Tornado Confirmed in 11 New Hampshire Towns - ( an F2 )

[Breeze54]

Confirmed Twister Rips Through 11 N.H. Towns

http://wbztv.com/nhstormmap/tornado.deerfield.new.2.780618.html

Jul 26, 2008 11:48 am US/Eastern

PITTSFIELD, N.H. (WBZ) -

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado was responsible for severe damage in 11 New Hampshire
towns on Thursday. Meteorologist John Jensenius confirmed Friday that the twister hit nine towns, and
Saturday, after inspecting further damage, added Pittsfield and Northwood.

He also updated the previous estimate of the swath of destruction, saying the storm's path
was about 40 miles long and about a third of a mile wide at spots.

Jensenius says the tornado moved from Deerfield, where it killed a woman in her home,
to Northwood, Epsom, Pittsfield, Barnstead and Alton. It then moved through New Durham,
Wolfeboro, Freedom, Ossipee and Effingham.

In several towns, it was a category 2 tornado with winds of 111 to 135 mph. The Fujita Scale
ranks tornado's from EF 0 to 5, with 5 being the worst with winds of more than 200 mph.

Jensenius said the twister moved at 40-50 miles an hour.

Brenda Stevens, 57, died and her husband and 3-month-old grandson were hurt in the violent storm.
They were in a home on Northwood Lake that completely collapsed. Neighbors said she had been
watching the infant boy while his parents, Stevens' stepson and his wife, were at work.

http://wbztv.com/local/newhampshire/Brenda.Stevens.Harley.2.779873.html">Baby's Cries Help Rescuers Find Boy In Rubble

Firefighters search for baby... they could hear him crying


It was the first tornado-related death in New Hampshire since 1946 and the first
in New England since a twister hit Great Barrington, Mass. in 1995.

The tornado and severe thunderstorms left an intermittent path of destruction concentrated
along a path running about 20 miles northeast from the lake to New Durham.

Officials estimate that a half-dozen homes were destroyed and more than 200 damaged. The storms
tore apart thousands of trees, toppling many onto homes. Damage estimates will likely to be in
the millions of dollars.

Fifteen towns were affected. Nine of them suffered major damage - Ossipee, Wolfeboro, Alton,
New Durham, Barnstead, Pittsfield, Epsom, Northwood, and Deerfield.

The remains of the house of Brenda and Harley Stevens of Epsom, N.H.


A storm that struck the area killed Brenda Stevens.(Globe Photo)




The tornado took the garage but not the cars!


Bob Bennett, left, just told his 11-year old daughter over the phone
that they no longer had a home and that their neighbor Brenda Stevens
had perished in the storm.(Globe Staff Photo / Essdras M. Suarez)






A funnel cloud was photographed by Barrington, R.I., firefighter Nicholas Caisse.


The staff at the Arlington Reservoir played volleyball on the empty beach front.
The threatening skies and weather kept swimmers away, but the staff continued
playing their game on Thursday morning. (Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff)


Those people above are nuts!! What the hell?!

This mansion built in the last year was never visible from the lake before the tornado.
Hundreds of trees were downed on this property but incredibly the big house looks untouched.


Crews work to clear a road after storm damage in Alton, N.H.


Everything's leaning to the left...remains of a building in Ossipee, NH


NH National Guard heading into Northwood to help victims.

[zanne]

1. I'm still stunned.

I don't live near where it happened, but I couldn't have been more surprised if they'd told me that aliens had landed on the State House lawn.

This is NH, dammit! During the winter, we console ourselves with the "fact" that, while we get frigid weather and lots of snow, we don't get tornadoes or hurricanes. Combine this with the fact that we now get sharks off of Cape Cod and we have a real problem on this earth.

[Breeze54]

2. It was a freak storm, that's for sure ... even though they say MA & NH get 3-4 tornado's a year

it's still very unusual. I thought NH did get hurricanes. MA does and you're a coastal state too!
Maine gets them also. I saw a video of the path of destruction on the news this morning but these
pictures don't do it justice. You can't really see how much damage there is because the tree's are
so dark. The video on WHDH-TV was incredible! It showed the spin of the tornado and to think tree's
over 100 feet tall were just snapped like toothpicks! Next time I hear about "Severe T-Storms",
I'll be a lot more wary! The thing is the warnings didn't say high winds, at least not that I heard
but that's how I realized that a storm was over my house Wednesday night. The thunder and wind
and lightening all arrived at the same time. It freaked me out!!

