people of authority that is starts talking about the levees. And we all know what ends up happening with the levees. That becomes the issue, right? So this is super fucking sad. But um, so that night on Sunday night, it hasn't hit yet. The first deaths associated with the hurricane are reported. Um, and it's three nursing home patients that die of dehydration while they're being evacuated to Baton Rouge.
SPEAKER_01No, not horrible. No one gave them water.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I'm I guess, like, how what the hell?
SPEAKER_01That's so they're being evacuated, but like that's so weird.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're not even I don't like that. I know, they're not even ex- the storm hasn't even hit yet, and they're they just like die, but they they attribute the deaths to the hurricane technically because they're being evacuated.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but give them some damn water. I know, I don't, I mean, whatever.
SPEAKER_00Maybe they had certain medical conditions where they needed IVs or something. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Oh, maybe, I don't know. Yeah, so let's improve nursing home care in the US. That's all I have to say about that. Yeah, it's still still still isn't any better, but no, anyways, that's another rant for another day.
SPEAKER_00So, okay. There are many private caregiving facilities like nursing homes and long-term care facilities that are relying on bus companies and ambulances to get patients out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And a lot of them are not able to evacuate because there was this big miscommunication and issue with getting buses to these places.
SPEAKER_02Oh no.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So um Governor Blanco of Louisiana, um, she, I guess, I mean, I don't know how this happened, but she did not sign an emergency waiver in time to allow any licensed driver to transport people on commercial vehicles in commercial vehicles.
SPEAKER_01I didn't even know you would have to have a waiver. Can't you just be like, I know. I I don't know. Can't you just be like, come with me, I'm saving your life. Bye.
SPEAKER_00Like, I know. It I don't I don't know why people would be like, cool, I'll get arrested or fined or whatever later. Like, why couldn't they just I don't know, but that was one of the things that so they didn't have bus drivers. They didn't have people getting these very dependent people out of harm's way.
SPEAKER_01That's so sad.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so Monday the 29th, this is this is the day. Um, dawn breaks, and Katrina has actually weakened to a category four. She makes landfall over southeast Louisiana and Mississippi as a category three, because you know, once hurricanes start hitting land, they weaken because they don't have that warm water feeding them from below. Um she hits 125 mile per hour winds, is her wind speed.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And she lands over, I don't know if I'm pronouncing this right, Burras Triumph, Louisiana, um, which is 60 miles southeast of New Orleans. And um hurricane winds extend 120 miles per hour from the center. I don't exactly know what that means.
SPEAKER_01Like from the center of the eye. Yeah. Yeah. I maybe that means like from the eye goes 125. Never mind.
SPEAKER_00I might have, you know what, I might I might have written it down right. I it might have been hurricane winds extend 120 miles from the that's what I'm thinking.
SPEAKER_01That's what I was just thinking. Yeah. Like it, yeah, which is like a really big storm, but like circumference-wise, like that's a lot of yeah, land for a lot of wind speed, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00So now she's fucking pummeling the gulf. Um, wind speeds increase to 130 miles per hour at some points. Um, and the eye of the storm, um it was projected to be like that it was gonna be right over New Orleans, but it actually moves east of it. Um and you know the worst place to be in a hurricane is right like on the side of the eye. Yeah. That's where the wind I have heard that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, okay.
SPEAKER_01So it's like you have eye and then really bad winds, and then the like weaker winds are like outside of it.
SPEAKER_00Because the eye is relatively is like calm.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um okay, okay. So just some background. We we should talk a little bit about New Orleans as a city. So it's below sea level. So that sucks. Um it's surrounded by waterways and lakes. Um, the Mississippi River runs through it, and there's a big lake, I think it's pronounced Lake Pontchartrain. Pont Chartrain. I don't know. Chartrain. I don't know. I should have looked into that, but I didn't. So yeah, it's just like a lakey, canalie, marshy place. Um so it has this system of levees. Do you know what a levee is?
SPEAKER_01Uh yes and no. I don't really know. I know what it is. I just don't know how it works, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So levees are basically like reinforced concrete walls that line waterways that prevent water from spilling over into the city. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Like any city that has infrastructure and is that's you know, at or below sea level and has waterways, like needs levees basically to prevent flooding. Right. So um the levees of New Orleans, New I can I say New Orleans, New Orleans. What is wrong with me today? New Orleans.
SPEAKER_01Again, I think I could go either way, but okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So they the levees were built by the Army Corps. Um, and okay, I'll I I say in my notes, we'll get back to that in a little bit. Um so um, yeah, okay, so the Mississippi River runs through the city, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, several canals. There are two lakes, Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Bourne. Um and they're not like lakes, they're like open to the ocean, but they call them lakes. I don't know why. I don't really get that. Okay, so um by 8 a.m. Um the Hyatt Hotel in the city, most of its windows on its north side are completely blown out. Uh and there's all these other high-rise buildings that are just all their windows are blown out. Beds are flying out of windows, the facades of all these buildings are just being sheared off. Oh my god. Yep, with like exposed piping, and it's just the winds are crazy.
SPEAKER_01And a lot of people like sheltering in places like the Hyatt, because you would think like no, this hotel would be safe. No.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I will act, I think there were some, they weren't legally supposed to be there. I know that I saw a photo somewhere of the, I think it was the National Guard like checking the Hyatt for people for survivors. Wow, but I don't think anyone was was supposed to be there. Um also this is when the levees start to fail. So basically, water's just rushing over them. They're they're being destroyed by the storm surge.
SPEAKER_01Here's my question though. Like, are they being destroyed or is the water going over the levees? Because like that's why are they so they're concrete reinforced? Like, are they just like cracking?
SPEAKER_00Well, they needed to be repaired. They they were built. I I think I wrote it down. I think they were built in like the 80s. Okay. And they they were just the pressure from the storm surge is like crack is like breaking them, but they're but they're they're also just being overrun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um I can I can easily see the water like going over them. I just wasn't sure if like they were like cracking too and all that stuff, but it sounds like it sounds like both situations are happening.
SPEAKER_00It was, I was confused about that too, and I read a lot of like engineering articles about it, and they were really technical, and I didn't really understand what I was reading.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But um, okay, so um, also this lake that I can't pronounce Poncha Poncha Train, it's overflowing into the city. It's being just the storms are just just coming from everywhere, and it's just going up every waterway it can, and there's no where for all of this surge to go.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so the Superdome where 26,000 people are sheltering, it It's waterproof membrane peels off.
SPEAKER_03What?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, two sections of its roof are damaged. I actually I watched a video where all of a sudden all this water starts pouring in on people. Oh, so scary. I mean, how fucking scary would that be?
SPEAKER_01And it's like the place that all these people are sheltering. So I'm sure there was like mass panic.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Totally. Um, so 80% of the city becomes flooded. Some neighborhoods are 20 feet underwater. Um, and for context, the average two-story home is 18 to 20 feet tall. So all you see are roofs. That's all you see in these neighborhoods.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You probably saw those photos.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um I'm just I'm just thinking about even like like the house I grew up in. It's about I don't know. It's like it's I'm just thinking, sorry. Yeah. You can cut that out. You can cut that part out. It was just like in my mind.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. But yeah, because if you think about it, like yeah, 20 feet, that's like two stories.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00For the water to be that high, that's insane. That's a big a big area of a city.
