National Weather Digest

SevereWeatherMY FAVORITE TORNADO

Bycarin G. Goodall

134 E. Foster AvenueState College, PA 16801

-Look, a tornado is forming over there,- Ipointed out to my mother as I drove her tothe shopping center at 4:45 PM. -Don't besilly,- I was told. It was April 5, 1977,and seemed too cold for a tornado (it wasaround 50°F.)

day. Canary yellow forsythia shone underthe close sunl igh t and the tang of spr ing­time green lay in the rare morning wind.Nice day. Nice territory. Yet ... heart­break."(2)

2. INTRODUCTION

1. THE AFTERMATH

-It'll be like trying to put a picturepostcard back together. There was ampleblue sky, clouds white as a diaper, hills,dales and an eyeful of farmland. Niceterritory. Trees had been uplifted, roofssnatched away, garages crushed and debrisflung over more than a hundred acres.Parts of Strites Orchard looked like ashot from World War One's Western front.The ground was littered. The bare treeswere heavily laced with pieces of fibre­glass insulation. Here and there lay ashoe, a child's toy, a phone book, a bro­ken chair and a couple of coffee cups. Arain gutter was wrapped like a necktiearound a nearby elm. It was a beautifUl

Ho"i'buf\l- 2 miles

~'N'

i

o 1/2 I mill~'---:~',:=;;====-"

SCALE

'd.

I dropped MotherEast Mall and satthe clouds move.

off at the Harrisburgfor ten minutes watchingThe sky reminded me of

u.s.·~?2·

Figure 1. Map of Chambers Hill, PA; numbers indicate locations mentioned in the articletext (see Section 3).

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the beginning of the National Geographicmovies we used to see in second grade,showing time-lapse photography of cloudmovement.

When I arrived home, my father, who hadbeen in bed with a 102 0 temperature, wasin the driveway in his housecoat. Hepointed to the sky saying to me, -A tor­nado just went by.-

The tornado that touched down in my neigh­borhood, Chambers Hill, just four mileseast-northeast of the Capital City Airport(CXY) and four miles northwest of the Har­risburg International Airport (MDT) aroundSPM on AprilS, 1977, occurred at a timein my life when I was trying to decidewhat to do with my future. I had alreadyplanned to go to college to study somesort of physical science. Although in­terested in meteorology, I figured it wasjust a passing fancy. However, my fasci­nation of the Chambers Hill tornado con­vinced me that this interest was not onlya hobby, but something I wanted to do forthe rest of my life.

Tornadoes in Harrisburg, PA, are not ararity; there have been many reports ofless devastating tornadoes in the area.The most widely known one happened in Her­shey, PA, just fifteen miles east of Har­risburg, on October 11, 1975. Althoughthe Chambers Hill tornado may not be sig­nificant compared with the Brandenberg, KYor xenia, OH tornadoes of April, 1974, itwas still a disaster since people wereaffected and suffered property loss.

3. STORM HISTORY

-The events of the tornado are still vividin our minds. It was right before westarted to eat our dinner. I noticed itwas getting very dark and rainy. It wasraining qUite heavily. I was concernedthat two of the children were not homefrom school yet and I was going to pickthem up at the bus stop. I just put din­ner on the table and it got very windy.My husband went to close the storm doorand with tha t we hear d th is loud noise.We thought the pine trees in front of thehouse were rolling and that they werecoming through the front window. We allgot up at the same time and ran for theback door. We only got between six andten feet because of the turbulence. Wehad no idea as to what happened" (3).

The funnel cloud's path of destruction waserratic: it skipped and jumped throughSwatara and Lower Swatara Townships. Al­most miraculously, no one was seriouslyhur t.

Residents reported seeing a greyish-bluefunnel cloud race across the valley fromBlue Mountain toward Chambers Hill (numbers

Volume 7 Number 3

in parenthesis refer to the map in Figure1) . The tornado touched down by the HostInn [lJ, where it ripped off half the roofof a house on Highland Street [2]. Itstruck a barn, damaging a porch, fence andtrees, and then moved across Route 441,where it hit and damaged Joseph Hoffman'snew farm house [3]. The tornado thenskipped over the neighborhood to DennisCircle [4], in an area called the SwataraCrest. The tornado hi t the house belong­ing to Donald and Mar ie Decker. At thetime, Mr. and Mrs. Decker and eight oftheir thirteen children were sitting downto dinner. The tornado tore the roof offthe $75,000 brick house that Mr. Decker,who is a carpenter, had built four yearsearlier. The family was thrown across thekitchen; the diving board from their poollanded two blocks away, along with theroof of their house.

