**[A violent tornado "success" story]{.underline}**

At 11:00 AM on Tuesday July 13, much of northern and central Illinois
was put into a Tornado watch. A single, large supercell developed in far
northwest Illinois at the time the watch was issued. This storm was
moving southeast into a very unstable environment (and had a lot of
similarities to the Plainfield tornado of 8/28/90). About 3 hours later,
a shower developed in western Woodford county on a boundary that came
from the large supercell. Within 20 minutes, this storm was showing
signs of becoming severe. A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued by
our office at 2:29 PM. At that time, the NWR alarmed in the business
office of the Parsons Manufacturing plant. The Emergency Response Team
(ERT) leader of the facility was immediately notified. A few moments
later he walked outside and noticed a rotating wall cloud with a
developing funnel cloud. He radioed back to the office to institute the
company\'s severe weather plan. Someone from the accounting department
went on the plant\'s PA system and announced that everyone should go to
their designated storm shelter, and that it was not a drill - this was a
real event. Three months prior, the plant conducted one of their
semi-annual tornado drills successfully - everyone got to their shelter
in less than 4 minutes.

Similar to the drill, everyone calmly went to their designated
shelters - all 150 people in the 3 buildings of the plant. While they
were doing this, we issued a tornado warning at 2:34 PM. At the same
time, a county spotter reported a tornado 1 mile northeast of Metamora -
about 4 miles west-northwest of the facility. The ERT leader had enough
time to check on all three shelters to make sure that everyone was
there. He took one final look and noticed that the tornado was heading
right for the facility, and was less than a mile away. He ran to the
closest tornado shelter, about 1.5 minutes before the tornado destroyed
the plant at 2:41 PM. When the tornado moved out of the area, the
employees emerged to see the destruction - the entire business was
heavily damaged, beams were twisted, parts and machinery were strewn
everywhere, and more than 50 autos were launched into the buildings. The
most startling thing was that no one at the plant was killed OR injured.
ALL 150 people were accounted for.

The company owner witnessed a tornado damage the business he was working
at 30 years earlier. Shortly afterwards, when he built his own business,
he was concerned that a tornado could strike again. He did not want to
take any chances, so he built the restrooms to also be tornado shelters
with reinforced concrete walls and 8\" thick concrete ceilings. These
\"safe rooms\" made the difference between life and death for 150 people
that were caught in the middle of an F4 tornado with winds estimated to
be up to 240 mph. This case was proof that having a plan, practicing the
plan, and implementing the plan SAVED lives. It also shows that they
saved lives, and gave themselves extra time to go to their shelters by
responding to an SVR!

In all, the tornado was 9.6 miles long, 1/4 mile wide, and had a life
span of 21 minutes. It also affected a half a dozen farmsteads, with no
fatalities and three minor injuries. Let me know if you need any
additional information.

Chris Miller, WCM

WFO Central IL