SPEAKER_01I mean, that's a that's that's that's so scary. I can't imagine.
SPEAKER_00So the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, there its levees fail. That floods most of the eastern part of the city. And then the industrial canal. Um, that's the canal when it when its levees fail. That's the one like you heard you heard a lot about like the ninth ward.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That was like the area of New Orleans that was really like damaged the worst. Yes. That's the industrial canal is the canal that was responsible for flooding for a lot of the flooding there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So there's uh there's 53 levee breaches in in total. 53, 53 different spots, these goddamn levees didn't do their job.
SPEAKER_01That's that's insane.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So so the failure of the levees was determined as the cause of most of the deaths because of um, you know, the storm surge, the flooding. Um the US Army Corps of Engineers were responsible for the levees. They designed and built them um decades earlier. Um they're only 20 the levees are only 23 feet high at their their highest height.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And uh the storm surge was like north of 28 feet. So that's yeah, that's a lot. That's a big difference.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and this is a little bananas, but basically when the US Army Corps built the levees, this is, I swear to God, this is what it says. Because they did a big investigation into this in the aftermath of Katrina. They the engineers working on it misunderstood a report that had come out that year about like how deep the levees should be in the ground and how tall they should be.
SPEAKER_02Oh no.
SPEAKER_00I don't get that, how that happens. Like, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. Maybe that was not okay. Yeah. I mean, and when you have like a bunch of engineers on it versus like one guy that was like, well, this is you know, like, how is the misunderstanding happening with a bunch of people?
SPEAKER_00Um anyway. So the guy that did the report of you know, like what the hell happened, he said this never would have happened if the army corps had hired an external like review board to double check their work. But they're the government and they're the army and they do whatever the hell they want. So that tracks. Um okay. Oh, there was this storm surge researcher. That's his that's what his title is. Storm Surge Researcher. Is that like your next job? Yes. I am going to school for that. Um before uh Katrina, he had been researching New Orleans specifically with Storm Surge and what would happen if there was like a cataclysmic hurricane event. Um, and he actually okay, this is what he said. Um, so when these two channels meet, talking about the Mississippi River Gulf outlet and the intracoastal waterway, um, the water building between their levees is squeezed into a single channel, a funnel. Um in concert with the denuded marshes, I don't know what that means, it could increase the local storm surge hitting the intracostal waterway by 20 to 40 percent, a critical and fundamental flaw. So the whole flood protection system, the whole levee system in this city is just it's bullshit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um okay.
SPEAKER_01Did this guy, did this levy research surge storm researcher guy, like did he come out with this report before or after the storm?
SPEAKER_00I swear I read that it was like three months coincidentally ahead of like because it was about to be hurricane, hurricane season.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I guess he came out with this report like three months before Katrina.
SPEAKER_01Oh, bummer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but nothing really came of it because of course no one took it seriously.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a bummer.
SPEAKER_00Um, there were also issues with the Cypress forests that um like historically protected the area from storm surge. They had seen salt water intrusion. Um no, I'm I got sorry. They are the they are the perfect shortcut for saltwater intrusion.
SPEAKER_01Um meaning like the water can just get right through them easily.
SPEAKER_00This is what I wrote down. The straight design and lack of outward flow into the Gulf allowed the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet Canal to become the perfect shortcut for saltwater intrusion. Oh, okay. So the design of the canals damaged, yes, the design of the canals damaged the buffering Cypress forests and wetlands.
SPEAKER_01Ah, that makes sense. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like, like had damaged it before this. So basically, oh go ahead. No, just like the system of the canal system um was already creating environmental issues and flaws in the flood protection system before this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And I think cypress trees are those trees actually that um they feed into water. They like love, like their roots, like because we had a cypress tree in our pond in Dallas, and it like always went into the tarp and like messed up our lining and stuff in the pond because it like craves water. So I think that's what those trees are. Yes.
SPEAKER_00They keep like erosion from happening and they're clear, they're a buffer. Yeah, they're good trees. They are great. Um, so okay. So Katrina hangs over New Orleans for hours. It just like takes its time, just pummeling the city. Um, and then it kind of swings to the east and it makes its technical third landfall um on the Louisiana-Mississippi border as a category three. It spawns 11 tornadoes in Mississippi. 11. And 18 tornadoes in Georgia. Oh, isn't that random?
SPEAKER_01No, because that those are like my recurring dreams. There's always like 11 or 18 in them. There's not just one. We'll talk about that later.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that wow, weird.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So, okay, so Katrina maintains her strength well into Mississippi, and she finally loses strength over Meridian, Mississippi, which is 150 miles inland. So the entire every single county in Mississippi was like declared as an emergency zone, basically. Oh. Um, and then she so she downgrades to a tropical storm and she heads into Tennessee and Kentucky.
SPEAKER_01Um, so I guess I never, I guess I realized that hurricanes, like the remnants keep going, but I never even knew it like anything about Search Kentucky.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like it, you know, obviously that makes sense, but yeah, you didn't hear about it.
SPEAKER_00You didn't hear about any, I mean, I didn't, any of the other areas.
SPEAKER_02I didn't, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So, okay, so then so okay, so this is the day after Tuesday, August 30th. So New Orleans is in a is in shambles. Um, the Mississippi coast is devastated. There's hundreds feared dead, there's millions of dollars of damage that they've already estimated. Um, there's you know, we all saw this footage of just people like stranded on their roofs and dead bodies floating in the streets.
SPEAKER_01Uh, it was so awful.
SPEAKER_00And like people, thousands of people just like wading through that nasty brown water. Ugh. With like makeshift rafts.
SPEAKER_02It's just a nightmare.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just like trying to find help, trying to find clean water.
SPEAKER_01Um, and I remember like when they were like looking for like their loved ones in the rubble, like they would like smell the scent of death, but it it might have been a human, it might have been like a cat or a dog. Like, how awful! Like you just didn't know what you were going to find.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. Oh, it was just death, especially in the ninth ward. It was just death, death, and it was um there just weren't resources. Like it was just a mad panic, and like looting starts, and people are like are looting legitimately just to find water and food. Oh, I know. Then there's like criminal looting where people are also stealing non-essentials, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I'm sure it got super violent. Like, like, and I don't even know really about that part, you know.
SPEAKER_00Well, I found this quote from the governor, Governor Blanco of Louisiana, and she said they, meaning like the troops that they bring in, um, they have M16s and are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill, and I expect they will.
SPEAKER_01Oh, god. Yeah, isn't that scary? That's a little scary.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So, okay, the city is a hellscape.
SPEAKER_01It's like we already have enough death here.
SPEAKER_00We don't yeah, yeah. But it's like it's chaos, and there's no law and order is just out the door.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I get it.
SPEAKER_00So it's basically like a post-apocalyptic scene. Um, total madness. The water stops rising on Wednesday, the 31st. Um, and then the relief effort starts. So there's um it's estimated that there's $125 or $125, $125 billion in damage at this part point. Like damn. And $125. Yeah. Um, so this makes Katrina the costliest hurricane tied with uh Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00Um, she was the fourth most intense hurricane to ever make landfall in the contiguous United States. And to this day, Katrina had the strongest and most extensive storm surge in the history of the United States.
