http://www.msnbc.com/msn/299530.asp

Sudden tornado hits Salt Lake City Dozens of injuries reported

Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 11  A sudden tornado touched down without warning Wednesday in the downtown area of Salt Lake City, damaging buildings and causing dozens of injuries.

THE BLACK FUNNEL cloud uprooted trees and temporary buildings set up for a retailers convention. It also damaged the roof of the Delta Center, home of the Utah Jazz, and a nearby hotel where windows were blown out.

Firefighters could be seen tending to dozens of injured people near the Wyndham Hotel.

Authorities had no immediate comment on the number of injured or on whether there were fatalities.

Bill Alder, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service, said the location of the tornado was unusual. He said the state typically experiences only two tornadoes a year.

The service said that at 12:41 p.m., weather spotters reported a severe thunderstorm with 11/2-inch-diameter hail over the southern end of the Salt Lake Valley in the suburb of Herriman.

The storm headed northeast at 20 mph and the weather service reported other strong and possibly severe thunderstorms in the area and Davis County to the north.

) 1999 Associated Press

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), August 11, 1999

Answers

Time to put a stop to this random violence. I say let's ban tornado's.

-- CygnusXI (noburnt@toast.net), August 11, 1999.

Welcome to the "Whether Channel." As in "we'll post it whether or not it has to do with Y2K."

(And another thread drops off into the archives.)

-- (tornados@eclipses.earthquakes), August 11, 1999.

Just a little "tip" for you, (tornados@eclipses.earthquakes,) if you will click on the "New Answers" link above, you will find threads available from the past week and beyond. You can also find ALL threads below in the archives. BTW, OT means just that: Off Topic. If you're not interested, don't click on the thread.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), August 11, 1999.

Thanks Gayla!

Just to provide some education, we've always posted topics such as this. By doing so we can give a warning to others in the area that may not know what is happening, we can give notice that they may have family members in danger or who may be hurt, etc.

Y2k wont happen in a vacuum and life goes on and news is news.

Mike =================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), August 11, 1999.

One more reason to Get Prepared. The American Red Cross said there were four confirmed fatalities. Dozens more were injured. More news coming in.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 11, 1999.

I just thought the "Whether Channel" line was amusing...

Of course, people need to be responsible for themselves, no matter what the circumstances.

-- (hurricanes@sunspots.whitevansandblackhelicopters), August 11, 1999.

I kind of liked the "Whether Chanel" too. The point is that this forum HAD evolved into a reasonable cyber community. It has since fallen a bit away from that, with the flames and the incivility, etc. ONE of the goals is to move closer to a community "Country Store Cracker Barrel" or "Country Store Potbelly Stove" where things like this and actual takes on Y2K are welcomed.

Chuck

-- Chuck. a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), August 11, 1999.

Thanks, Chuck. I have friends in the Salt Lake City area and I know we have posters from Utah also. Maybe most people don't realize that a tornado in Salt Lake City is extremely rare! It is surrounded by mountains. Another tidbit: No one has ever been killed by a tornado in Utah before today.

August 11, 1999

Salt Lake City Tornado Injures 100

By The Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A rare tornado swept through downtown on Wednesday, tossing trucks and trees around and shredding tents set up for a convention. At least one person was killed and about 100 were injured.

``It couldn't have picked a worse place,'' said National Weather Service meteorologist David Hogan. ``The chance of it hitting a city right smack where it did today is pretty slim.''

Power lines were ripped down, roofs torn off, windows blown out and shards of glass were everywhere. Helicopters landed in the streets to ferry the injured to hospitals.

Gov. Mike Leavitt flew over the mile-long path of destruction before declaring a state of emergency.

The black funnel cloud also damaged the roofs of the Delta Center, home of the Utah Jazz basketball team, and the Salt Palace Convention Center, which was hosting an outdoor retailers show.

The streets were littered with shredded tents set up for the convention.

Robert Stock of Toronto, a sales representative for a rock-climbing company, said he saw the roof of the Delta Center lift up when the tornado passed over.

``It peeled it right back, just like an orange peel,'' he said.

Dan Groff of San Diego, attending the convention, said he saw several ``critically injured people.''

``I helped one guy who had a beam fall on him. ... It just crushed him,'' Groff said.

Gary Morgan of Vancouver, Wash., was setting up a booth.

``The building just started to flutter, then it became more intense until the structures were coming down and things were just flying through,'' he said.

At least one person died and about 100 were injured when the tornado struck about 1 p.m., said Ken Connaughton, spokesman for Mayor Deedee Corradini.

The mayor said 40 were transported to hospitals, 12 in serious or critical condition.

``Our first priority is people. We're not sure we have everyone out of this tent area near the convention center yet,'' said Corradini, adding that dogs were being used to search the debris.

The American Red Cross was sending additional blood supplies to Salt Lake hospitals. The organization keeps several hundred pints of blood on hand in the city, said Gary Ouellette, chief operating officer of the Red Cross' Utah Division.

``The Utah Highway Patrol is closing all major routes into downtown because of traffic congestions, accidents and debris,'' said Connaughton, the mayor's spokesman.

Crowds gathered on street corners to watch the twister over the Mormon church's Salt Lake Temple, which was not damaged.

A severe thunderstorm watch was issued at 12:48 p.m.; the twister touched down about seven minutes later.

``We saw what was going on,'' said David Toronto, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. ``But to look at it and say there's a tornado and it's going to hit downtown -- we didn't have that information because of the rapid development.''

Hogan said the tornado was classified as a low-end F2, which has winds of between 110 mph and 150 mph. ``We're thinking maybe closer to 100 mph.''

The fatalities were the first recorded tornado-related deaths in the history of a state that averages two tornados a year.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), August 11, 1999.

Just a snippet from the CNN report: At least 1 dead in Salt Lake City tornado

"...They said, 'Get out now; run, run, tornado,'" said witness Chuck Sheldon, in town from New Orleans for a convention. "You could see it, the sky was filled with it, there was debris up in it, and then you could hear it. So we ran like cattle, as fast as we could."

Moo?

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), August 12, 1999.