ABSTRACT
One of the largest single-system tornado outbreaks in the United States occurred from April 14 to April 16 resulting in more than 200 con„rmed tornadoes across 16 states with a total of 43 people killed from tornadoes and straight-line winds. (See Figure 13.1.) On April 16, the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a moderate risk of severe weather for North Carolina and Virginia as a cold front tracked eastward and a squall line developed across the Appalachian Mountains. As storms moved into strong atmospheric instability in North Carolina, NWS issued a Potentially Dangerous Situation (PDS) Tornado Watch just after midday for central and eastern North Carolina and immediately adjacent areas in South Carolina and Virginia. Quickly, the squall line descended along the Blue Ridge Mountains and intensi„ed along the Interstate 77 corridor north of Charlotte and west of Greensboro. As the storm moved east, tornadoes were con„rmed near Salisbury (EF-1), Monroe (EF-0), and Burlington (EF-1). Around 3:15 p.m., another tornado developed in the Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area. e estimated one-mile-wide tornado tracked through the southwest edge of downtown Raleigh on a southwest-to-northeast trajectory, passing through miles of suburbs surrounding the city. It eventually crossed three interstate highways and narrowly missed striking a nuclear power plant, but did signi„- cantly impact the Shaw University campus in downtown Raleigh so severely that classes were suspended for the remainder of the semester.1 e high EF-3 tornado ultimately generated an estimated $115 million in damages to the Raleigh area with more than 2,500 homes and businesses impacted.2 To visualize this damage in relationship to the path and in the context of debris management and damage assessment, the City of Raleigh created a map through Google Maps that re§ected city inspector reports of ašected areas and surveyed damaged buildings. Each assessed property was divided into gray, yellow, red, and purple dots that corresponded to isolated, minor, major, and destroyed damage classi„cation, respectively.2 is use of geospatial technology is a phenomenal application of Web 2.0 technologies that undoubtedly is a valuable response and recovery tool not only for professional responders but also for private insurers and citizens alike.