SPEAKER_01So scary.
SPEAKER_00So it's just, you know, the overall sentiment is that President Bush, Ray Negan, the mayor, the governor, Governor Blanco, and then the director of FEMA, Michael Brown, all just made shitty decisions and dropped the ball.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and do you remember all that controversy with FEMA? Everyone hated their guts.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I remember something going on about it, but I don't remember what the issue was.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they just um really screwed up.
SPEAKER_01Um I feel like there was something else also with like one of the organizations, whether it was like, and don't quote me, it was like Red Cross or Celebation Army. And I I remember there was like people that were so mad at these um organizations because like the way they were distributing goods were like not going to the people who really needed it. Don't quote me. I just remember there was a bunch of stuff like that happening, and everyone was really divided.
SPEAKER_00I think, yeah, I well, okay, let's start with FEMA because I think I did write about maybe I didn't put those in my notes, but I definitely the Red Cross and the Salvation Army were largely involved in the relief effort. Um, and they did a ton of work down there. I'm sure there were controversies. I feel like the Red Cross actually and the Salvation Army like run into a lot of controversies.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And maybe I'm thinking about FEMA again. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Well, FEMA, so okay, so FEMA's the one, they were they're the agency, the government agency that was responsible for providing housing assistance, which they did. Um, but only one fifth of the like you heard the term FEMA trailer, like everybody lived in FEMA trailers. Only one fifth of the trailers needed were actually supplied. Um, so there was an enormous how to housing shortage.
SPEAKER_01Um was that because they didn't have them? They just did it, yeah.
SPEAKER_00They just didn't mobilize correctly and get them down there. Like there were so many different reasons why. But um FEMA paid for 12,000 people to stay in hotels until the February of the next year. Um, so that's good at least.
SPEAKER_01Wow, yeah, that's that's really good.
SPEAKER_00Um, and then they cut that off, but then they still um some evacuees were still eligible to receive assistance through them. Um oh, and you know, okay, so here's some some trivia. Do you remember when Kanye West said that George Bush doesn't care about black people? Yes. Okay, that's like, and and George Bush said that that was the worst moment of his presidency. I saw an interview where he said that.
SPEAKER_01No way, I never knew that George Bush said that. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00Kanye West made that statement at the at a um the like a Hurricane Katrina concert. Okay. That statement was in regards to Hurricane Katrina. I never knew that. Yeah, I never knew that either. I know, I thought he was just like speaking about it generally. Hmm. Um that's so interesting. I know. So yeah, I mean, like huge uh economic effects. Um uh the largest, okay. I'm gonna get this word right. Diaspora. Do you know what that is?
SPEAKER_01No, I do not. Please enlighten.
SPEAKER_00It's when it's when like a huge number of people all like move from one area to different areas because of something.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Well, I should know that term because I know. Um, and I still meet people from New Orleans because of who uh Hurricane Katrina in Dallas every time I go.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so a ton of people moved to Dallas. Tons, yeah. A ton of people moved to Mobile, Alabama, yeah, Baton Rouge, Chicago, got a ton of people. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's really fascinating.
SPEAKER_00I know.
SPEAKER_01Because I, you know, a lot of people also were just really scared to even try and rebuild, you know. It's you know.
SPEAKER_00Well, yes, and what I was seeing was it's going to happen again. It's it's a it's a city in the Gulf of Mexico that is below sea level.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like it's gonna keep happening. There were I read articles about how you couldn't even get homeowner insurance in a lot of places in in the city. They were like, no, there's no way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's tough. Yeah. So and you did you just see the latest hurricane? It actually hit, cut off Louisiana, and it was like really bad.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know they got hit this year bad.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00They they're right in the path, they're like right in the the zone.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so I I don't I don't know if you remember this, but do you remember how Brad Pitt designed and built a bunch of houses? No, for residents in the ninth ward through his foundation. And like so great. I didn't know that. Yeah, but now like the houses were like pieces of shit and like falling apart. And like I think he got sued. Brad, come on, use some good materials. I remember seeing him being interviewed, I think on like the today show about it. And the houses are all they're all different, and they're pretty cool looking and like colorful, but like they just were shitty.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god. Yeah. Way to go, Brad. Um, whatever. I guess maybe he had good intentions, but didn't know. Who knows?
SPEAKER_00I mean, he definitely had good intentions, but you gotta, you know, you gotta also make sure people can live in the house.
unknownOh god.
SPEAKER_00So um the state of no, the US government requests that the World Meteorological Organization retires the name Katrina from their list of names. Oh, because of the death that they don't they they usually don't retire the names, but because of the death toll, the government was like, Can you please take this off the list? So there's never another tropical storm or you know, any storm ever named this again.
SPEAKER_01Wow, I had no idea. And I didn't, I thought they would retire the name after the fact, no matter what, but that's really interesting. They did. I mean, I hope they don't do that, that would be awful. Like, no one wants another Katrina storm ever.
SPEAKER_00It just wouldn't, it wouldn't make sense. It wouldn't be very insensitive. So yeah, that is the story of Hurricane Katrina.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, that was so good. I feel so educated right now. There's so many things I had no idea.
SPEAKER_00Did you enjoy all my little nuggets of information?
SPEAKER_01I did, and I feel like I can go out into the world and talk about hurricanes a little bit better. I mean, like I just there's so many things I had no idea, and I can't believe how many tornadoes that stem from the hurricane. I mean, I've heard of that happening, obviously, especially when it hits land and everything, but 18 in whatever Georgia and Georgia and Florida, like, oh, I know. No thanks.
SPEAKER_00So I think is this a good time to take a break? Yeah, I don't you have to go get Lola. I do. Okay. So let's take a little break and we'll be back with your story. Okay, we're back from our little break.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that was a good one, V. You did a great job.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. That was so much research.
SPEAKER_01I know. It's a lot, but it's a it's you know, worthy of all the research because it was so incredibly hard for so many people and such a big deal in our history. So good job.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Now it's your turn. I like I have no idea which one you're doing.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so just a little bit of background information. Um, I was born in Dallas, Texas. Um, my parents were both teachers. Um, and so in the summers, uh we went to Maine, where my dad was from New England. So I now live in Maine permanently and have been for 10 years, but my background is living in Dallas. Um, so clearly one of my biggest fears is tornadoes.
SPEAKER_00Me too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And like I mentioned earlier in your podcast, um, I do have these really strange recurring dreams. And um it's always like once every, sometimes once every month, but once every two months, and I can't explain it, but it's always like I'm feeling I'm like facing a tornado. And then there's like, you know, I survived the first one somehow, like barely, but then there's always like 10 more coming at me. But it's like never, it's like terrifying in my dream, but it's always like a weird, crazy adventure. So I have no idea. I don't mind the dreams. I'm like, cool, like I survived this. Can I survive the other one? It's like really scary though.
SPEAKER_00It's so weird that you have recurring tornado dreams.
SPEAKER_01I know it's like a thing, it's the only recurring dream I really have.
SPEAKER_00And um, I don't know why, but that's fun though, that you go on like tornado chasing adventures in your dreams.
SPEAKER_01I literally can remember all of them too. Like one time I was in like a field and I went into the ditch and it like went right over me, but I was fine, like weird things like that. One time I was like flying in the air in a basement holding onto a chair. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god, that's so intense. I did not know.