[zanne]

8. I'll be wary next time we get severe weather warnings, too. I hate that. nt

[bunnies]

3. We had a tornado warnings on Thurs & Fri here in the seacoast area.

And this is beyond the ones that actually hit on Fri.

Ive lived in NH all my life and never remember anything like this. My sisters house was barely missed... (she lives in Barnstead on Locke Lake). This is some really scary shit for us up here. Blizzards are one thing... but this?! Very unnerving.

[Breeze54]

4. The tornado's hit on Thursday in Epson, NH !!

Rhode Island and Massachusetts had a tornado on Wednesday too! I'm glad your sister wasn't injured and her home is ok! I'll bet you're unnerved by this! Yikes! So was I! You just don't expect this kind of storm up there in NH! And I can't imagine how much work there is now to clear all the tree's. That has to be a daunting task, when thousand's of tree's are toppled over! Jeez Louise! Are the roads clear where you are? On Thursday there were at least 9 highways/roads closed down in NH. Are they open now?

[bunnies]

7. You're right.

I got confused because I had Fri. off. Doh. So we had the warnings Weds and Thurs. Tornado warnings here two days in a row. I dont think thats ever happened!

I live in the Seacoast area so all we got were nasty thunderstorms. I know that when I spoke with my sister yesterday many of the roads were still closed and some still had no electricity. She was only a few miles from where it went through. I still cant believe this happened here.

Ironic thing is that our Mother moved to TN a few years ago. She's been trying to get me and Mr. bunnies to follow but (among other reasons) we say "no way... you have tornados!"

I never really took our occasional 'tornado watch' alerts very seriously. But you can bet that I will never brush one of those off ever again. The house we live in was built in the 1600's. It has hand made nails! This thing would never survive. :scared:

[Breeze54]

10. Well, I think you'll be OK.... I mean, your house has been there since 1600 !!

That's gotta mean it's pretty sturdy and I'll bet even back then there
was a tornado or two! They just didn't record the weather back then. ;)

Now we can add tornado's to the list of weird weather in New England!

We don't just get Northeaster's anymore!! :P It's now a grab bag!!

[bunnies]

12. All we need now is earthquakes.

:P We've got blizzards, floods, the occasional hurricane, tornados, heat waves, cold waves...

Yep. Earthquakes and forest fires should do it! Gotta love up here huh?! :rofl:

[Breeze54]

14. LOL ! ~ You forgot ice storms and tidal waves!

:rofl:

Actually, those aren't funny and we both get the ice storms! :(

[bunnies]

16. I was stuck in Western MA for 3 days from an ice storm!

How could I forget that?! :rofl:

Tidal waves... no... I dont want those. Im on the seacoast remember? :hi:

[Breeze54]

18. Oops! Well; I'm only 20 miles from the ocean... it could happen.

But hey?

Western MA is pretty but who wants to be stuck in an ice storm anywhere?! :P

BTW? More T-Storms tomorrow is what I'm hearing! :(

and the wind just blew a fan out of my downstairs window, onto the floor, breaking the fan.

It's picking up again!! :grr:

[grasswire]

5. how's Wolfeboro?

A close family member lives there, near the Inn.

[Breeze54]

6. I haven't heard except that they had damage and a house was destroyed on the lake.

This house on Lake Wentworth in Wolfeboro, N.H. suffered serious damage
from a tornado that swept through the area Thursday. J. Eich/WBZ



-------------

I hope your family member is OK. Did you call them?

Call the Police Dept. if you can't get through or the Red Cross.

[zanne]

9. I'm surprised a tornado didn't form on Lake Winnepesaukee.

That wide expanse is about the only "flatness" we have around here.

