User:Runningonbrains/Northeast tornado outbreak

The Northeastern United States tornado outbreak of 1989 was a series of tornadoes which injured more than 200 people and caused more than $275 million in damage on July 10, 1989. While tornado outbreaks in this area are unusual, this storm was especially rare in that is produced 6 significant tornadoes, two of which were violent F4s, and featured many tornadoes with tracks of several miles.

Storm details
The damage actually began early in the morning. A tornado briefly touched down in Ogdensburg at 5 AM, injuring one person. Hail up to 1 inch wide, wind gusts over 50 mph (60 km/h), and many reports of wind damage were reported in New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts before noon. In the afternoon, however, activity increased in severity.

Schoharie County tornadoes
The event which devastated areas from Montgomery to Greene County caused $20,000,000 in damage and injured 20 people. While official archives say that it was a single tornado, it was likely 3 or more tornadoes, each producing F3 to F4 damage. The event is listed as a single F4 tornado in the official Storm Prediction Center archives, however, only damage near Greenville was at the F4 level, and some sources doubt it even reached that intensity at all.

The first tornado touched down three miles east of Ames at 127 PM, moving almost directly southeast. It passed near or through the towns of Carlisle, Howe Caverns, Central Bridge, and Schoharie before lifting. Continuing as a funnel for about 10 miles, the tornado touched down briefly near Rensselaerville. After another 10 miles, the tornado touched down a third time between Greenville and Surprise.

Connecticut tornado family
An hour after the previous event reigned destruction in Upstate New York, a new tornado family began producing significant damage in the adjacent state of Connecticut. The first tornado, which may have been three separate tornadoes, started its path of destruction in Cornwall, leveling a virgin forest known as Cathedral Pines. The tornado continued south-southeast through Milton, leveling hundreds more trees, and destroyed the village of Bantam before disippating. Strong winds continued to cause damage and level trees after this tornado stopped causing damage. It was during this period between tornadoes that a 12-year-old girl was killed by falling trees in Black Rock State Park.

Soon afterwards, another tornado touched down in Watertown, passing through Oakville and northern Waterbury, damaging or destroying 150 homes.

Hamden tornado
The Hamden tornado was by far the most destructive tornado of this family, and possibly the most damaging of the entire outbreak. The damage path was only five miles long, stopping just short of the city of New Haven, but it destroyed almost 400 structures in its path of destruction. Industrial cranes and cars were tossed through the air, and rows of houses, as well as an industrial park, were flattened. The National Guard was called in to aid in cleanup and keep order, as some looting was reported in the devastated area. The damage was so intense that much of the area was without power for a week, and trees were still being cleared a year later.

The storm was so intense at this point that an 80 mph (130 km/h) wind gust was measured in downtown New Haven after the tornado disippated. About the same time, a tornado struck the area between Carmel and Brewster, unroofing a condominium. Five people were injured.

Long Island
The storms continued to produce damage after crossing onto Long Island. An F2 tornado caused significant damage in the town of East Moriches. A man was thrown with his trailor The tornado was accompanied by 2.5 inch (6.4 cm) hail. Other areas further east also saw straight-line wind damage and hail up to an inch across.

Massachusetts storms
While the destructive tornadoes were affecting Connecticut, this part of the storm produced 4 brief F1 tornadoes in quick succession north of Worcester, which occurred between 4 PM and 4:15 PM. These tornadoes each produced damage paths less than 150 feet (45 m) wide, and less than 0.5 miles (0.8 km) long. Moving east-southeast into southern Middlesex County, it continued producing severe winds (gusting up to 90 mph; 145 km/h) and very heavy rain. Another tornado touched down very briefly in Norfolk County, followed by two more brief touchdowns in Plymouth County near 17:30. The storm then weakened, but still managed to produce 60 mph (95 km/h) winds on Cape Cod, before finally moving out into the Atlantic and dissipating.

