Deadly Twisters

It seems like every week, there's another tornado causing more destruction somewhere across the country. So far this year there have been over 1000 tornado reports, 1191 reports to be exact according to SPC. There were 48 tornado reports just on Sunday (5/25/08) alone! One of those was an extremely strong and rare EF 5 tornado that destroyed Parkersburg, Iowa. Here's an aerial shot of the damage...literally nothing is left of the town.

Source AP

Winds were estimated to be 205 mph and at one point in time, the twister was 1.2 miles wide!! The tornado was on the ground for an incredible 43 miles, but not EF 5 strength the whole time. This is only the second EF 5 tornado since the EF scale was implemented. The first killed 11 people and almost completely wiped out Greensburg, Kansas on May 4, 2007. This is the first EF 5 tornado to hit Iowa in over 30 years! The last one hit Jordan, Iowa on June 13, 1976.


Parkersburg, Iowa...Source yahoo

The storm was so powerful that it not only knocked over big trees like this one, but it ripped the bark off of trees!! According to recent reports, 350 homes were destroyed and 100 more suffered major damage. Unfortunately the death toll stands at 6, but it could have been much worse. In an ironic twist, a tornado siren was installed in Parkersburg just 10 days before the twister hit. According to reports, many have said that if it weren't for the siren, the death toll would be much higher. Clean up is expected to take months.