According to Donald Horner, Swatara Town­ship Code Enforcement Officer, one of theDecker's neighbors had thirty-nine treesin his front yard, some as tall as fiftyfeet, and all were either broken or tornup. There is no way to put a monetaryvalue on a mature tree.

The tornado then moved to Canterbury Place[5], a new development close by. Sixty­nine houses were either under constructionor just completed; some of the lawns hadnot even been seeded yet. Four teen of thenew homes were damaged; four had to betorn down and rebuilt.

Then, the tornado skipped over to CockleyRoad [6], taking the roof off a houseowned by Earl Strite. It then knockedover a mobile home in a trailer court (7],and damaged a couple of others, injuringone woman. After scattering debris andinsulation allover Strites Orchard (8],passing within a half mile of my home [9],

Figure 2. Damage to the Decker house,indicated by Location 4 in Figure 1.

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National Weather Digest

the tornado finally dissipated over thefar part of the orchard. Horner said theorchard looked like -marshmallows or cot­ton candy stuck all through the trees.­Chambers Hill Road, the main streetthrough Chambers Hill, was said to looklike the Schuylkill Expressway during rushhour; four to five hundred sightseers cameto witness the destruction.

Pennsylvania Power and Light (PP&L) re­ported three outages of electricity. Thefirst occurred at the time of the tornadowhen forty-one customers had no power forthree hours. The second was at 6:45 PM;sixteen families had no electricity forsix hours. At 8PM, 740 families losttheir power for forty minutes. The secondoutage was probably caused by clean-up ef­forts. The last outage was most likelycaused by PP&L shutting off the power soas not to hamper cleaning.

4. NATURE

-When it was allover, we looked up to abeautiful sunny sky. The roof was gone

and so was the porch. My neighbor wasfirst on the scene and he told us what itwas, beca use he wa tched it from his backwindow. The back door was jammed, so hehelped us get it open. Luckily, the elec­tricity was knocked off, because therewere a lot of hanging electrical wires­(3) •

The National Weather Service issued astatement the following morning saying, -atornado touched down approximately fivemiles east of Harrisburg around 5:10PM ESTAprilS, 1977. The following damage re­port was given to the Harrisburg Weatherservice Office by the Civil Defense of­ficer: 6 homes destroyed, 20 damaged, 50people homeless.-

Records at the National Severe StormsForecast Center (NSSF) in Kansas City, MOclassified this tornado as a 2,1,2 on theFu j ita-Pearson (FPP) scale of class ify ingtornadoes (see Table 1). According to myown inspection of the disaster area, Iagree with the records. Roofs were taken

TABLE 1

Fujita Pearson (FPP) scale for classifyingtornadoes

Fujita (F) Scale of Intensity

F -: Little or no damage (40 mph or less winds). Breaks twigs off trees.

F 0: Light damage (40 - 72 mph winds). Some damage to chimneys or TV antennae; breaksbranches off trees.

F 1: Moderate damage (73 - 112 mph winds). Peels surface off roofs; trailers pushed oroverturned; windows broken.

F 2: Considerable damage (113 - 157 mph winds). Roofs torn off frame houses leavingstrong upright walls standing; weak structured houses and/or trailers demolished.

F 3: Severe damage (158 206 mph winds).leaving piles of debris.

Well-constructed frame houses leveled,

F 4: Devastating damage (207 - 260 mph winds). Structures with weak foundations arelifted, torn and blown off some distance. Trees are debarked by small flying de­bris. Cars thrown some distance or rolled considerable distance. Large missilesare generated.

F 5: Incredible damage (261 - 318 mph winds). Strong frame houses lifted clear offfoundation and carried considerable distance to disintegrate.

F 6 to F 12: Inconceivable damage (319 - sonic speed).

P-scale path length P-scale storm width

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pP 0:P 1:P 2:P 3:P 4:P 5:

less than 0.3 miles0.3 - 0.9 miles1.0 - 3.1 miles3.2 - 9.9 miles10 - 31 miles32 - 99 miles100 - 315 miles

PP 0:P 1:P 2:P 3:P 4:P 5:

less than six yards6 - 17 yards18 - 55 yards56 - 175 yar ds176 - 556 miles0.3 - 0.9 miles1.0 - 3.1 miles

Volume 7 Number 3

5. PREDICTION

a. Rt. 441: Broken and uprooted trees.Roofs off homes.

b. Swatara Crest: Whole roofs off,trees uprooted, two houses totalled,one off foundation. Garages de­stroyed. Just a few walls of theDeckers' home left standing, treesturned every which way.

