Beech Tree News Network

Delbert Hendrix has kept an old tree limb for almost 44 years, and like most keepsakes, there’s a story behind it.

The branch isn’t much today — it’s withered significantly throughout the decades — but once upon a time it was Mother Nature’s projectile, a limb 6 inches thick and a foot long fired through a window “like a bullet.”

“We saved that (branch) for one reason,” said Hendrix, a retired 60-year-old East Prairie, Missouri, resident. “It’s a reminder of what happened. That was the nearest, the closest, we ever flirted with death.”

It was about 1:30 a.m. in July 1971, when a then-teenage Hendrix awoke at his parents’ mobile home in Anniston, Missouri. He’ll never forget the tornado that blitzed the neighborhood, destroying 13 of 16 mobile homes in minutes and sending the branch crashing into his parents’ bedroom.

“There was this huge white cloud, it looked like a mile long,” Hendrix said. “It was on the ground, almost like it was rolling. It was moving so fast ... and there was a roar like a freight train.”

The Hendrix family home survived the twister, but the homes that were destroyed looked as if they “literally exploded,” Hendrix said.

It was miraculous, he said plainly, that no one died.

Hendrix said his experience with the tornado is one reason why he constantly watches the weather as a volunteer spotter for the National Weather Service in Paducah.

The local NWS serves a four-state region: western Kentucky, southeast Missouri, southern Illinois and southwest Indiana.

“It makes you feel good because it’s a community service,” Hendrix said. “It’s for the life and protection of people.”
Although Kentucky, along with several other states, has felt the snowy chill of winter storms recently, this week state officials and residents will turn their attention to a different type of severe weather.

Gov. Steve Beshear has proclaimed March as “Severe Weather Awareness Month.” Weather, the governor said, is “always a threat in Kentucky.”

The weather service, in partnership with Kentucky Emergency Management, the Kentucky Weather Preparedness Committee and Kentucky Broadcasters Association, will issue a tornado warning test message statewide at 9:07 a.m. Tuesday.

According to a news release from the governor’s office, state residents can expect to hear warning sirens, weather alert radios activating, and TV, radio stations and mobile devices broadcasting the alert.

“The broadcast test message will emphasize this is only a test,” the release states. “... All Kentuckians, businesses, hospitals, nursing homes, educators and government agencies are encouraged to practice their tornado safety drill and update their emergency plan.”

The weather service in Paducah recorded 26 tornadoes last year in its region, down from 63 in 2013, meteorologist Pat Spoden said.

The peak season for tornadoes in the area, the veteran meteorologist said, covers April and May, with October and November being a secondary season.

Historically, tornadoes have touched down during each month of the calendar in the region, Spoden said.

The last time a tornado occurred in winter, he said, was Nov. 17, 2013, when a twister started in Ballard County and developed into an EF2 in McCracken County. It then became an EF3 in Brookport, Illinois, he added.

“With where we’re at, it’s not uncommon to have tornadoes any time of year,” Spoden said.

Using radar, environmental conditions, and spotters like Hendrix, the weather service is usually able to forecast the general area where a tornado could occur, Spoden said. However, not until the storm is forming and moving into place can meteorologists pinpoint exactly where a twister is likely to strike.

The key factor for tornadoes developing, he said, is a change in air mass — when cold air collides with warm, making spring ripe for twisters.

The governor’s release gave recommendations for Kentucky residents who do not have a tornado plan:
- Designate a shelter in an interior room on the lowest level of a home or building, away from windows.
- Basements are best, but if there isn’t a basement, choose a bathroom, closet or enclosed space on the lowest level.
- Notify everyone where the designated shelter is and post the location.

Additional weather safety tips, links and resources are available on the Kentucky Emergency Management website, kyem.ky.gov, and via the weather service at www.nws.noaa.gov/com/weatherreadynation.severe.html.
Preparedness is the watch word for spotters like Hendrix.

On Wednesday, he was back at his home weather station, gauging temperature, barometric pressure and wind speed, and calling in measurements to the weather service. His part of Missouri got about 8.5 inches of snow.

“A lot of people think the weather service depends on their equipment, which they do,” he said. “But (spotters) are their eyes.”

He said he’s committed to being a spotter for a simple reason.
“If I can help protect one life, no matter where (that person is), it’s all worth it,” Hendrix said.

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By Joshua Roberts
The Paducah Sun
Kentucky Press News Service
Date: 03-09-2015