[Breeze54]

11. I don't think the storms were in that part of the state.

:shrug:

[zanne]

20. You can dock your boat in Wolfeboro.

I sometimes go shopping in Wolfeboro with my sister. We take a boat from Gilford, cross Winnepesaukee and dock there.

[Eurobabe]

13. Holy Shit! My dad lives in Keene

When I heard the town names, I figured it was up near Winnepesaukee. (Wolfesboro) Yikes!! Take Granite Staters... :hug: :hug:

[Breeze54]

17. Keene was spared but they went and helped those who had damage!

Spared the worst of recent bad storms, the region is quick to help hard-hit areas

http://sentinelsource.com/articles/2008/07/25/news/local/free/id_316354.txt

Published: Friday, July 25, 2008

Southwestern New Hampshire “dodged a bullet this time,” said Doug Graham, the area’s highway
maintenance engineer for the N.H. Department of Transportation.

No area roads washed out in the heavy rains, Graham said, and the Southwestern N.H. Fire District
Mutual Aid log shows only a few trees fell on power lines, in Greenfield, Acworth, Harrisville and
Spofford.

snip-->

Joe Sarcione, fire warden in Stoddard, speaks to fire personnel
Thursday afternoon at a staging area at the Hillsboro Fire Department.
Fire and rescue crews from five area towns spent three hours at the
site preparing to be dispatched to areas of the state most affected
by Thursday’s violent storms.


Instead of pelting the Monadnock Region with heavy rains and high winds this week, Mother
Nature chose to bully Concord, Epsom and Deerfield. See related story on Page One.

Even though the worst damage was far from home, local emergency crews were poised and ready
to help the storm’s victims.

Fire and rescue crews from five area towns spent three hours Thursday organizing at a site
in Hillsboro and preparing to be dispatched to the Capital Region, where powerful thunderstorms
and a possible tornado ripped up houses and trees and left one woman dead.

Not knowing if they would be needed, the crews were prepared to stay all night and into the
next day if they had to, said Keene Deputy Fire Chief Mark R. Howard.

“We had a good idea it wasn’t very good over there,” Howard said this morning.

“We took water, extra clothes ... we truly thought we would be gone for a day or more.”

The crews — from Antrim, Peterborough, Keene, Stoddard and Sullivan — were requested by a
dispatch center in Concord, Howard said, and told to wait in Hillsboro for their orders.

While they were there, they kept their eyes on the news reports coming out of the area,
and made several contingency plans.

“It was obvious they were having problems getting access because of the down trees, so we
were making sure the saws that we brought were in working order,” Howard said. The groups were
prepared to move together or individually, depending on the need. “If they called and said
‘We need a group with saws,’ we determined who has the most and we would send them.”

At about 4:30 p.m., “word was we were the next crews in, and we should have everybody organized,”
Howard said. “We were planning how we were going to feed the 35 people and how to provide a
place for 35 people to sleep if it hadn’t been assigned already.

“You try to be somewhat self-sufficient. If you’re not, you end up being a burden,” he said.

Area Red Cross volunteers are helping the families whose homes were destroyed by the storm,
according to Janet Kingsbury Warren, executive director of the N.H. West Chapter of the Red Cross
in Keene.

Red Cross volunteers are performing damage assessments, and will set up a service center today,
where residents can go to start piecing their lives back together with help from various agencies.

“Instead of them going around to different agencies, we try to get it all under one roof,” Warren said.
“That’s something we learned here (in the floods of 2005) that it’s really good to do it that way rather
than have them going around to many different agencies.

“They are very traumatized.”

The Red Cross has also set up two shelters, in Epsom and Deerfield, and a mobile feeding crew
to serve hot meals to the rescue and relief workers and displaced families.

The best way to contribute to the clean-up and recover effort is through the disaster relief fund,
Warren said.

“We all remember what happened here (in 2005),” she said.

“We know the rest of the state came to help us, so we are trained and ready to help them.

[malaise]

15. Wow

Stunning pictures. I can't imagine watching my home destroyed like that.

[Breeze54]

19. I was thinking of you when I posted this... Yup...it was tornado's!

I feel real bad for the family that lost the Grand Mom and the man in the picture above. So sad. :(