SPEAKER_01I know. I know. Okay. Wow. So that's that. Um, and you know, we I've never personally had any really close calls. Um, I know that my mom did last year um in Dallas. She called me and she was hiding in the bathroom. And I'm telling all of this because it's important to kind of know um, you know, how we all have to deal with tornadoes there. Um, but she was hiding in the bathroom, which essentially is the center room of uh the house. And that's kind of how houses are built a lot in um, you know, tornado alley. Um, and it's usually you go into a room that doesn't have any windows. So she calls me crying and she's like, it's coming our way. And I'm like, oh my God, what do you do? And she was like, nothing. I don't know what to do. I just stay in here. That's terrifying. Yeah. And then it ended up like going north, and but it was like close enough. It I think it was like three highway exits down from where my mom's exit is off the highway. Um, and it ripped through I-75, you know, windows were shattered, Home Depot was completely destroyed, and um, it's really scary. And also, um, the other thing to note is that a lot of places, well, especially in Dallas, like the uh the soil is clay, so it's really, really expensive and hard to dig in. Right. So a lot of people don't have basements or shelters.
SPEAKER_00We've talked about this before. I've asked you this before. I feel like when we first met, I was like, I don't understand how in Tornado Alley people don't have basements.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like it makes such a huge difference, which um I'm gonna cover in this story. Um, but it's really a shame. I mean, you have to have like thousands and thousands of dollars if you want to build even like the smallest shelter. Right. Um, and you know, in Dallas, like it's kind of rare for a tornado to be heading toward your house, but if it's coming, you're pretty much screwed. Like, right. So, anyway, I am covering the story of Joplin, Missouri. Oh the tornado in Joplin, Missouri. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh my God, that's a big one.
SPEAKER_01It's a huge one. So we're starting off strong with our stories here.
SPEAKER_00Oh, we so are. We're we're starting with like epic storms, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And essentially, a lot of people, when they think of tornadoes, um, they think of Joplin, um, and there's reasons for that. So um, it was probably one of the worst tornadoes um in US history, the most costly at least. Um, it's a town of 50,000 people, and um, it killed 161 people, which if you do a lot of research on tornado deaths, 161 is very, very high. Yeah, it is. And um, there was 1,150 injured, which is a lot. Um, and the insurance payouts amounted to $2.8 billion, which is the highest in Missouri history, with the previous record of $2 billion for a hail storm in May 2001.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01So that's just a ton of money and so much devastation, as you can imagine. Um, again, it was the most costly tornado in US history. Um, it was the third and most devastating tornado to hit Joplin since May of 1971. So Joplin hasn't been, you know, they've been hit before. Um and um I think it, yeah, go ahead. Sorry. What year was this? Did it hit? Um, oh sorry, yeah, it was May uh 22nd, 2011.
SPEAKER_002011, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think I I remember this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's it's it was devastating. Um and uh so scientists like the devastation was so crazy, and the tornado was so big um that scientists like came from all over the country to study this tornado um because of its massive size and destruction. And they came together to see if there was anything to do um to sorry, anything they could do to prevent this much damage in the future. Um and so a lot of terrible things came out of this tornado, but a lot of great, amazing, life-changing um things came out of it too. So um I got my sources from, of course, Wikipedia, I mean the best.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, and then I also watched a documentary um that was really good. Um and I I recommend it to everybody. It's called Super Tornado, Anatomy of a Mega Disaster, um, produced by the Kansas City Star on YouTube. Um, so you can go find that. And then um the Kansas City Star also had written written a bunch of articles um around like survivor stories and just like other facts um around the tornado. And then I grabbed a couple of um stories from Huff Post as well. Wow. Um, so we will get into that. Um, so yeah, May 22nd, 2011. It was a really nice spring day out. So like blue skies, like everything was beautiful. Um, and then there was a low atmospheric pressure moving down from the northwest. And don't ask me really what that means because I'm not a weather like journalist or whatever, but that's what was going on.
SPEAKER_00I I know low pressure means bad weather, high pressure means good weather.
SPEAKER_01All right, well, there you go. This is why we make a good team.
SPEAKER_00I I I hope I'm right about that. I'm pretty yeah, low pressure is bad. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01Okay, well, that's what I'm assuming because it was like a horrible turn. All right. Um, so the weather report um came in and ordered a tornado watch from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Um that day. So a watch is more like look out, it could happen. A warning is like it's on the ground, like take cover. Right. Um, that was at 5.09 p.m. when they issued this warning. And obviously, um, no, I'm sorry. Um at 5.09 p.m., they issued a tornado warning in an area north from Joplin. So all of a sudden, like we're watching for the tornado, and then all of a sudden there's a warning, but it's north of Joplin. So people are on alert. And at 5:17 p.m., which is literally like not even 10 minutes later, they issued a warning for Joplin itself. And 17 minutes later, a mile wide tornado was on the ground heading for Joplin. Like, can you imagine a mile wide tornado? No, I can't.
SPEAKER_00I don't even I don't get it. What? Like a mile, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I don't have mild wide ones in my dreams, they're like all thin and skinny, but like if I saw a like a mile wide one, I would absolutely have a heart attack.
SPEAKER_00That's what I so like those skinny tornadoes you see in footage from afar, like they're they're they're way bigger, obviously. Those that footage is taken from miles away, exactly.
SPEAKER_01And they're like just as I mean, not just as devastating. They all have you know the the skinny ones are really bad too, but like yeah, visually, like I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I'm just trying to picture that in my head.
SPEAKER_01And imagine if you actually are close to it and like you're trying to run and you're like trying to out like run a mile to get away from this mile tornado. It's like I don't think that's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00No, I don't think, yeah. Um, so like a mile is like from me to my mom's house. Oh, I think I'm trying to like, can you like what's a mile for you?
SPEAKER_01Like I'm like well, I know my like I I take walks a lot and I know like my mile tracker, but it's a long way. I would never be able to like outrun it, you know. Um, so it's a lot. Uh so this thing, uh the civil defense sirens went off, which is like the tornado sirens. Um but of course, 17 minutes is not a long time to escape a mile-wide tornado. So there's warning, but there's not enough warning. Um, the tornado went right through the center of town and its track was 22 miles. So the mile wide thing went 22 miles.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01So it's a lot. Um there was a lot of debate about so when you think of Joplin, or when a lot of people think of Joplin, including myself before I did the research, everyone's like F5 immediately, like it's huge, you know, so devastating. Um, but there are mixed reports that it was an EF4 to an EF5. It's like a whole debate. Um, according to the report, over 83% of the damage was caused by wind speeds of 130 miles an hour or less, which means that it was an EF2. Oh my god. Yeah. So the so the scale goes, you know, EF0 is light and it's uh up to 85 miles an hour, and EF1 is up to 110 miles an hour, an EF2 is up to 135 miles per hour, the EF3 is up to 165 miles per hour, the EF4 is up to 200 miles per hour, and then the EF5 is 200 plus.
SPEAKER_00How like how does how does the anyone survive an EF5 tornado? I know this one is isn't, but that that's crazy.
