Lubbock tornado

Portions of Lubbock, Texas, were struck by a powerful multiple-vortex tornado after nightfall on May 11, 1970, resulting in 26 fatalities and an estimated $250 million in damage (equivalent to $1.96 billion in 2023).

[a] The extremity of the damage and the force required to displace heavy objects as much as was observed indicated that winds produced by vortices within the tornado may have exceeded 290 mph (470 km/h).

The tornado briefly moved west and weakened, causing light damage to the campus of Texas Tech University before reintensifying and resuming a northward path.

The tornado's most destructive impacts were observed in the Guadalupe barrio, north of 4th Street, along Texas State Highway Loop 289, and near the Lubbock County Club.

[7] Six hours later, the SELS amended the outlook to indicate that "isolated thunderstorms with large hail" were "expected in High Plains of West Texas east of Pecos late afternoon and early evening.

[6] As the air mass over the region became increasingly unstable, the forecast agency later advised of the possibility that some of the isolated thunderstorms could become severe.

However, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico spread north-northwest into the area during the day, providing sufficient buoyancy for convective development.

[11] Although the westward retreat of this boundary – known as a dry line – would typically coincide with nightfall and a stabilizing of the atmosphere, it did not move far from Lubbock during the evening, maintaining a local area of converging winds and moist rising air supportive of thunderstorm growth.

These conducive conditions were also bolstered by the approach of a shortwave trough in the mid-levels of the troposphere, serving as another contributor to rising air.

[12] Ironically, at the time the storm was developing, the Lubbock Civil Defense was holding a meeting to discuss disaster preparation plans, highlighted by showing the documentary film Tornado!

There, 13 concrete beams weighing 109,000 lb (49,000 kg) each and doubly weighted with chains were blown down from a partially-built overpass by the tornado.

The bulletin also advised people to prepare to seek shelter with radar imagery and reports continuing to indicate that a tornado was in progress roughly 7 mi (11 km) south-southeast of the Lubbock airport.

[14] TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR LUBBOCK...WESTERN CROSBY...FLOYD...AND SOUTHERN HALE COUNTIES UNTIL 10 PM TONIGHT...SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING WINDS AND POSSIBLY A TORNADO IN THESE AREAS UNTIL 10 PM...RADAR STILL INDICATES GOOD HOOK FORMATION ABOUT 6 MILES SOUTH SOUTHEAST OF THE LUBBOCK AIRPORT...AND THIS LOCATION WOULD BE ON THE BUFFALO SPRINGS LAKE ROAD ABOUT 3 MILES EAST OF THE CITY OF LUBBOCK...IDALOU SHOULD BE ON THE ALERT IN PARTICULAR FOR THIS SEVERE STORM AND POSSIBLE TORNADO...Large hail continued to fall throughout Lubbock, with reports indicating hail the size of golf balls and baseballs.

[6][8] The WSR-1 radar site in Lubbock simultaneously observed a hook echo in the thunderstorm coincident with the newly formed tornado.

However, the tornado's winds had already severed the power lines that serviced many of the sirens, rendering them inoperable and causing their failure to activate.

Although police cruisers also sounded their sirens to alert those nearby of the imminent tornado, many ultimately did not hear either signal and thus likely received no warning.

At 9:43 p.m., Bud Andrews, the radio announcer on KFYO, directed listeners to take shelter shortly before the AM station stopped transmitting.

The Lubbock Civil Defense headquarters lost commercial power and communications at 9:46 p.m. with the exception of a single telephone line.

The Lubbock WBO was able to reach the EOC at 9:47 p.m. to relay that the hook echo observed on radar was in the vicinity of 4th Street and Avenue U.

With the Lubbock WBO no longer fully operational, dissemination of subsequent tornado warnings were carried out by the agency using the VHF-FM radio of the Lubbock Fire Department; this was ultimately the only line of communication between the Lubbock WBO and the surrounding area and allowed tornado warnings to be communicated to the Abernathy, New Deal, and Petersburg areas at 10:10 p.m.[6] Wind gusts at the nearby airport reached 77 kn (89 mph; 143 km/h) at 10:03 p.m., likely coinciding with the tornado's passage over the airport and the Weather Bureau office.

[6] Fujita's analysis of these vortices, which he termed "section spots", suggested that rotational winds of 145–290 mph (233–467 km/h) were produced by the tornado.

[33] Student housing in the Overton area of Lubbock was particularly hard-hit, with the severity of damage requiring demolition of the remaining structures.

[34] Buildings with large segments of exposed and unsupported roofs suffered greatly, experiencing heavy damage or total destruction.

It was the second tornado strike in two years for one of the mobile home parks; many of the complex's residents took shelter in the basement of a nearby house.

[36] The most severe residential damage was wrought in the Guadalupe neighborhood, between Avenues A and Q north of 4th Street, along the northern part of Loop 289, and in the Lubbock Country Club west of the Amarillo Highway.

Bud Andrews and Ernesto Barton, Lubbock radio broadcasters, were given Presidential Citations from then U.S. President Richard M. Nixon for coverage of the disaster.

[citation needed] Despite the destruction wrought by the tornado, the recovery effort revitalized the stagnating Lubbock economy and helped to bring about a period of sustained economic and physical growth.

The Lubbock Urban Renewal Agency rebuilt the largely destroyed Guadalupe neighborhood, though progress was slow for many years before substantial reconstruction occurred.

[39][22] Fifty years after the disaster, a The Lubbock Tornado Memorial Gateway Park was opened at Ave Q and Glenna Goodacre Blvd in downtown Lubbock: a spot along the destructive path of the larger tornado.The memorial includes two flowing black granite-clad walls representing the two paths of the tornadoes.

There are also artistically bent street lights representing the power of the tornadoes, and one relic from the destruction: a snapped-off utility pole.