logo
ENFRع
#

Latest news with #damage

Washington County businesses cleaning up after being hit by flash flooding
Washington County businesses cleaning up after being hit by flash flooding

CBS News

timea day ago

  • Climate
  • CBS News

Washington County businesses cleaning up after being hit by flash flooding

Communities across Washington County are cleaning up Monday after being damaged by flash flooding. Several business owners in the southern part of the county say at least three inches of rain fell in just one hour. While some were able to open up, others were left with too much damage. "It was heartbreaking," Knot just hair owner Shannon Terensky said. Floodwaters swept through parts of Washington County Saturday night, turning creeks into rivers, flooding anything in their path, including businesses in this North Franklin Township Plaza. "We saw the gush of water come from behind the building, and there was nothing we could do," Terensky said. Shannon Terensky, owner of Knot Just Hair, walked KDKA-TV through her salon as her cleanup continues. She said the water got as high as the seats on the hydraulic chairs, and she lost most of her product after a shelf fell over into the water. She says it's difficult to see her business like this because it's her livelihood. She hopes she'll reopen by Tuesday. "We just have to scrub every corner, everything, and just make it not smell like a creek in there," Terensky said. Just down the sidewalk, the owner of Scotty's Ice Cream also had a mess to clean up. A time-lapse video they shared with KDKA-TV shows the parking lot going from wet to flooded in just about an hour. "It was like a river going around the building here. It was about 18 inches high on this wall. It was just craziness," Scotty's owner Ronald Ranko said. "I couldn't see the bench of our picnic tables, and our dumpster was all the way down there," Scotty's employee Carissa Coulter said. Ranko says, thankfully, Scotty's was open at the time because they were able to respond quickly once water started flowing inside. Employees were able to get products and anything else that could get exposed to water outside. Scotty's was only closed for one day, and Ranko credits the community for pitching in with the cleanup. "It's just a good community. Small business people stick together around here," Ranko said.

UK's costliest tornado in Birmingham 20 years on
UK's costliest tornado in Birmingham 20 years on

BBC News

timea day ago

  • Climate
  • BBC News

UK's costliest tornado in Birmingham 20 years on

It is 20 years since the UK was hit by the costliest tornado in modern times when violent winds thought to be in excess of 130mph (209 km/h) tore a path of destruction through Birmingham. It happened at 1.30pm on 28 July 2005, and while it only lasted ten minutes it caused more than £40m in damage. It was the strongest tornado experienced in the UK since 1954 and ripped roofs off buildings, flipped cars over and flattened trees along a seven mile (11km) path. Windspeeds are estimated from assessments of the damage left behind and according to TORRO (Tornado and Storm Research Organisation) this was a T5/T6 tornado on their scale with winds between 137-186mph (220-299 km/h. What made this tornado unique? Tornadoes are rapidly rotating columns of air that form beneath thunderclouds and stretch down to the Earth's surface. Most are small, weak, don't last long and don't cause much damage. The Birmingham tornado, however, was different - it was a very violent storm that we rarely see in the record breaking twister touched down to the south of the city in King's Heath and travelled north-eastwards across Wake Green, Moseley, Balsall Heath, Sparkhill and on towards Erdington. It's not just the strength and wreckage caused by the Birmingham tornado that makes it very unusual for the UK, but also its size, growing to 500m wide at its largest point. England's tornado world record The UK has around 30 tornadoes each year whilst the USA reports more than 1,200 on average over the same period. However, according to Guinness World Records, external England has the greatest density of tornadoes of any country. This is based on research by the University of Manchester which discovered that between 1980 and 2012 England had 2.2 tornadoes per 10,000km² (3861miles²). This compares to a figure of 1.3 for the USA. Size matters The reason behind this is simply that the USA is a vast country, 75 times bigger than England. It has large areas that seldom ever see tornadoes and it is this sheer size that acts to dilutes their density. Also tornadoes are only reported if they're actually seen by someone - this means population density is important too, and England has a high population density, with lots of eyes on the sky. In contrast the infamous 'Tornado Alley' in the US has a low population so it is likely that many tornadoes here go unseen and therefore the US state of Kansas were a country, it would have a tornado density of 4.5 per 10,000km² which is more than double the figure for England. The smallest country in the world is Vatican City - if there were ever to be a tornado recorded here, then that one storm would catapult it to the top of the tornado density league. So tornado density statistics can say about as much about the size of a country, as they tell us about the likelihood of seeing a twister. Tornado crosses M25 and shocks drivers

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store