MovingPictures

Jim Ellis for Mayor Audio Ad put to Pictures

A Night to Remember, Osama Bin Laden is Dead...

Osama Bin Laden is dead.

Tomorrow morning most of the population of the United States will wake up to the news that Bin Laden has been killed. If you were like me, you went to bed and might not have know about the new until tomorrow. But, I listen to my iPhone through the night and all of a sudden the news alerts started dinging like a winning pull on a slot machine. I checked the messages and saw the news. I was not able to go back to sleep and can down when I saw that President Obama was going to speak soon about the kill. A history buff, I snapped a few photos of my high-def TV as Obama spoke with my iPhone, sounds silly, but hey...

Finally after over ten years the US has tracked down the mastermind of the 911 terrorist attack and served justice on a silver platter. Details are sketchy, but reports say he was shot in the head during a raid on a compound in Pakistan, which also killed his oldest son. My hat is off to the soldiers that choppered in and made the successful raid on the complex and brought justice to the victims of 911 and the military personnel that gave their lives in pursuit of justice. 

The shot of President Obama as he gives some details on the death of Osama Bin Laden today in Pakistan.

A Nice Little Bit of Coverage Last Night...

Fremont photographer turns stormchaser: foxtoledo.com

Sad, Amazing, Devastating, How to Describe Yesterday?

I have seen four major tornado outbreaks that stand out in my mind, 1974 Super Outbreak, where I saw my first tornado, May 3rd 1999, November 10, 2002, and yesterday, April 27th, 2011.

The 1974 Super Outbreak, raised my awareness of tornadoes as I got my first glimpse of the power of Mother Nature as I watched my first tornado. May 3rd, 1999 I drove overnight to Oklahoma City, OK to cover the aftermath of the outbreak for the news agency I was working for at the time. I was one of the first photojournalists let into the Moore and Midwest City area, and the city of Bridge Creek, OK, as I entered with the Pegasus Project, an animal search and rescue team. The F-5 tornado wiped most of those cities off the map, literally. I spent several days shooting the totally destructive force of the twisters that hit the area.

On November 10, 2002, I had the day off from my job, and was celebrating my 40th birthday by watching the weather during the outbreak, we were under a tornado watch here in Ohio. I saw a huge cell heading NE towards Findlay, Ohio. I knew it would track towards, Tiffin, Ohio and I live just 15 miles from Tiffin. I jumped in my truck, and drove through the most intense thunderstorm I have ever witnessed. The rain stopped as I entered Tiffin, but was running into some quarter sized hail, I turned West down Second Street and then South on Nelson St., that is when I saw a white funnel cloud drop from the clouds and immediately turn black, I stopped in the middle of the street and threw my truck into park, threw open the door and fired off several shots with my 20-35mm lens. Little did I know that my photo would be named one of Time/Life Picture of the Year for 2002.

Yesterday I sat at my desk, glued to the TV watching the Weather Channel live coverage as the tornado worked its way from Tuscaloosa through Birmingham LIVE on TV, had Radar Scope running on my iPad, live streaming of chasers on my laptop, and streaming radio from Birmingham on my iPhone. I don't see how people can claim they had "No Warning" of the impending disaster. I could see it in 1974 maybe, but today with 24/7 coverage on TV, FaceBook, Twitter, e-mail, cell phones, iPads, I just can't understand. 

Today reality sets in, the Associated Press reports that at least 307 people are dead, 210 in Alabama. This will no doubt go down in history as one of the largest, if not the largest outbreak in history. There were 32 deaths in Mississippi, 34 in Tennessee, 14 in Georgia, 12 in Arkansas, five in Virginia and one in Kentucky. Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured - 600 in Tuscaloosa alone. All I can say is that people need to be more aware of weather forecasts and maybe sign up for mobile alerts to their cell phones. A simple move like this may save your life.

The storm prediction center received 164 tornado reports around the region, but some tornadoes were probably reported multiple times and it could take days to get a final count.

As I watched the monster tornado move from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham, just a small parcel of it almost 300 mile track, I could not help but to be reminded of the day I watched 911. I had a deep down feeling of dread in my gut knowing hundreds of people might be getting killed, as I watched live on TV. Through all my years of storm chasing, I have seen many bad tornadoes and deaths, but it sure does not get any easier to see things like this happen.

 

1974 Super Outbreak - Xenia, Ohio

The 1974 Xenia tornado that wiped out half of the town in Greene, Co Ohio.

 

May 3rd, 1999 Outbreak - Oklahoma F-5

Sylvia Andrews, a resident of Mulhall, OK, begs a rescue worker to help find her dog which had wandered off. Later the rescuers found her dog and she finished her trip to the post office. Behind her is the water tower which was knocked over by the tornado and washed her home off its base with her inside.

Paula Sanders sifts through the rubble of what used to be her home in Del City, OK. This is the area President Clinton toured on Saturday.

A 2 x 4 is stuck in the windsheild of a truck in Midwest City, OK.

 

November 10th, 2002 Outbreak - Tiffin, Ohio

View of the Tiffin, Ohio tornado looking South down Nelson Street.

A resident of Port Clinton, Ohio in front of whats left of his home.

An inspector for the gas company in Port Clinton looks at a destroyed home.

 

April 27th, 2011 Outbreak - Alabama

SPC Tornado report graphic.

Amazing Photo from Twitter

Yesterday's SPC Tornado Watch graphic.

Photo of the Tuscaloosa tornado by the Dusty Compton via AP.

...SIGNIFICANT SEVERE WEATHER OUTBREAK ONGOING...

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
636 PM CDT WED APR 27 2011

A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION IS CURRENTLY UNFOLDING ACROSS CENTRAL
ALABAMA...AND SUPERCELLS HAVE ERUPTED ACROSS THE NORTHERN AND
WESTERN SECTIONS OF THE CWA THIS AFTERNOON. A FEW TORNADOES HAVE
ALREADY TOUCHED DOWN...AND REPORTS OF MAJOR DAMAGE ARE STARTING TO
COME IN. THE 18Z SPECIAL SOUNDING THAT WAS PERFORMED PRESENTS A
DESTRUCTIVE SETUP...WITH 2700J/KG OF CAPE...EXTREMELY STEEP LAPSE
RATES...AND DRY AIR ALOFT. 0-3 KM HELICITY VALUES ARE ALMOST 700.
THE PARAMETERS WILL ONLY WORSEN AS WE GO THROUGHOUT THE REST OF
THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THE TIME FRAME FOR THE WORST SEVERE
WEATHER WILL PERSIST THROUGH THE EARLY AFTERNOON HOURS FOR
NORTHWEST SECTIONS OF THE STATE...ROUGHLY FROM 2PM TO
8PM...CENTRAL PORTIONS OF THE STATE...INCLUDING THE BIRMINGHAM
METRO AREA...FROM 4PM TO 10PM...AND THE SOUTHEAST SECTIONS FROM
6PM TO 2AM. I CANNOT STRESS HOW SERIOUS THIS SITUATION IS. DO
WHATEVER YOU CAN TO PROTECT YOUR LIFE AND PROPERTY NOW...YOUR LIFE
MAY DEPEND ON IT! ALL WEATHER WILL CLEAR THE AREA AFTER 6Z
TONIGHT...SO THE CLEANUP PROCESS CAN BEGIN.

 

4-27-11 Tornado Tuscaloosa, Al from Crimson Tide Productions on Vimeo.

May everyone's thoughts and prayers be with the victims of yesterdays tornado outbreak in the South...