Superstorm 1950

David A. Call

Description

In November 1950, the greatest storm of the twentieth century crippled the eastern United States, affecting more than 100 million people. Sometimes referred to as the Great Appalachian or Thanksgiving storm, this was no ordinary weather event. Its giant size and multiple record-setting hazards—including snow, ice, flooding, wind, and cold temperatures—were cataclysmic. This superstorm was the most costly weather-related disaster when it occurred. Only two other storms that affected the US mainland since then, both hurricanes, have exceeded its death toll. The weather records it established remain benchmarks of extreme weather to this day.

Superstorm 1950 examines the immediate impact of the storm, covering not just meteorology, but also its wide-ranging social impacts, which varied by race, class, and gender. The repercussions continue to affect us today, in obvious areas like weather forecasting, and in surprising areas like Ohio State football and government tax policy. Because superstorms are not as familiar as hurricanes or tornadoes, they can be overlooked in terms of weather-related disasters. This is a mistake. Vulnerability to weather disasters is increasing, and a similar storm today would likely be the most expensive weather disaster ever in the United States. Superstorm 1950 serves not only as a riveting account of one of the greatest disasters in US history, but also provides a premonition of what may come if global climate change is not confronted.

An Introduction

Part 1: The Genesis

Then (1950)

The Storm

Part 2: The Effects

Fifty-Seven Inches

Dig-Out Days

An Icy Blackout

Water Everywhere

Blown Away

Frigid

Part 3: The Upshot

The Modelers

Now and Beyond

Acknowledgments

Notes

References

Index

Sujets

• Natural Disasters
• Sciences et techniques
• Natural disaster
• Nature

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612497983
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