There was some damage to homes and other structures from this storm, however, most damage was confined to wooded areas. Several major roads, including Route 9, Route 12, and Interstate 190, were closed due to flooding or downed trees. The main financial impact was from damage to utilites, which totalled over $2 million in Princeton alone.

New Jersey storms
Around the same time, the last of the activity was affecting areas of northern New Jersey. Two F0 and an F1 tracked through parts of Passaic and Bergen counties, snapping and uprooting trees, and causing $4 million in damage. About 150 houses were damaged in Bergen county alone.

Historic outbreak
This storm event was one of the most extensive ever seen in the Northeastern United States. In all, 17 tornadoes touched down, possibly more. There were 14 instances of measured severe winds were reported (several over 90 mph) along with 46 reports of straight-line wind damage. There were 10 reports of hail 1" across or larger, and hail 2.5 inches wide fell from one storm, which was producing a tornado at the time. Hail this large is especially rare in this area of the world.

142 people were injured by tornado damage, and 1 death and 11 injuries were caused by wind damage. While many of the wind damage reports were due to a line of strong thunderstorms travelling through Upstate New York, all but one of the tornadoes were produced by three separate, long-lived supercells. In just 5 hours, the storms produced more than 12500 lightning strikes. The airport in Oxford, CT recorded 4.4 inches (112 mm) of rain in just 30 minutes. While the northeastern United States experiences occasional tornadoes, an event of this scale is especially rare for this area of the world. Typical tornadoes in this area of the world are short-lived, produced by weakly rotating thunderstorms which quickly dissipate. This outbreak featured three long-lived supercells, each of which produced several tornadoes. Since 1950, only 6 violent tornadoes have occurred in this area, two of which were part of this outbreak. It was by far the worst tornado event in the area since May 2, 1983, when 6 significant tornadoes tore through New York, and maybe the worst since the Worcester Tornado.

Tornado Project
Not all of these are separate tornadoes! Use these to discern timeline for county-crossing tornadoes


 * date       event# hour   dead   inj.    F#   County #

St. Lawrence County, NY Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   002   0420     0      1     F1     089

Montgomery County, NY Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   003   1227     0      0     F3     057

Schoharie County, NY Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   003   1240     0     20     F3     095

Albany County, NY Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   003   1257     0      0     F3     001

Greene County, NY Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   003   1320     0      0     F4     039

Worcester County, MA Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   001   1505     0      0     F1     027
 * JLY 10, 1989   002   1510     0      0     F1     027
 * JLY 10, 1989   003   1510     0      0     F1     027
 * JLY 10, 1989   004   1515     0      0     F1     027

Litchfield County, CT Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   001   1540     0      4     F2     005
 * JLY 10, 1989   002   1615     0     20     F2     005

Putnam County, NY Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   004   1558     0      5     F2     079

Norfolk County, MA Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   005   1610     0      0     F0     021

New Haven County, CT Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   002   1617     0     50     F2     009
 * JLY 10, 1989   003   1645     0     40     F4     009

Plymouth County, MA Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   006   1626     0      1     F1     023
 * JLY 10, 1989   007   1630     0      0     F0     023

Suffolk County Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   005   1715     0      1     F2     103

Passaic County, NJ Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   006   1800     0      0     F1     031

Bergen County, NJ Tornadoes
 * JLY 10, 1989   007   1820     0      0     F0     003
 * JLY 10, 1989   008   1847     0      0     F0     003

Newspapers

 * New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Jul 12, 1989. pg. B.1

LEAD: The barrage of severe thunderstorms that crashed across the New York metropolitan region on Monday, spawning tornadoes in a display of violent weather rarely seen in the Northeast, destroyed more than 100 homes and scores of businesses in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

The barrage of severe thunderstorms that crashed across the New York metropolitan region on Monday, spawning tornadoes in a display of violent weather rarely seen in the Northeast, destroyed more than 100 homes and scores of businesses in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

The winds left scattered communities from New Haven to Bergen County in states of emergency. Yesterday officials attributed one death to the storms, that of 12-year-old Jennifer Bike, who died when a tree fell on her tent at Black Rock State Park in Watertown, Conn.

