2017 Brick tornado

The tornado in Brick

A large and devastating tornado struck Brick, Ethania on the evening of Thursday, June 15, 2017. Part of a larger early-June tornado outbreak, the EF5 tornado began just west of Brick and intensified very quickly, reaching a maximum width of nearly one and a half miles during its path through the northern part of the city. The tornado tracked northeast through Brick, and then continued across I-55 into rural portions of Meadow and Jackson counties, weakening before it dissipated.

The tornado devastated a large portion of the city of Brick, damaging nearly 9,000 buildings, and of those, destroying nearly 3,245. The damage—which included an elementary school and numerous churches,—amounted to a total of $4.2 billion, making the Brick tornado the costliest single tornado in Ethania history.

Overall, the tornado killed 167 people (with an additional twelve indirect deaths), and injured some 1,300 others. It was the deadliest Ethania tornado since the March 4, 2001 F5 tornado in Darrell, Ethania, and the sixth-deadliest in Ethania's history.

## Meteorological synopsis

On the evening of June 14, an area of low pressure was centered over northwestern Ethania. This feature, in addition to steep lapse rates and dewpoints above 60 °F (16 °C), was conducive to the development of numerous supercells later in the day. Hail was forecast, but the tornado threat was forecast to remain isolated. At 8:00 a.m. PST the National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Prediction Center issued a high risk of severe storms for much of the lower southeast counties.

At 2;45 p.m. PST, an hour prior to the tornado, the Storm Prediction Center issued a tornado watch for eastern and southeastern Ethania, to remain in effect until 9:00 p.m. PST. The watch predicted "explosive thunderstorm development," with a “strong tornado or two possible." Thunderstorms began developing between 3:00 and 3:20 p.m. over southwest Ethania. They quickly became severe, and as thunderstorm development continued moving to the east, forecasters became more concerned about imminent tornado development. A tornado warning for the severe thunderstorm west of Brick that eventually produced the EF5 tornado was first issued at 3:12 p.m. PST, 11 minutes before it touched down and 9 minutes before it entered the city of Brick.

## Storm track and damage

The tornado first touched down four miles west of Brick, just north of the Jackson and Ellas county lines. Here, the tornado downed several large trees and telephone poles at EF0 intensity. Despite the tornado warned storm, civil defense sirens didn't sound in Brick until moments after the tornado had reached town.

The tornado moved north and strengthened to EF1 intensity as it continued through rural areas towards Brick, snapping trees and power poles and damaging outbuildings. Widening, the tornado then tracked into the more densely populated southwest corner of the city near a mobile home park. Here, it destroyed numerous mobile homes at EF3 intensity. The tornado continued to cause EF3 damage as it moved northeast. The tornado reached EF4 intensity 4.6 miles (7.40km) from Brick's city limits.

### EF5 intensity in Brick

The tornado then crossed T. Madison Ave. at 3:29 p.m. PST, producing EF4 damage only six minutes after touching down, as several small but well-built commercial buildings were flattened. Consistent EF4 to EF5 damage was noted east of T. Madison Ave. and continued through most of northern Brick. Numerous homes, businesses, and schools were flattened in this area, with concrete walls collapsed and crushed into the foundations. Multiple vehicles were thrown and mangled or wrapped around trees nearby.

Damage became remarkably widespread and catastrophic at and around the nearby Silver Valley Elementary, which received heavy structural damage. Four teachers and six students were in the school at the time, all miraculously survived. Virtually every house near the school and the nearby 16th Street were flattened; some were swept completely away, and trees sustained severe debarking.

### Peak intensity

As the tornado tracked northeast, it maintained EF5 strength as it crossed Main Street between 25th and 27th Streets. It virtually destroyed every house along that stretch, and heavily damaged numerous other structures. It tracked just north of downtown, narrowly missing it. