February 2008 Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak Damage Assessment

The Super Tuesday tornado outbreak began the afternoon of February 5, 2008 and continued until early morning the next day, leaving widespread damage in many states, including Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. This outbreak, with 62 confirmed fatalities, is considered the deadliest since the May 31, 1985 tornado outbreak that affected Southern Ontario, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and upstate New York. This research is based on damage data collected from Madison and Macon counties in Tennessee using the Visualizing Impacts of Earthquakes with Satellites (VIEWS) system developed by ImageCat, Inc. Enhanced-Fujita (EF) Scale damage ratings were assigned to provide detailed per-building damage assessments which indicate various levels of wind force. Preliminary results suggest damage in Madison County, which included the highly publicized damage to Union University in Jackson, was not as extensive as damage in Macon County. These results are derived from a small sample of an entire data set acquired during a four-day ground survey in western and central Tennessee. Future work will include an in-depth examination of tornado damage in relation to certain meteorological storm characteristics to attain a better understanding of how to enhance building resistance and community resilience, minimizing long-term losses. A comparison with National Weather Service tornado damage ratings, as well as with Quickbird and Worldview visible satellite imagery, will be carried out.