Throughout the region, more than 12 people were hospitalized, and more than 200 were treated for minor injuries.

Officials expressed amazement that the injuries were not more widespread. When you look at the area, you wonder how no one was injured, said Councilman Arthur Rice of the Town of Southeast, which includes the Village of Brewster, where many houses were damaged by high winds.

Meteorologists said that they tracked the storms as they formed over northern New York and moved quickly down the Adirondacks, toward the metropolitan region, but that they were surprised by the storms' intensity.

It was more like what we see in Kansas and the Midwest, where you have very, very violent weather, said Richard Kane, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Albany.

Tornadoes were reported in three states, and by last night the weather service had confirmed tornadoes in Fort Lee, N.J., near the George Washington Bridge, and in East Moriches, L.I. The agency investigated reports of tornadoes in Ringwood, N.J., Putnam, Schoharie and Greene Counties, N.Y., and Litchfield and Hamden, Conn.

The weather service began broadcasting watches for severe thunderstorms in the region early Monday afternoon as a cold front approached a mass of hot humid air over New York and lines of towering thunderstorm cells formed near the Canadian border. At 3:15 P.M. the National Severe Storm Forecast Center issued a severe-weather watch for all of Connecticut, Long Island, southeastern New York and parts of New Jersey.

The warnings preceded the storms by 20 minutes to an hour, considered ample time by weather officials. But even they were surprised, they said, by the arrival of lightning, hail and howling winds that uprooted trees, ripped away decks and roofs and tore down power lines.

For Litchfield County, the weather service office in Bridgeport upgraded its watch to a severe-thunderstorm warning at 4:30, a forecaster, Rodney Walker, said. Around 4:30, 4:45, we started getting reports of tornado activity and reports of hail, he said.

In Connecticut, the New Haven suburb of Hamden was hardest hit, with 150 businesses and houses in the South End seriously damaged and 20 to 30 buildings flattened. We have an industrial park leveled, rows of houses gone, the director of governmental operations, Elizabeth Smith, said. People are just stunned.

More than 100 people were injured, officials said, and several were hospitalized.

A shelter for 90 people whose houses were destroyed was set up in Hamden High School. Some looting was reported, and state troopers and National Guardsmen patrolled the damaged section last night.

Waterbury was also heavily damaged, officials said, and Mayor Joseph J. Santopietro declared a state of emergency at 7:30.

We can't get a handle on the damage, an aide to the mayor, Stephen R. Beaujon, said. Millions and millions, it's safe to say.

Among the injured at Waterbury Hospital were the two tentmates of Jennifer Bike, her 16-year-old sister, Melanie, and another girl, who were both seriously injured by the tree that fell on their campsite in Watertown. Thousands Without Electricity

Across the state, damage to power lines cut off electricity to 128,000 customers. About 60,000 remained without power at noon yesterday, executives of Northeast Utilities and United Illuminating said. They expected power to be completely restored by tomorrow.

On Long Island, Suffolk County bore the brunt of the storms. At 7:30, the tornado that struck East Moriches picked up a trailer where David Purinton, 39, a sky-diving instructor, was watching television. The trailer was tossed and thrown across an adjacent airfield. Mr. Purinton suffered cuts and bruises, and the trailer was destroyed.

Severe lightning was also reported. A radio transmitter in Sag Harbor was struck, knocking WLNG off the air, Supervisor Mardythe O. DiPirro of Southampton said. 'Like a Locomotive'

In northern New Jersey, damage was reported along a seven-mile swath from Ringwood to Wyckoff. The area is 20 miles west of Fort Lee, where a tornado was confirmed by the weather service.

People saw a funnel cloud, said Police Chief James O'Connor of Oakland, a town east of Ringwood that was affected. One man said the sound of the wind was like a locomotive passing through his living room.

In Wyckoff, windows in stores and houses literally exploded, and about 15 utility poles snapped right in half, the coordinator of emergency management, Robert Shannon, said.

