Jarrell Strom May 28th 1997

[marturion1]

The "dead man walking" simply refers to the individual vortices inside the main funnel which Dr. Fujita called "suction vortices." For a picture of this phenomenon in the Jarrell tornado, simply Google "dead man walking tornado"....

[TJfreak77]

oh my god im born on 28-5-1997 ;O

[SoloArriaga]

@TJfreak77 OMFG

[drhea2011]

i am from jarrell tx. i knew every one that died that day. it was horrible.....

[tren979797]

Ive never seen a vid of this tornado in it's mature form...any out there?

[srbpspking25]

wow i remember this, i live in georgetown

[jhtreble]

This tornado was so powerful, it ripped asphalt from the roads and sucked grass out of the ground. I believe that 27 people were killed, some in very gruesome ways. Body parts were discovered hundreds of yards from where their neighborhood once stood. It is a testimony to the human spirit that the folks of Jarrell were able to pull through this.

[tiff5299]

This is horrile. I live in Jarrell but thankfully i wasnt there when this happened but this day is still remembered. :( RIP to all the lives lost in the tragic event

[blueznjazz123]

From what I recall, even some families that took shelter in below-ground locations, interior rooms, and bathtubs were litterally blown/sucked out of these 'safe places' and killed. There are no guarantees with an F5 tornado, especially a slow-moving or mile-wide one. IMHO, this was one of those rare cases where people needed to get in their vehicle and get out of the way, as risky as that is, rather than stay put in a safe location.

[04horns1982]

The only safe place to be during this tornado was underground. Most people in the area didn't have cellars because of the rare location for strong tornadoes. Soon after this, some homes in Jarrell were rebuilt with safe-rooms under the foundation.

[blueznjazz123]

Also, the water table is such that building below-ground rooms is a very very expensive proposition. Instead, a lot of people in tornado alley are having above ground tornado shelter rooms in the middle of their house (made with doubly-thick cement walls, steel doors, etc) They have already been proven to save lives (in the May 1999 F5 in OK)

[WAYNE1980AA]

i saw this on tlc as a special, did they ignore the warnings and the siren until it was too late? we had an f-4 in windsor, 1946.

[Khrysalisify]

@WAYNE1980AA you did? did they show a man walking in it, thats what my cousin said she seen a dead man walking in the tornado it's supposed to be the devil.

[AJTwister97]

this tornado was so powerful because of how slow it moved. imagine what a house would be like if a half mile wide tornado sat on it for over a minute. same goes with asphalt.

[ShaiHuludisCool]

@AJTwister97 Actually I think the Jarrell tornado was over any given point for about THREE minutes! At least I think that's what Tim Marshall said.

[LetsDoIt4Johnny1]

I honestly think this could have been the most intense storm ever...whenever someone needs to provide an example of F5/EF5 damage, they go to the pictures of what this tornado did in Double Creek Estates. I mean, for it to have killed almost everyone in its path like that no matter what shelter they took...that's just something else...unbelievable; it's a shame it wasn't as well-covered and recorded as the storms in OKC and Greensburg.

[YankHoe]

@LetsDoIt4Johnny1 I agree. Brian Peters from the NWS who helped rate this tornado has stated many times that he thinks if Dr. Fujita had still been alive, he would have considered this one an F6. And he's rated many F5's and he still says this is the worst storm he's ever seen in his life! Scoured all kinds of asphalt from the roads . . . unreal. And it was moving at less than 10 mph.

[ShaiHuludisCool]

@YankHoe The extreme damage was due to the fact that it was only moving at 8 mph. As Tim Marshall said, it was "over any given space for about three minutes". Although it's possible, I doubt that it exceeded the May 3, 1999 tornado in terms of sheer wind speed.

[TheDogchaser]

i was only a couple of weeks old when this tornado happened i was was atleast 5 miles from it

[GUTINALDO]

Aqui no Brasil ,nossos tornados, são os politicos corruptos que levam todo nosso dinheiro, em outubro anule o voto, 999 confirma,isso é que eles mereçem.

Ronaldo - Porto Alegre

[TheMightykaz]

2:35 Hottie!!!!!!

[myemolove13]

I never realized how horrible the damage was. My dad and grampa told me, but seeing it on these clips...wow...we were lucky.

[myemolove13]

:( I remember this...I was three when it happened. My family lost so many friends.