SPEAKER_01No idea. Um, an additional 13% of the damage um was caused by EF3 winds, which um again is the up to 135 miles per hour. Um, and 3% was consistent with an EF4, which means it reached up to 200 miles an hour. However, uh researchers concluded that due to the absence of construction standards, that um they were unable to determine um, you know, that if the tornado did get above 200 uh miles per hour, so they couldn't roll out an EF5 because like the damage was so devastating. And there are like certain things that made them think, okay, this definitely was an EF5. So that's just a little bit of history I found interesting on how tornadoes are like you know uh mapped out and how they come up with their um their numbers.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So they so like how do they like figure out what EF number the tornado like it just because I will go into that.
SPEAKER_01It's so fascinating. Yeah, it's so fascinating. Okay. Um so according to the National Weather Service, it was reported that 75% of Joplin suffered destruction. Um, in total, nearly 7,000 houses were destroyed. Um most were flattened or completely blown away, and uh over 850 others were damaged.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_01So that's just a lot. And to be like, that's the thing when I think about tornadoes, I'm like when they're coming at you, you know, and you and then you hear about these houses just flattened, like a bathroom is not gonna save you. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00No, I mean it's just not because everything's gonna fall on you, like the drywall and the hit you. Aren't you supposed to put like a mattress over you?
SPEAKER_01Yes, there's so many things that you're supposed to do. Um, so I have some tidbits for you of people who live in Dallas. Um, and I just kind of went through and asked them, um, what do you do if a tornado's coming right after after you or like toward you?
SPEAKER_00Let's get some tips.
SPEAKER_01And so I asked my friend Elizabeth and Andrew from Dallas. Um, they had some scares recently too. I think it was a couple years ago, but one was right in their neighborhood as well. And it was super scary. And I said, when a tornado is heading toward you, do you have a plan? And Andrew said, Yes, go to the most central room closet in the house and take cover. And I said, Okay, thank you. Do you cover yourself with a mattress? And if you have, um, if you had the time, um, do you have a shelter nearby to run to? And he said, We don't use mattresses, um, but it is recommended. And bathroom or closet, not just a room. Um, our winter coat closet in the center of our house is our go-to. So um, and then I uh and then Elizabeth chimed in and said, I wish we had a shelter. It's worth the expense to me. I have PTSD from the last tornado. Yeah. So that's just like one example of um kind of what people are, you know, trained to do, like go into the middle room, no windows, like put the mattress over if you can. Um, and I'm laughing because um then I had I'd interviewed my friend uh Nishay, who actually lives in Oklahoma. And um, you know, I kind of asked her the same thing, and I'm just pulling it up here. Um sorry.
SPEAKER_00It's okay.
SPEAKER_01You might have to cut some of this time out because I should have had this. No, no, no, you're fine.
SPEAKER_00I'm just thinking, I'm just picturing myself like hoisting my mattress off my bed. I wouldn't make it to the bathroom. And how do you get your mattress in the in your bathroom?
SPEAKER_01Uh kind of a tight fit. Exactly. Like, I don't know. Like it would, I would have a really hard time fitting it through the door, let alone like getting there in time. Okay, so then I asked Nishay, who lives in Oklahoma, when you when a tornado is heading toward you, do you have a plan? And she goes, Grab your feet and kiss your ass goodbye. I thought that was great. That's because literally that's pretty much what is gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00Mine would be like grab the vodka and some snacks.
SPEAKER_01I know, and go into the bathroom and oh my god, same. So then um I also called my mom and I basically was like, what is your plan? Do you have a plan? And for some reason I thought, um, I know that SMU, uh Southern Methodist University, where she works. Um, I feel like there's places like um where I I went to school there um for um art and I know there's like basements in that area, but I was like, Do you ever think to run to the school and try to take cover and some of the lower you know spots? And she was like, No, that usually there's not enough time. And I was like, So, mom, what's your plan? She goes, I don't have one, and I was like, Oh my god. So it's like it's really terrifying. So people just like again, that's why you know, tornadoes like scare the crap out of me, because if there is an emergency and it's coming toward me, it's like, yeah, I I'm with Shay. Grab your feet and kiss your ass goodbye, you know.
SPEAKER_00And that's the thing about all of these houses that don't have like we have like a huge basement where I live. If a tornado came through, it probably wouldn't. But if a tornado came through, like we're underground in a basement with concrete walls all around us.
SPEAKER_01I just I know why does the north have so many basements and we have nothing?
SPEAKER_00I just don't, I mean, I know the clay soil you said, and it's really expensive, but I feel like it would be one of those super necessary things to make sure you have like a storm shelter.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Um, so here are a couple like just small tidbits um that I got um from these sites I sourced uh of just some survivor stories. Um, there was like an old couple, Margaret and William. Margaret was 73 years old, and William was 78. They were sitting in their living room, and I guess it was coming right at them. And the first thing they thought to grab was some photo albums, which is so cute. And um, just as they reached for the photo album, a piece of metal just came and sliced William's wrist. Oh um, and then Margaret's glasses were ripped from her face, and they had been married for 58 years, and when all of this went down and the tornado was hitting, he covered his body to shield her and they lived.
SPEAKER_00Oh, so like the the obviously like the windows were blown out or something. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like, and if you watch this um documentary on YouTube, again, it was called Super Tornado Anatomy of a Mega Disaster. Um, you can see, like, it's so scary to me. Like they have um cameras inside the cafeteria at their high school that shot the entire thing of the tornado just ripping through the cafeteria. And like it is a nightmare. Like I cannot imagine. Um, same with the hospital, too. They have like all this footage that, you know, of just these like surveillance cameras that like caught all of it. Um and then just a couple couple other stories. Um, so a guy named Jared Sice and his fiance, all the skies were clear, but they got hit by the eye of the storm in the basement. So they were one of the lucky few that had a basement um in Joplin. Um they protected themselves with two pieces of plywood and a tarp. It lasted about 20 seconds, which I'm sure was forever for them. Um, stice said when the two crawled out of their basement along with their dog Baloo, a few outside walls were the only thing left in their three-story brick house. So again, bathroom's not gonna save you.
SPEAKER_00In a brick house.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, gone. Like their whole thing was gone except for like a couple of walls. Wow. So again, they were one of the very lucky few who had basements. So you can see like the impact on you know, having that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, another story was as search and rescue crews went from building to building, this is after the fact, along Main Street. Six-year-old Dallas Lee was near 24th in Maine, watching her mom Trista, go through her dad's Ford F-150 looking for his wallet. My sister had a big gash in her forehead. Dallas said as she stood in a light rain, the hood of pink sweatshirt covering her head, and my brother has a big gash in his left leg. My dad's in the hospital, too. So these are all like all the things that they're seeing, you know, as the storm is like gone and everything. So they didn't even have enough time, but the five members of the Lee family rode out the storm in the bed of their pickup truck. What now it's now crumbled and twisted like a tin can, the windshield shattered, the doors bent in. They were trying to get to the church where they heard was a shelter, but the church was locked.
SPEAKER_00Oh, good. I thought churches are supposed to be open all the time.
SPEAKER_01That's what I thought too. But hell. Um, and like that's another thing that that was another problem in this whole thing is that, you know, not only were there, you know, barely any basements for people to get to, or people didn't have them, um, there was no um shelters in place for these people. Um, you know, and like churches were, you know, known uh to be the shelter, but it was locked. So who knows? Um, and they said we didn't know where the other shelters were. So I mean shelters just like weren't, you know, a thing announced. Um, she said, uh, I told my husband the safest place is to be home before they could get there. The winds picked up and the truck was slammed into the ground.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01And they all lit, they all lived. Yay!
