ABSTRACT
On March 2, 2012, a class EF-4 tornado struck the town of Henryville, Indiana (USA). The tornado had winds of 170 mph and left a path of destruction 50 miles long. My wife and I were driving south on Interstate 65; when we were about 50 miles north of Henryville, we saw an Indiana state police car with a sign directing motorists to move to the left lane of the highway. This was the beginning of a direct experience with a “system of systems.” Soon, traffic came to a halt, and then impatient drivers started using the right lane anyway, quickly bringing that lane also to a stop. Then we saw emergency vehicles and heavy equipment heading south using the shoulder of the road. We learned from a truck driver that a tornado had hit Henryville about an hour earlier, and that the emergency vehicles and heavy equipment were attempting to reach the devastated area. We noticed that there was very little northbound traffic on Interstate 65, so clearly, northbound traffic south of Henryville was also stopped. The next day, we saw that a highway rest area had been converted to a command center for the Indiana National Guard to coordinate the disaster relief effort. This effort involved:
◾ The Indiana state police
◾ Local and county police departments
◾ Regional fire departments
◾ Regional ambulance services
◾ Heavy (tree moving) equipment from the public utility companies
◾ The Indiana National Guard
◾ Traffic helicopters from Indianapolis television stations
◾ The US Weather Bureau
◾ (And probably many others)