[rf80]

Is anyone familiar with the Indian legend of the "dead man walking"? (multiple vortex tornadoes)

[lisaluvscrissy]

I lived in Killeen Texas which is not too far when this tornado hit. I was there for the aftermath and it was unreal. Now l currently live in Moore Oklahoma where the devastating, costliest, and strongest tornado hit May3 1999.

[SebastianSlasherMP]

@lisaluvscrissy

I'm sorry you lived in Killeen...

[MusIc4lif3333]

@SebastianSlasherMP I lived in Temple but I don't even remember that day at all :O and the scary thing is it was coming towards Bell county at first(where Killeen, Belton, and Temple) but it shifted away from us:)

[SakineTeto05]

oh my god.......

[MsSheebee]

i live in jarrell but not during this time. its so sad :(

[noas55]

I was driving a cab in Austin on this day. Eleven tornadoes touched down over a fourty mile area doing severe damage, but this small community got it worst. A very sad day indeed.

[countercultureaustin]

I was driving on 183 wondering why there was no-one else on the highway.

[skinnykyle2]

Terrible tornado! The guy carrying the log at 0:37 is my brother. He worked with Chuck (1:50) and was helping with the cleanpup.

[CraigFoye80]

It is located 38 miles north of Austin, TX.

[rednecksniper96]

calf win

[SakineTeto05]

that tornado hit a year before i was born and yes I am 11 years old and i'm glad to be young and MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE

[computerzrul1997]

@SakineTeto05 This occured the same day I was born! It happened on the 27th. BTW, the 28th was my due date and I came a day early.

[SakineTeto05]

@computerzrul1997 so your 12?

[computerzrul1997]

@SakineTeto05 Going on 13.

[SCJakubal]

I actually watched this come down as my mom and I sped down FM 2181 from Salado to Temple.  I remember looking at a new crew that was parked on Still House Hollow Road thinking, they are nuts. Needless to say it's a day none of us will forget. This was the scariest thing I've seen first hand until I went through Hurricane Ike here in Houston.

[MusIc4lif3333]

@SCJakubal My sister was actually on a field trip at the time in Jarrell(on a bus) and I know that's a site she'll never forget

[habbadou]

My mother and her family were sponsored by a farming family in Jarrell in the early 1950s after coming to America.

[NoobPwner2448]

in 2008 salado got an f-0 this year salado got a f-2

[NoobPwner2448]

i lived in salado about 5 miles away

[hhbearkat]

i lived in harker heights and i remember that day. it was scary. i thought we were going to get hit

[13svincent]

god that was a bad day. i remember this tornado, and few weeks later we played jarrel middle school in football, and they kicked our ass lol. i lived i cedar park, and a tornado went thru the albertsons.

[paketterman]

yea well it would still be worth it only if u found one i jus turned five so i was in the hall way of a daycare lol

[paketterman]

also this happend on mat27th not the 28 and west temple got hit wif an f-2

[paketterman]

i was in temple wen this happend it was pitch blak outside and the sirens were goin like crazy

[TxTechRox123]

yea I know, I was en-route from Dallas with my german shepherd as an advanced rescue team....when we got there trees were left barkless, and houses looked like match sticks. All in all, we found 1 survivor. It was worth the drive.

[jhtreble]

This tornado was so powerful, it actually stripped the grass out of the ground along its deadly path.

[bigmuffexpress]

Also, it ripped asphalt from the surface of the roads in the area. That is some SERIOUS force.

[LadyWeasel]

I lived in Harker Heights off of S Ann when this happened. You could see plumes in the clouds, but you couldn't hear anything.

[thespiralgoeson]

I drove through Jarrell the day before it hit. Crazy stuff.

[smashyoursymbols7]

I lived through this. It came right through our house on main street

[girlrock776]

i was only 6 days old when this happened but i was in temple and my older sister was sick

[crackertheberdie]

didnt temple get an f3 tornado on the same day?

[moses2662]

I was in the marines while this happend and just bought a house here.

[SixtiesFan90]

So sad how one tornado could destroy an entire town. I feel lucky right now :-(.

[CharginChuckBro]

It's May 27, 1997 not May 28, 1997.

[bnussrockstar]

but may 28 is my birthday, and nothing ever happens on may 28! :(

[LetsDoIt4Johnny1]

The Battle of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

[burtonfan2]

the news coverage was probably from the next day, so maybe that swhat he meant.