6. RELIEF

Red Cross volunteers immediately surveyedthe area to determine if anyone neededmedical help, to regroup scattered famil­ies and to generally offer reassurance.No mass housing was requested since peoplestayed with friends and neighbors. TheHarrisburg River Rescue and volunteerfiremen helped residents carry their be­longings to a caravan of rented trucks toput into storage until the people couldrebuild their homes. Fire companies setup hose lines against the threat of fire.State Police, Civil Air Patrol, DauphinCounty Sheriff's officers and surroundingtownships' police helped Swatara PoliceDepartment create a security perimeteraround the homes. Nine ROTC (Reserve Of­ficers Training Corps) cadets from thepennsylvania State University Capital Cam­pus dressed in army fatigues helped directtraffic and maintain security. River Res­cue and volunteer fire companies fed thehomeless families. Red Cross providedmoney to feed and clothe the families un­til insurance payments could begin. Markpowers, the Chairman of the Red Cross Dis­aster Service, was quoted on April 7th,two days after the tornado, as saying,-The residents have really bounced backpsychologically. Everyone is in goodspirits and insurance companies are actingquickly to help the victims. - A state ofemergency was declared on the night ofApril 6th. The Swatara Township Commis­sioners tried to get state and federal aidto help pay for clean-up efforts. To getstate aid, the governor of the state, whowas Milton Shapp at that time, had to de­clare the area a disaster. To get federalaid, the president of the United States,then President Carter, had to declare it adisaster area. Swatara Township Civil De­fense Director, Commissioner Dominick Cos­tanza, who lives in the disaster area,told The Harrisburg Patriot that if thearea did not get any state or federal aid,at least they had tried. Since the homesin the area were 100% insured, any stateor federal aid available would have beenlimited, since this aid is usually for un­insured homes. Since no municipal proper­ty was damaged or destroyed, the area wasnot eligible for Federal Small BusinessAdministration aid.

-The Red Cross came to our assistance andgave us clothes for the kids. The ne igh­bors couldn't have been better. We had noproblem at all wi th insurance and not muchred tape. I would like to recommend thateveryone should have full detail of everyitem in their house; this information canbe very useful for insurance purposes-(3).

time; in fact, it may have actually beennegative lead time (reported to the pUblicafter the fact).

trailer upset,shed torn up.

a damage survey at 9AMThis is what I saw:

Trailer Cour t: Onetwo damaged. StorageSmall trees uprooted.

d. Strites Orchard: Insulation and de­bris strewn throughout the orchard.Metal suppor ts of a green house bentlike straw. Green house collapsed.

I personally tookthe following day.

The National Weather Service in Harrisburgissued the following at 5: 10PM EST: -TheNational Weather Service has issued a tor­nado warning effective until 6:30 PM forthe Eastern portion of Dauphin and Lebanoncounties of Pennsylvania. A tornado fivemiles east of Harrisburg was reported bythe public and is moving east at 40 milesper hour. If threatening weather ap­proaches, you should go to a place of saf­ety. - The Emergency Broadcast System(EBS) was activated at that time on WHP AMand FM radio and television in Harrisburg.

During the several days before, and theday of the tornado, severe thunderstormwatches were in effect for the Harr isburgarea. This means the conditions for se­vere thunderstorms were present. perhapswhen the Doppler Radar is perfected andput into full swing, we might be able tobetter identify rotational returns and po­tential tornadoes. But with the presentstate of the art, it is not possible todetect each and every tornado signature onradar. This tornado was not expected.The warning was issued after it was spot­ted by the public and reported to the Na­tional Weather Service. There was no lead

c.

off some homes and one or two houses hadcollapsed walls. The length was 1.75miles and the width of the funnel wasabout 200 feet. Wind speeds were notmeasured, but can be estimated from theFPP sca Ie (men t ioned above) as being be­tween 113 to 157 mph. No one was killedbut there was one injury, the woman in thetrailer. She was taken to the hospitaland released the next morning. Two mil­lion dollars was lost in damages. Thisfigure does not include trees and utili­ties. Most of the homes in Dennis Circleand Canterbury Place are worth around$120,000 today. Two mobile homes from thetrailer court were demolished.

