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Interagency Cooperation of Incident Management
Severe Tornado Outbreak in the Southern United States, April 2011
Brief Description
On 27-28th April 2011, America witnessed its severest tornado outbreak since the year 1974. The month became one among the most devastating, active, and fatal tornado months recorded for the nation, serving as a potential benchmark for future months. SPC (Storm Prediction Center) information reveals a total of 875 preliminary tornadoes were reported in that month, with the final count of tornadoes approaching an all-time high of 542 following completion of storm surveys (NOAA, 2011). The prior record for April was a total of 267 tornadoes in April of 1974, with the highest for all months being May 2003, which witnessed 542 tornadoes (NOAA, 2011). Regarding April tornadoes, the 3-decade average was 135 (NOAA, 2011). In April, a large number of major, multi-day outbreaks of tornadoes impacted the nation, with the regions being hit the hardest being the Southeast, Southern Plains, Mid-Atlantic region, and Ohio River Valley (NOAA, 2011).
Importance of the disaster
The 2011 tornado outbreak had been a severe climatic disaster that could be compared to, and possibly even surpassed, the outbreak on April 34, 1974. While the overall tornadoes in one day (199) were greater in number as compared to that of 1974 (148), the percentage of area covered by the 2011 outbreak was roughly a fourth of that covered by the 1974 tornadoes, rendering the former disaster highly concentrated (Knupp et al., 2014). Thus, a significant impact was witnessed in the impacted area (AL, specifically). Another key element to remember is that super tornado outbreaks can alter the short-term climatologies of tornadoes to a great extent, as proven by Smith and colleagues (2012) research that covered the period between 2003 and 2012.
Analysis of the emergency operations center at the local government level
The NWS (National Weather Service) had, for several days, been observing, with progressive alarm, the unsteady meteorological conditions that were developing over the Southern and Western regions. On April 23, 2011, the Hydro-meteorological Prediction Center of the Weather Service warned of a potential major heavy rainfall occurs in the Ohio and mid-Mississippi River valleys with the capacity of generating moderate or heavy rainfall together with thunderstorms. It was concluded that hail, tornadoes, strong winds, and other extreme weather events could accompany the severest storms. This was the earliest tornado mention by the Center (TRAC, 2012).
Everything didnt go wrong on April 27; rather, a great number of things did go right, which was a positive starting point when it comes to considering preparedness. There werent power outages in every place...…the public and private sectors
The disasters hallmarks were the torrent of local community support, both nationwide and worldwide. This attention proved advantageous to impacted regions, though it did simultaneously generate challenges such as handling great quantities of donations and a flood of volunteers. Several EMs teamed up with non-profits, such as churches having established connections with interested volunteers (Riley & Krautmann, 2013). According to a city EM, regional volunteer management directives for disasters, created based on experiences with a 2010 tornado event, offered the basis for working with volunteers. The plan partially encompasses looking at non-government organizations and the citys key competencies and ascertaining who already performs necessary activities, instead of establishing novel organizations for performing them. However, proper plan staffing proved tricky (Riley & Krautmann, 2013).
On an extended timescale, a few on-the-fly actions were volunteer coordination through the formation of a grassroots organization, volunteer recruitment to aid with accounts on social media, and a procedure developed by a not-for-profit entity on working with third-party fundraisers.
Several actions undertaken on May 20 could only occur successfully owing to already established relationships (e.g., churches accepting donations and distributing meals; faith-based organizations clearing debris; United Way catering to those with functional and access needs; Big Brothers Big Sisters contributing significantly to taking care of children while their parents completed recovery paperwork;…
References
FEMA. (2012). Mitigation Assessment Team Report: Spring 2011 Tornadoes: April 25-28 and May 22. FEMA P-908.
Knupp et al. (2014). Meteorological Overview of the Devastating April 27, 2011, Tornado Outbreak. American Meteorological Society. 95 (7): 1041–1062. Retrieved from: https://journals.ametsoc.org/bams/article/95/7/1041/88536/Meteorological-Overview-of-the-Devastating-27
NOAA (2011). National Centers for Environmental Information, State of the Climate: Tornadoes for April 2011. Retrieved on July 26, 2020, from https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/tornadoes/201104.
TRAC. (2012). Cultivating a state of readiness. Tornado Recovery Action Council of Alabama. Retrieved from: https://alabamaema.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/trac_report.pdf
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