No injuries were reported in Bergen or Passaic Counties. About 150 houses in Bergen were damaged, at a cost estimated at $2 million by an official of the county emergency management agency, Lieut. Edward C. Sturm. The damage in Passaic was also estimated at $2 million. #80 M.P.H. in New Haven About 19,000 customers were left without electricity until noon yesterday.

Much of the damage in New Jersey was from trees that were uprooted or snapped in half by the high winds.

The strongest gusts, however, were clocked at 80 miles an hour in New Haven.

The storm cells, some towering 60,000 feet, formed in three lines near the Canadian border and moved swiftly southeast, strengthening as they progressed, the weather service said.

One group was tracked from Schoharie County through Greene County, where a tornado was reported near Greenville, Mr. Kane said. The storm continued to Litchfield, where a reported tornado destroyed the Borough Hall, a church and other buildings in the Bantam section.

It was pretty bad as it came across the Adirondacks, and as it crossed the Mohawk Valley, it got really bad, Mr. Kane said.

Meteorologists said they had acted quickly when they saw the storms intensifying, but they added that they were unsure how seriously the public heeded the warnings.

It's like a slap in the face, Mr. Kane said. ''You suddenly realize you are at the mercy of the atmosphere. If we were out in Kansas or Oklahoma, I think people would be a little more attentive.'' New York Times


 * New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Jul 13, 1989. pg. B.2

LEAD: Domenic Piscitelli had never seen a Mazda fly before. It just picked up and wound up in the backyard, he said.

Domenic Piscitelli had never seen a Mazda fly before. It just picked up and wound up in the backyard, he said.

Harold Sigular had never seen a 40-foot crane turn a somersault. It flipped over backwards like it was a toy, he said.

Both men were among the hundreds of residents in a two-square-mile area of Hamden that witnessed what is believed to be either a tornado or a microburst from a thunderstorm Monday night. Dave Foose, meteorological technician at the National Weather Service office in Windsor Locks, said there were definite signatures of at least one tornado touching down.

The storm - part of the freakish weather that raked the New York City area - injured 100 people here but killed no one. It did, however, destroy at least 200 homes and businesses. It also left at least 100 people homeless, said Elizabeth Smith, the town's director of government operations.

Call it a microburst, wind shear or whatever, there was some kind of implosion, a pressure differential, because a lot of homes just blew apart, Ms. Smith said. Area Is Cordoned Off Today the State Police, National Guardsmen and the Hamden police continued to cordon off an area hardest hit by the storm about two to three miles in size. A curfew was installed at 9 P.M. yesterday and may be reinstituted tonight.

Gas, electricity and phone services to much of the affected area remain disconnected.

Gov. William A. O'Neill has declared the town a disaster area and is seeking Federal aid.

Town building inspection crews spent the day posting condemnation signs on many homes. Shopkeepers boarded up what was left of their windows. Residents were forced to pack up whatever belongings they could find and stay either with a relative, friends or at a shelter set up by the town at nearby Quinnipiac College.

Tony DeVonish, 26 years old, was moving his mother's belongings from her apartment at the Whitneyville Condominiums today, many of which were torn apart by the storm. We're just taking it day by day, he said. Hail Was Like Ice Cubes

Angelo DiLione owns Hamden Lunch and three apartments above the luncheonette. The wall of one apartment facing the street was missing. All of a sudden, he said, I was looking out at the other side of the street.

There's nothing there, said Sebastian DiLione, who just came back from Cape Cod to find his home missing except for a trash-strewn yard. A friend went and saved the TV and the VCR.

The severity of the storm and its impact over a small isolated area still stuns many here.

The lightning was going crazy, and the hail was like ice cubes, said George Fontain, a telephone worker from New Haven who rode the storm out in his truck. The wind was so hard it was like something hit us. Trees and Wires Block Streets

Today, uprooted trees and downed branches still blocked many streets here, as did electrical wires and telephone poles, some snapped in half like match sticks. Sheet-metal roofing, bricks and lumber littered yards everywhere. Many cars were found upside down or crushed under trees.