SPEAKER_00I can't believe they so they were in the bed of the pickup truck.
SPEAKER_01Yes, they like literally like were trying to get home and didn't make it in time and then got into the bed of their pickup truck. Maybe they had, I'm assuming they had one of those covers because it doesn't really say, but you know, like how you can cover the bed of your pickup, right? Because if like if the doors are bent in and it's slammed to the ground, like I don't know how else you are gonna survive with the windows blown out and everything, right? Um, yeah, so that's like another story. Um, and then um this one was this guy named Garrett McKinsey. He was 21. He was sitting with his two friends in IHOP at 20th Street in Rangeline Road. Another buddy called him on his cell, telling him the television was indicating that a tornado was possibly heading their way. Um, the friends had just ordered food, so they waited. They were like, Well, my food's coming, like, fuck that. I mean, whatever. They're like, um, uh yeah. A few minutes passed, um, and the sky had blackened, debris began pelting the window, and then they all like everything went black, and um, the electricity went out. Um, the manager rushed. Everyone to get into the back of the restaurant, towards the kitchen. In a few seconds before the building would come crashing down, all three took out their phones and texted their parents. We're in a tornado. I love you. Just before the windows blew out, McKinsey dove into the kitchen. His friends were in the bathroom. The ceiling collapsed. People in the kitchen held tight. They hugged each other. They cried, I'm going to die today. But when the tornado rode on, him and his friends all survived.
SPEAKER_00See, I would feel like that's where you would want to be because like go into like the walk-in fridge.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's where I would go.
SPEAKER_01I'm afraid of walk-in fridges too. I'm always afraid I'm gonna get locked in there and freeze.
SPEAKER_00Yes, but um, don't they have I feel like they're like they're like metal boxes inside a building. I feel like that would be the place to go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's true. I mean, I'd rather I'd probably do that at that point, but again, I don't know. That's the point is that tornadoes are so unpredictable, they change course in one second. You have no idea what's gonna happen. It's so crazy. So they're terrifying.
SPEAKER_00Well, and that's the thing, like with hurricanes, you do have a lot of notice.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You can prepare and get out of there. Tornadoes are so terrifying because they just like like that.
SPEAKER_01I know. Um, there's another story. Uh, Nathan Powell was at his home in the apartment at 2120 Hampshire Terrace with his four children and little brother. When they heard the tornado was on the ground coming toward them, he rounded them up and thought um they would try to get to the nearby church. So apparently this is a theme, like go to the church, you know. Um, but at this point they knew they wouldn't make it there. And thank God they didn't even try because it was probably the same church that was locked. Um I know.
SPEAKER_00I've never heard of a church being locked during the day.
SPEAKER_01I know it's really weird because it was like in the afternoon, right? I mean, it was like 517. Like evening.
SPEAKER_00Like I've never it's that's I thought it was supposed to be open at night too, so you can like I thought it's always supposed to be open, so you can go in and like find your lord or whatever.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. We'll have to deal with that at another time. Who knows? Some all of you people who go to church, tell us, write us in and tell us about it.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Um, I yeah, anyways. Um, so I got them into a sorry, uh, so this guy, Nathan, he got all of his kids um under a stairwell in the apartment building and then it hit. Um, Powell grabbed hold of all of the children and they clung tightly to one another. He said it lasted for 45 seconds, which is terrifying. He said the almost 200 mile per hour wind was a roar, but not like a train, like they say, which I I found really interesting. And he said it actually sounded more like a vacuum.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was like, that's so weird because everyone's always like, Oh, it sounds like a freight train, you know. And this guy was like, No, and this was like a huge tornado and it sounded like a vacuum, so who knows? Um, he said, I was holding on to the kids and they literally floated off the ground. Like, fuck what? No, no, I'm not doing that. Like holy shit. That is like so to your poor children, it'd be like Lola floating. Lola's her daughter, by the way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I yeah, she's awesome. No, I can't. I mean, and you're I mean, I'm sure he's holding on to them as tight as he can.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, that's terrifying. Um, he said they screamed and the youngest girl vomited, like obviously, wouldn't we? Wouldn't we all be? I know. Um, when the wind stopped and Powell and the chick, uh in the I almost said the chicken.
SPEAKER_00I know, I was like, he had a chicken too. Wow, he saved his chickens.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, good. Uh when the wind stopped and Powell and the uh children came up from the stairwell, did it again. Um, came up from the stairwell, it was all gone. The whole apartment building was gone.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01Uh then Monday morning, a thunderstorm hit Joplin, heavy rain and lightning and hail, and the kids screamed again, thinking the tornado was coming back. So those are some really terrifying but great stories. So none of them died. Thank God. I'm so glad for survivor stories. Um, this is some really interesting stuff um that I also didn't know. And this is like the aftermath of the storm. Um, so this is a really big bummer. So in one indirect fatality, so as you just heard in the last survivor story, like another bad thunderstorm came through the next day.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01And people are like, Are you serious? Like a tornado just destroyed our town. Now there's like another thunderstorm. Like, talk about hell, you know. Um, and it says, um, well, I wrote, in one indirect fatal uh fatality, a policeman was struck by lightning and killed while assisting in recovering and cleanup efforts. Oh no. So what the hell? That's this police officer is trying to help, and then a lightning bolt strikes him.
SPEAKER_00What are the the chances of getting struck by lightning aren't they? They're so slim. There's and he's like helping. That's terrible.
SPEAKER_01The hell it's so terrible. Um, another five indirect fatalities occurred after a disease outbreak called, okay, I'm gonna try. Uh muca rhymosis. Uh yeah. Muca rhymecosis. M-U-C-O-R-M-Y-C-O-S-I-S.
SPEAKER_00Never heard of that.
SPEAKER_01So it infected 13 people, possibly 18. Um, and it basically is caused by a fungal spore in the environment, um, most likely from cuts and bruises from the tornado, like a cut, scrape, burn, other kinds, other types of skin trauma. Um, so you know, some of those people died of that.
SPEAKER_00They died, they they died of it. It killed it. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there were no, sorry, another five indirect fatalities occurred, but 13 to 18 people had it. This is just like aftermath of the storm. So five of them did die from this. Yeah. And you can imagine all of the fungal spores in the atmosphere after you know, all those housings and everything was blown over and everywhere.
SPEAKER_00Like how like I guess I'm trying to understand it.
SPEAKER_01Like diving digging through rubbit, uh like rubble, or I don't know. Okay, you know, or like getting a cut and being really infected because everything's disgusting because everything's everywhere.
SPEAKER_00That kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, this is awful. Sorry, I just had to include it because it's killer earth. Um, due to horrific injuries suffered by some victims, there were so many different sets of remains from a single person in like a lot of places. Wow. Yeah. So you'd find like a leg here or one there. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00So people were ripped apart.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Sorry. Yeah, that's it was oh, I can't. Um okay, so 54 per sorry, uh, 54% of the people died in their residences, 32% died in non-residential areas, and 14% died in vehicles or outdoors, which I found interesting. Um, officials said they rescued 944 pets and nine, or sorry, and 292 were reunited with their owners, which is like a lot of pets. Yeah, but uh, but like 944 were rescued and only 292 reunited. So that's not good. I don't know, it's really sad.