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Tell Eleanor to find a sub for me forbowling tonight."

Mrs. Decker, Dennis Circle

"Th ir ty to for ty yar ds from me, twohouses were smashed and my pigeoncoop out back wasn't touched. I onlylost the lid to my garbage can."

Robert Srown, Chaucer Drive

"All of a sudden it got very dark andthe wind was going in circles. Icould tell because of the way theleaves were going. My doorbellrang. Yes, the wind must have rangthe doorbell.·

Mrs. Curtis Weber, Chaucer Drive

outside help. The quotes of these peoplehelped outsiders realize how it actuallywas. Following are quotes from some ofthe victims, as taken out of the patriotor News:

"Just like what I saw in the Wizardof Oz."

Mrs. Lee Myers, Hoffman Drive

foreman,

the wh ine

PP&L

liketornado soundedjet engine."Jack Sandherr,Chaucer Drive

"Theof aThere is no way a tornado can be prevented

from occurr lng. However, in many cases,the trauma of loss of life and/or propertycan often be prevented by strong construc­tion of buildings, good watches and warn­ings, and better public awareness of themeteorological terms. Dur ing the ChambersHill tornado, as was said before, therewas no lead time, since the tornado wasnot expected. The absence of lead timewas not the fault of the National WeatherService. It was caused by the nature ofthe tornado. One promising way to improvethis lead time may be with the use of DOp­pler Radar, as previously mentioned. Theconstruction of the houses probably couldnot be improved. Quoting Mrs. Decker, "Ifthat house wasn't put up sturdily, wewouldn't be here now."

National Weather Digest

Dauphin County Civil Defense Director Kev­in Malloy praised fire and police crews'efforts saying, "The response by volunteerfiremen, police departments, Red Cross,Civil Air patrol, Dauphin County Sheriff'sDepartment, River Rescue and State Policewas just fantastic." There were no re­ports of any vandalism or break-ins.

7 . PREVENTION

8. REACTIONS

The Harrisburg patriot and EVening Newsdid an excellent job giving the tornadovictims the pUblicity they needed to get

"All I could see was white. Itechoed like the wind going through atunnel. The roof just took off and

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Volume 7 Number 3

9.

the sides of the house gave way.Everything came apart all at once.­

Maureen Decker, 16 years old,Denn is Cir cle

CONCLUSION

-After it was allover and you realizewhat happened, you have mixed emotions,fear of what could have happened, and re­lief that everyone is OK, then sadness atthe sight of your losses. - (3)

REFERENCES AND FOOTNOTES

AFTERTHOUGHT

2. Cal Turner, staff writer, in The Evening News, onApril 6, 1977.

3. Quotes from Mrs. Mari.e Decker, mother of thirteenchildren, as taken from a recent interview conducted bythe author for this paper.

I am aboutState uni­

all star ted

1. Carin Goodall has graduated from Pennsylvania StateUniversity this year, am plans to work in researchingsevere storms. This paper is a transcri.pt of a seminar shegave for her Natural Dioosters Seminar class. She is thedaughter of the Meteorologist-in-Charge at Harrisburg,PA, Cliff Goodall.

A tornado and airplane crash would seem tobe enough, but unknown to the people ofChambers Hill, another event would causeconcern within two years. The Three MileIsland nuclear plant stacks are less thanseven miles away.

P.S.Six years after this tornado,to graduate from pennsylvaniaversity in Meteorology and itwith the Chambers Hill tornado~

The National Weather service should becommended on their swiftness in reactingand issuing the warning. This tornadowarning was heard on WHP radio just threeminutes after it was reported by witnes­ses. The official word of the NationalWeather Service, as quoted in The Harris­burg Patriot, was that the storm was onlya funnel cloud, not a tor nado, wh ich is afunnel cloud that touches the ground.Technically, a funnel cloud wi th damage"which this one had, is classified as atornado. The Meteorologist in Charge ofthe National Weather service in Harris­burg, the -official on the scene-, went onrecord as saying that a tornado definitelyhad touched down and was responsible forthe damage.

No research was spawned from this storm.However, the people of Chambers Hilllearned that everyone, even residents ofthe capital of a state, set among moun­tains, is vulnerable to the devastation ofa tor nado. C i v il Defense Dir ector Malloycompared this disaster to the death ofnine people in a plane crash just fivemiles southwest of\ Chambers Hill earlierin the year saying, -That plane crash lastmonth was horrible, but this disasterequals it in human terms of mental shockand trauma.-

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