I've been here 57 years and never seen anything like this, said Joyce Benevento, who hid in a closet during the storm.

Officials here say they are just beginning their cleanup and rebuilding efforts, and insurance adjustors are far from finishing individual damage assesments.

We're just trying to plot what buildings were where and what buildings are not there, Ms. Smith said. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. New York Times


 * Boston Globe (pre-1997 Fulltext). Boston, Mass.: Jul 11, 1989. pg. 60

Copyright Boston Globe Newspaper Jul 11, 1989 Small tornadoes touched down in Princeton, Sterling and West Boylston in Worcester County yesterday afternoon as powerful thunderstorms swept across the state, felling trees, damaging homes and leaving thousand of residents without electricity or telephone service.

Massachusetts Electric Co. spokeswoman Cathy Beckman said 3,397 customers in Worcester County and about 7,000 in the southeastern part of the state lost power. About half of West Boylston, a town of about 6,300 people, lost electricity and telephone service, police said.

State Police in Framingham said a section of Route 9 near Route 126 was shut down for 40 minutes because of flooding. They also reported minor accidents on Route 128 caused by the heavy rain.

Police in Ashland and Northborough reported power lines downed by fallen trees. Heavy rains flooded many homes in Natick, and lightning struck the Camp Arrowhead building, police said.

"Most of the damage was in wooded areas," said Tom Holmes, chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service station in Worcester.

Observers said the winds took a path that hit Sterling, just north of West Boylston, and Hubbardston to the west.

"Part of a barn roof was located pretty high in a tree," Holmes said after conducting a damage survey.

Holmes said the small tornados ranged from 50 to 100 feet in length and touched down briefly. He termed the storm a "super-thunderstorm. "

A police dispatcher said Routes 140, 110, 12 and Interstate 190 into West Boylston were blocked to traffic.

Trees were knocked over and several homes were damaged by winds, she said.

One storm in the late morning caused minor flooding in sections of western Massachusetts, with hail turning parts of Springfield and Northampton white for a few minutes, according to local police.

In upstate New York earlier in the morning, about 25,000 people in Schenectady and Albany lost power for a few hours. Lightning sparked minor fires in several locations.

Winds accompanying the storm caused trailer truck accidents in Lawrence, Methuen, Wilmington and Dedham. Trees downed on Route 1 in Topsfield forced temporary closing of the road.

Lightning struck a three-story home on Braintree Street in Allston shortly before noon and caused $25,000 damage. No injuries were reported.


 * Boston Globe (pre-1997 Fulltext). Boston, Mass.: Jul 12, 1989. pg. 18

Across the state yesterday, utility crews scrambled to repair lines downed by Monday's storms that left a Connecticut girl dead and more than 30,000 homes without power and caused millions of dollars of damage in Massachusetts.

In Princeton, where several "mini tornadoes" hit, officials estimated $1 million in damage to private property and $2 million to public property. Town officials there called for monetary assistance from the state to pay for repairs.

In Ashland, town manager Richard Gladstone said, "The price tag of this is going to be pretty high."

The storms, which moved from Worcester County to the southeastern part of the state, hit Ashland with several small tornadoes, ripping roofs off buildings, knocking down scores of trees, and wiping out power to entire towns. A state of emergency was declared there Monday night during the height of the storm.

In Princeton, civil defense director Wayne Clark said damage to trees and public utilities had surpassed $2 million.

Clark said Princeton plans to appeal to the state for emergency aid.

"We are a small town of 2,600, and definitely don't have the tax base to defray the cost of all this."

According to a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, officials are inspecting the damages to see if the affected towns qualify for state and federal aid.

The Connecticut girl who died in the storm was Jennifer Bike, 12, of Stratford, killed on a camping trip in Watertown, Conn., when a tree fell on a tent she was sharing with three other campers.

Throughout the state, more than 30,000 homes were without power Monday night, some for more than 12 hours.