SPEAKER_00So I wonder how that like what what what the reason was that they didn't reunite them. If you know your animal is missing, don't you go looking for?
SPEAKER_01Probably, or like the devastation was so terrible that like that was unfortunately something they couldn't even worry about. I like I I couldn't imagine I'd be so worried about my pet, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_01So this is a really interesting fact that I had no idea. Um due to the due to several uh damn, sorry, uh due to the damage from, you know, um the tornado, um, the Piccadilly Circus was supposed to be was scheduled to like do their circus act that next day. Um, and they obviously couldn't. So as a result, the circus employees brought their two adult elephants to drag damaged automobiles and other debris out of the roadway to make paths for first first responders. Isn't that cool?
SPEAKER_00Not really. I think that's terrible that they made the elephants be like excavators. No, I know, but like, come on, don't they have a hard enough life performing in your stupid circus? Now they're like that's true. Now they're heavy equipment for you.
SPEAKER_01Uh okay, maybe cut that out. No, I just no like what? I just thought like the elephants like did a really good deed, like helping get stuff out of the way for these first first responders, but also like free them after that, like take them to their place and let them room free.
SPEAKER_00No my god, cut this out. No, I mean, no, that's cool. That's very cool.
SPEAKER_01It's not that it's cool, it's just an interesting fact. Okay. I do not I do not approve of riding elephants and that, nor I do approve them in the circus.
SPEAKER_00Um, but used for tornado relief.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. Well, they did what they could do. Hold on, speaking of trying, we're trying here.
SPEAKER_00Speaking of elephants, I have to let the dog out one second. This is an unpredictable thing.
SPEAKER_01That's okay. We're in quarantine, you guys. We're all doing this podcast from our home, so there are gonna be some hiccups. Not that her dog Rocco is a hiccup, he's actually really awesome.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I'm back. We can edit that.
SPEAKER_01Okay, should I should I re-re let me just re-record the elephant statement so I don't know? No, don't that was a good moment.
SPEAKER_00That was a good moment.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay. Well, I just want them to know I'm not an elephant hater.
SPEAKER_00You're not an elephant, nobody thinks that. It's just funny that you were like, Isn't that cool? It is cool, but it's also so awful that like they had to do that.
SPEAKER_01Well, I know, but okay. I love elephants, everyone.
SPEAKER_00Maybe I hope the elephants got some personal satisfaction from helping, but they probably were like, cool.
SPEAKER_01So hopefully they got released afterwards and they could like where right in the wild. I don't know. Where do they go? Africa, go to Africa or Thailand. No, don't. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Hopefully, those elephants earned their freedom.
SPEAKER_01They should have owned earned their freedom for sure. Yeah, okay. So those were some stories and facts about the tornado. And now, um, also just a side note, did you know that two days after Joplin on May 24th, 2011, over central Oklahoma Oklahoma, there was another mile-wide tornado that went 63 miles long um near the town of El Reno. Oh wow. I know. So this was like not a good couple of days for a tornado alley. Um, so going back to your question about how they determined, um uh oh, sorry. Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_00No, what?
SPEAKER_01Oh, it was just um my Lenovo computer was like, hey, update this and it made a noise.
SPEAKER_00I didn't hear it, no.
SPEAKER_01Oh, sorry. It's okay. Okay, let me just take a minute. Okay, um, so going back to your um comment about like how they determine, you know, wind speed and um damage and all that, I found this really amazing. Um, so basically they looked at the damage mapped by wind in field um, you know, from an aerial camera. So they took a video or like a photo from, you know, an aerial view, and then they were able to like color code things that had the worst wind speed and like less wind speed. So it actually created this like color coding uh pattern. Um, and I can try to find that if we're like interested in putting on like Instagram, but I found it really fascinating. So it was all color coded, so you could actually see where the worst winds happened and where the damage was most done. And then you can see like like red was the worst, yellow was like, you know, intermediate. Um and it all went by like what you know, the demolished um items, like, and that's how they were color coded or whatever. So the strongest winds just over two miles an hour um were the four out of five, which we talked about, but it's if it's over 200, it's five. Again, that's a debate. Structures in the center of tornado were marked demolished by matching damage to wind speed. Um, along the 22 mile damage path, 40% of the fatality and 90% of the damage came from winds as an EF3, which we had mentioned. Um this means improved design and safety procedures might be able to save property and lives. This report caused for national accepted standards and codes that would for the first time directly address tornado hazards. Um, so basically, uh, like I said, Joplin had no organized community tornado shelters whatsoever. I think the only thing that was kind of a known thing was go to the church.
SPEAKER_00That surprises me, considering their location, that they wouldn't have more of a strategy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, only 18% of the structures and damage paths were equipped with basements and ground tornado shelters. 18%. That's it. So that again just reiterates like that barely anyone has shelters. And if they did, they're very lucky because those people survived.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Um, of the 71 people who died in sheltered buildings, no one died in a tornado shelter or basement.
SPEAKER_00There you go.
SPEAKER_01So crazy.
SPEAKER_00Quite effective.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, the report also called for improved uh construction standards. Scientists identified common themes and structures, uh, roofs that circum to a flicking force of the winds, uh, sorry, of the winds, uh, walls that were not securely anchored to the foundations. So basically what they were finding was that um the roof was the first thing to come off on all of these buildings, and a like almost like all of these buildings that were built did not have um securely anchored foundations to their concrete foundation, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Because they were like older homes or they were like like shittily made homes.
SPEAKER_01I don't I don't know the answer to that, but like what I'm assuming is that like they just didn't have the standards or codes for it because like it, you know, it was kind of like build the homes the way they should be built, and you know, it takes something like this to make the changes, right? Um so the Frank, uh the Franklin Technology Center, for example, was downtown. It experienced winds of 170 miles per hour. The roof was pulled from the walls. Um, and that building was destroyed because the walls just like came down and the roof was gone. And you gotta understand that this is causing a um, oh I'm trying to think of the word, like a not a triple effect. What do you call it? Like a snowball effect.
SPEAKER_00A snowball effect, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thanks. Um, where you know, there's a building here, the roof comes off, the walls come off, it's into our 100 mile an hour winds. Okay, now it's hitting the next building, now it's hitting the next building. So it's like a nightmare.
SPEAKER_00It's like um because isn't debris the biggest hazard during a tornado?
SPEAKER_01Yes, absolutely it is, and that's why like this. Um, we you know, we're looking at improving the shelters now um to make sure that this doesn't the snowball effect doesn't happen. Um, the Home Depot, about a half a block away from the center of the tornado, had completely collapsed. Um, and also the one I was telling you about in the beginning of my story with the Home Depot being completely destroyed in Dallas after that tornado, same thing.
SPEAKER_00What is with the Home Depot being destroyed?
SPEAKER_01It's the way it's just put together, you know. It's just like I'm sure they have like a makeshift build a home depot healed here, build it here, and it has a manual and everything, and it just goes right up.
