Tornado kills 3 people in France

[tropicana]

Tornado kills three people in France
Mon August 4 2008
l
A FREAK tornado has ripped through northern France, killing three people and injuring nine as it gutted houses and hurled cars through the air.
Packing violent winds and lashing rain, the flash storm tore across a 10km swathe late Sunday, destroying some 40 homes in the space of minutes in Hautmont, (a town of 16,000) the worst-hit of the four towns on its path.
A woman in her 70s was killed when her house caved in, medics said, while rescue workers Monday pulled the bodies of the deputy mayor of Hautmont and his wife from the rubble of their home.
His neighbour Samia Sayah said her baby's crib was sent flying around the bedroom by the force of the wind, although the seven-month-old child was unharmed.

Torn metal sheets, ripped electricity wires, roof tiles, gravel and bricks littered the town's two worst-hit streets, as 200 rescue workers with sniffer dogs combed the debris for possible victims.
Red Cross volunteers were handing out hot drinks and biscuits, blankets and clothes as shocked residents wandered through the streets, snapping pictures of the devastation with their mobile phones.

Of the nine injured, the two most seriously hurt were in the nearby town of Boussieres-sur-Sambre, as their house was reduced to rubble.
Four elderly people were also taken to hospital for observation after the storm struck a retirement home in Hautmont.
The hospital roof in nearby Maubeuge was also damaged.

Local rail traffic was also cut after the storm, which struck at around 11pm (0700 AEST), brought down local power lines, according to French rail operator SNCF.
Several dozen elderly residents and a few families spent the night huddled in a local community centre turned into a makeshift shelter.
A handful of distraught residents, shocked and some of them injured, were still sheltering there Monday.

-justin-

[Bunkertor]

A retired citizen shot himself after his home suffered total destruction.

As to pictures of the impact site the tornado will be rated at least F3.

[Bunkertor]

How would you rate it ?

BBC, GB, pics, vid, text
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7540484.stm

Le Monde, france
http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/portfolio/2008/08/04/une-mini-tornade-fait-trois-morts-dans-le-nord_1079962_3224.html#ens_id=1079928

Le figaro, france (Vid)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2008/08/04/01016-20080804ARTWWW00212-en-france-nous-ne-sommes-pas-capable-de-revoir-des-tornades.php

RTL, france (Vid)
http://rtlinfo.alinfini.be/index.php?option=com_vpl_videoplayer&task=play&mmo=42975

Swiss TV
http://tagesschau.sf.tv/nachrichten/archiv/2008/08/04/international/drei_tote_durch_tornado_in_frankreich

[Aslkahuna]

Most housing in rural France would be older construction and probably less capable of handling tornadoes than modern housing so I would guess EF-2.

Steve

[Bunkertor]

I thought about the housing structure, too, but is an EF2 capable to carry a car about 500 m ?

[RL3AO]

Moderate to strong EF3.

[P.K.]

Looks like a T6 to me from what I've seen. This isn't EF2 damage. From what I can tell from looking at photos of tornado damage it looks like buildings in Europe tend to be built stronger than those in the USA.

[HenkL]

A lot of damage to newer houses also.
Some more pictures on a Dutch/Belgium weather forum, taken by a meteorologist from the KMI (Belgium):
http://www.weerwoord.be/includes/forum_read.php?id=841996&tid=841996

Yesterday also a tornado in the Netherlands, just some 10 miles from my hometown. Lots of damage, no injuries.

[Aslkahuna]

Remember that an EF-2 can go up to 216 km/hr (135 mph) in windspeed. As far as cars are concerned, they are bad indicators since we don't know their weight as compared to American cars. Lighter cars are going to be carried further by the wind and 135 mph winds are easily capable of lifting heavy American cars as people have often found out with hurricanes. Strong EF-3 damage is pretty much complete destruction of well built and ANCHORED homes. Buildings in Europe are not engineered with tornadoes in mind which is understandable since we've only recently started that trend in the US so they are likely to show heavier damage at lower EF ratings. It would be interesting to get a NWS Survey team to look at the situation since they have the experience with the EF scale (or Tim Marshall).

Steve

[P.K.]

What I'm saying is if you look at tornado damage from the mid west of the USA the houses often look to be cheap prefabricated units instead of built of bricks like we have in this case.

I'm not sure what group these people are associated with yet (If any, but it won't be Meteo-France) but a site investigation has found patches of F4 damage which would make it the strongest tornado in Europe for about 20 years. Note the F scale is still used in continental Europe (Along with the T scale) instead of the EF scale.

[HenkL]

New report on the French tornado, made by KMI (Belgium) meteorologist Hamid: available in PDF (6 Mb) here.

Text is in Dutch language, but the PDF contains lots of interesting graphs and pictures. Two houses completely leveled down, one of them only two years old. Large part of the 13 km trail was F3 level, worst part F4 level.
Remark: pictures within the document are copyright KMI.

[P.K.]

Thanks Henk, that is a great PDF.

Looking at something someone in TORRO put together a few years ago a T8 is far from unprecedented in France. In fact for the 24th June 1967 he has listed a T10-11 in Palleul, a T8-9 in Pommereul covering 23km which is listed at a massive 2.5km wide and a further T9 in the Palleul area. Further TNs are listed for this day such as a T6-7 in Davenscourt. There are quite a few other T8+ TNs listed for France on other occasions.

[HurricaneBill]

I think there was an F4/T8 in Poland in 2005.

[Aslkahuna]

One would think that brick houses would be better built than frame houses but that is not always the case-especially when it comes to earthquakes where brick houses are considered as safe as mobile homes are in earthquakes and tornadoes. The main key to how well a house will stand up to a tornado is usually the roof and windows. If the wind gets under the eaves of a roof, it can go sailing away in no time leaving the walls to fend for themselves and if the windows get shattered by debris the wind can get in the house and take it out quickly.

Steve

[Bunkertor]

New report on the French tornado, made by KMI (Belgium) meteorologist Hamid: available in PDF (6 Mb) here.

Text is in Dutch language, but the PDF contains lots of interesting graphs and pictures. Two houses completely leveled down, one of them only two years old. Large part of the 13 km trail was F3 level, worst part F4 level.
Remark: pictures within the document are copyright KMI.

Thanks Henk !

Can you repost the pdf. The link ist unfortunately down...

[HenkL]

Link is still working fine over here. Don''t try to open it in your browser (lots of trouble with large PDF files), but just save it on your hard disc.

[Bunkertor]

Link is still working fine over here. Don''t try to open it in your browser (lots of trouble with large PDF files), but just save it on your hard disc.

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Orange boven !

[CrazyC83]

New report on the French tornado, made by KMI (Belgium) meteorologist Hamid: available in PDF (6 Mb) here.

Text is in Dutch language, but the PDF contains lots of interesting graphs and pictures. Two houses completely leveled down, one of them only two years old. Large part of the 13 km trail was F3 level, worst part F4 level.
Remark: pictures within the document are copyright KMI.

I don't know much about engineering standards in Europe, but several pictures show houses destroyed but not entirely flattened as a couple wall slaps remain. That would be high-end EF3 damage (FR12 DOD8 = 152 mph or 245 km/h so probably about 155-160 mph). Couldn't find any evidence of EF4 damage.