SUPERSTORM 1950
SUPERSTORM 1950

The Greatest Simultaneous Blizzard, Ice Storm, Windstorm, and Cold Outbreak of the Twentieth Century
David A. Call
Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright 2023 by Purdue University Press. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.
978-1-61249-796-9 (hardcover)
978-1-61249-797-6 (paperback)
978-1-61249-798-3 (epub)
978-1-61249-799-0 (epdf)
Cover photo courtesy of Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center.
CONTENTS
An Introduction
Part 1 The Genesis
1. Then (1950)
2. The Storm
Part 2 The Effects
3. Fifty-Seven Inches
4. Dig-Out Days
5. An Icy Blackout
6. Water Everywhere
7. Blown Away
8. Frigid
Part 3 The Upshot
9. The Modelers
10. Now and Beyond
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
About the Author
AN INTRODUCTION
ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1950, CORDELIA WALKO OF ELYRIA, OHIO, looked at her enlarged abdomen and said a prayer. Her third pregnancy was nearly over, and she was ready. Due December 1, the baby growing inside her was causing increasing discomfort. An early delivery might improve her mood and make it easier for her to chase around her other children. Besides, the Christmas shopping season was just around the corner, and walking had become difficult.
A thousand miles to the east, a group of navy sailors prepared for a routine towing mission to transport destroyer escort 532 to Maine for recommissioning. The rough seas from a recent storm had finally setled down, and the weather forecast for the upcoming weekend called for quiet but cold weather. The task should not be difficult.
Finally, in Columbus, Ohio, Coach Wes Fesler of The Ohio State University worked on his game plan for the upcoming annual rivalry game against the University of Michigan. While his Buckeyes were highly favored against the unranked Wolverines, unrest was brewing due to the previous week s loss to a red-hot Illinois team and subsequent loss of the school s No. 1 ranking in the AP poll. Nonetheless, a defeat of their hated rival could secure both a trip to the Rose Bowl and a top ten ranking, and it would quiet the critics. Although Coach Fesler had failed to defeat Michigan in three prior tries, this time was expected to be different: his team was the favorite. A good game plan was critical to meet the high expectations.
What Coach Fesler, the sailors, and Cordelia Walko did not know was that their lives were about to be altered dramatically in the coming days by unforeseen and exceptional circumstances. Cordelia s baby would be delivered successfully, but in a snowdrift with a farmer s assistance. Waves of 50 feet would snap the sailors tow lines and leave them adrift in the dark on a ship with no working systems. (Luckily, a courageous tugboat captain, Lt. William J. Bryan, rescued them amid the relentless storm.) And Coach Fesler s carefully constructed game plan was to be ruined by an unexpected blizzard, causing Ohio State to lose to Michigan and costing him his job. Ohio State would later gamble on a young, largely unknown coach from the western part of the state as his successor. That coach, Woody Hayes, built Ohio State football into a national powerhouse.
THESE EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS WERE ALL CAUSED BY ONE OF THE LARGEST, most intense storms to affect the eastern United States-Superstorm 1950. Commonly referred to as the Great Appalachian Storm or Great Thanksgiving Storm of 1950, this record-setter disrupted the lives of more than one hundred million people. Blizzard conditions and several feet of snow paralyzed Ohio, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania, crippling commerce and shutting down major cities like Cleveland and Pittsburgh for the better part of a week. Altoona, Pa., experienced a complete blackout as record ice accumulations severed all high-voltage power transmission lines that fed the city. The Susquehanna River rampaged through Lock Haven, Pa., flooding more than three-quarters of the small city with more than 3 feet of water. Farther east, hurricane-force winds battered New England, New York, and New Jersey, causing coastal flooding and inland damage comparable to the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. The arctic air that accompanied the storm set new monthly low temperature records from Wisconsin to Georgia (many of which still stand to this day), wiped out late-season crops, and killed dozens from fatal fires. No state east of the Mississippi River was spared the wrath of the storm; the twenty-six states affected were home to approximately two-thirds of the U.S. total population. Damage was in the hundreds of millions of 1950 dollars (equivalent to at least $1 billion today), and 353 people perished.
At the time, Superstorm 1950 was the most expensive weather disaster in U.S. history, and its death toll the seventh highest for a nontropical storm in the United States. In the more than seventy years since the storm, the death toll has been exceeded only twice, both times by hurricanes. Superstorm 1950 simultaneously set records for snow, ice, rainfall, pressure, wind speed, and cold, and many of these records stand today. With its many hazardous facets, gigantic geographic area affected, and immense destruction and loss of life, this storm is best described as a superstorm .
But what exactly is a superstorm? Typically used to describe any large storm with multiple hazards, the term superstorm has no official definition. Misuse and overuse of the term are common, an issue that also plagues other such terms with similar meaning, such as perfect storm . This book works to change that by using Superstorm 1950 as a case study in what a superstorm is: a large cyclone with multiple hazards and major societal impacts.
The societal impacts of Superstorm 1950 were exacerbated by the lack of warning. Modern weather forecasts are accurate because of indispensable tools such as computer model simulations, weather satellites, and radar. A similar storm today would likely be predicted days or perhaps a week in advance. In contrast, computer models in 1950 were crude and used to study past weather events, not to look forward; weather radar was still being field-tested; and weather satellites (or any artificial satellites, for that matter) did not exist. Forecasters could use past analogues to forecast, but this storm did not follow the typical patterns of other storms. With no time to prepare, Superstorm 1950 surprised those affected. Tens of thousands of travelers were unable to return home, the sudden freeze damaged millions of dollars of mechanical equipment, and hundreds fled to higher ground when rising floodwaters threatened their homes and businesses.
The governmental response was very different than it would be today. In 1950, there was minimal federal involvement in disaster response. While states could petition Congress for relief, the process was slow and cumbersome. The Federal Disaster Relief Act of 1950, which gave the president the power to declare disasters, had been enacted prior to this storm, but it was too new to affect the response. Thus, the governmental response to Superstorm 1950 was almost exclusively effected at the state and local levels. (In subsequent decades, the FDRA transformed disaster response from a state and local responsibility to a federal duty, culminating with the creation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, in 1979. 1 )
Superstorm 1950 inspired meteorological researchers of the time to find new methods and tools to improve forecasts, changing the practice of meteorology forever. At the time, Norman Phillips, Jule Charney, and other members of the Meteorology Group at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton were rapidly advancing the science of meteorology by deriving the equations that describe the atmosphere s dynamics. The group was also experimenting with computer model simulations of the atmosphere using Department of Defense computers. The extreme weather and poor forecasting associated with Superstorm 1950 inspired these and future researchers to use the storm as a test case to refine their models. Each new model iteration was tested with this storm. Thus, Superstorm 1950 was critical in the development of the forecast models we use today-models that have revolutionized and greatly improved the quality of weather forecasts. It is not an exaggeration to say that these improvements in weather forecasting have saved millions of lives across the globe.
BEFORE LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE STORM S IMPACTS, WE WILL TAKE A trip back in time to 1950. Chapter 1 will provide an overview of what life was like in 1950 and highlight some differences between then and now. These differences will play out in the effects of Superstorm 1950, which varied based on race, gender, and class. Then in chapter 2 we ll learn more about the life cycle of Superstorm 1950, including how it formed, what made it so intense, why it followed such an atypical storm track, and whether it was predictable.
The bulk of the book, chapters 3 - 8 , will describe the impacts of the storm. These are broadly grouped by disaster: heavy snow, ice, flooding, wind, and bitter cold. In chapter 9 we ll travel forward from 1950 to the present day by tracing the storm s long-term effects on meteorology and its critical role in developing today s forecast models.
Finally, in chapter 10 , we will take a closer look at what exactly separates superstorms from ordinary storms by examining the effects of some other superstorms. We ll also look forward to see how the societal impacts from a comparable storm today would be similar in some cases (ice and coastal effects, for example) and quite different in others (such as snow and flooding). Understanding superstorms and their impacts will help society better prepare for future storms, ultimately saving lives, reducing property destruction, and lessening