SPEAKER_00And they're these huge warehouse type buildings, and you think they would be secure, and that's where I would go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So the Home Depot, a half a block away from the center of the tornado, had completely collapsed. The weight of the roof was supported by steel columns and reinforced concrete walls. So when sections of the roof were pulled off, the walls lost their lateral support and collapsed. But the Home Depot loading area um in the back, the walls had additional supports and that whole structure held up.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_01So the additional supports is like really important. Um, the Joplin High School, which I had mentioned, that you can see the footage in that um YouTube documentary. Um, the Joplin High School and Middle School suffered direct hits. Um that's where you can see like that footage of the cafeteria or whatever. Um, St. John's Regional Medical Center was located right in the center of the tornadoes path. The overall structure stayed intact because heavy steel and concrete frame was bolted securely in place, but debris penetrated windows, and 14 people died, including intensive care patients, four of them needing respirators. Oh yeah. Oh they died because a building um housing the backup generator was flattened and crushed them. Oh the backup. Yeah, so the steel reinforcements that like held the walls together of the hospital, like was kind of a reason it was able to stand, but it was still messed up and everything got blown in. But the building behind them, the generator uh housing unit part like flattened them. So it's really terrible. Um, this was the one section of the hospital that uh had higher power resistant glass. Um so basically the loss of the roof was the biggest cause of damage if walls weren't secured to their foundation. Um, so like again, that glass uh part, sorry, that was in my notes, but um only a section of it had uh high power resistant glass, which I found interesting. Like not the whole hospital. So a lot of the hospital windows were blown out, but some like a section of it wasn't because the wall they could like withstand up to 170 miles an hour.
SPEAKER_03So I thought that was interesting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um basically um an apartment complex called Mercy Village remained mostly intact. Um, it was not in the direct path, but also was pounded by debris. Um, but the roof had recently been reinforced using hurricane clips, which are required in many coastal communities, but are rarely used in tornado country.
SPEAKER_00I've never heard of that hurricane clips.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so basically, like all of the new buildings or like buildings in Florida are reinforced with hurricane clips now. So like I don't know like all of them, but like that's the the that's the code.
SPEAKER_00What is a hurricane clip?
SPEAKER_01It's basically like um, I saw a picture of it, but it it doesn't look like a big deal, but it's like oh, I can't even imagine. I'll I'll have to send you a picture. It's like um picture a triangle with the bottom. I can't do this description at all.
SPEAKER_00Um, what part of the building is it on?
SPEAKER_01On the roof, yeah, like it like reinforces the roof, it holds the roof to the side of the building, yes, and then the walls are securely like you know, attached to the foundation. Oh, so like that's a good idea. Yeah, so they're called hurricane clips, and I'm sorry you guys, I don't have a great description, I know what I'm talking about, but like I'll send a picture on Instagram or something. Um so they this building had uh recently been for reinforced by the hurricane clips. Um when they started to rebuild the city, council changed code and required hurricane clips and secured walls to foundations on all new construction. The new codes did not require tornado shelters, but they did require tornado safe rooms and public buildings, which is like huge. Because again, they had the damn church that was locked, so who knows? Um, they ended up tearing the hospital down and rebuilt. Um, they have this like really nice statue that's there now and like overlooks the park. Um, but the new hospital is now Mercy Hospital, which we have one in Maine. Um it's a model. For tornado safety buildings includes duplicate power, sorry, duplicate power systems located underground. So now they don't have the backup generators in another building. So now like all of the like public buildings in Joplin and it's become a thing like in the South, like new construction, you have to have tornado safety rooms.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Some parts of the hospital have impact resistant windows that are designed to withstand 200 mile per hour winds. The high school was also rebuilt for uh you know using the same technology. Um now it's required in Alabama and Illinois um uh to have the tornado shelters and new school constructions. Uh Joplin was one of the four long track powerful tornadoes in 2011 that cost uh so like they had four powerful ones in 2011 in Tornado Alley, and it cost like all four of them cost uh 10 to 12 billion dollars in damage, and 553 lives were lost. Wow, so so scary um and sad. Yeah, uh so this is kind of cute. Many uh children in the town are told of a presence of butterfly people. So if you ever go to a Joplin, there's like butterflies painted all over the place, like there's like murals and stuff. And they're told, I know, and they're told of butterfly people that appear to them when a storm is coming, and these butterfly people will protect them and their families. And it's just like so cute. Um, and then they also have a Joplin Memorial Run. Um, like you can go to their website, uh, just Google Joplin Memorial Run, and they do a run every year um that helps still raise money um for the community. It's just like a really powerful way to all get together and you know celebrate the lives that were lost and all of that. And that is the story of the Joplin tornado, and I'm sure there's so much more, and thanks for listening, but um, I found it to be very interesting.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Oh my god, I learned so much.
SPEAKER_01I know we're just like we're gonna be so educated.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I didn't know so many of those things.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I remember it being on the news and it was this huge deal, but yeah, I just love how it really changed the way um, you know, houses are built. And like it it's so like I said from the very beginning, like no one knows where to go. Like Dallas, like, you know, I don't live there anymore permanently. I obviously visit like twice a year, but I I don't really know of anywhere that's called like a shelter, you know, for a tornado. Like I don't have that information, and it really needs to be taken seriously and organized because it's one of those things that you just don't know, you know, it can happen to anyone, and it's it's very terrifying.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, they're they're those communities need shelters and they all need storm shelters. There have to be designated places if you're just driving around and the tornadoes you know starts ripping through that you can quickly get to, right?
SPEAKER_01And again, like my family's house was built in the 70s, and I guarantee they don't have foundation clips, right? Or sorry, hurricane clips, and I guarantee their foundation isn't like secure to the you know, it's just you know, it's the kind of thing that you really should think about if you are gonna live in the south. Like, have a plan. Um, if it is in the middle of your house, like can you fit a bait? Can you fit a mattress over it? I don't know. There's a lot to think about. Yeah, grab grab your like storm bag, make sure it has like some vodka, some snacks, some water.
SPEAKER_00The vodka.
SPEAKER_01Don't forget it, or if it's wine that you love, bring that. Whatever you need, you're whatever you need as an anti-anxiety, you know, thing. Get it. But yeah, I think we both learned a lot today. This has been really fun.
SPEAKER_00Well, we also it just reiterates that you and I live in the northeast for a reason.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. You know, I mean, I would I wouldn't mind a good hurricane, no damage. Um we actually we actually did have a uh a tornado up here at Sabago Lake. I think it was Little Sabago. My cousin showed me the damage, it was a small one, not to discount it because it still caused damage. Um, but we do get tornadoes once in a while up here. But yeah, I mean, girl, mm-mm.
SPEAKER_00We don't get the big no tornadoes that just have free rain in the flatlands down there.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm just I'm just not into it.
SPEAKER_00Wow, wow, that was really good. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thank you. This has been really fun. I hope all of you guys learned something today.
SPEAKER_00Our first episode. So every episode we'll do, we'll each probably cover a different disaster.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And like, you know, the point of us doing this is like, let's get people educated and make things better so that when these disasters that are bound to happen, which are going to happen, at least we can have some kind of preparation and you know, plan in place. I mean, there's only so much you can do sometimes, but let's, you know, let's learn.
SPEAKER_00Well, on that note, should we sign Lola? You want to say signing out? Sign it out.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I love you. Okay, bye. Okay, everyone.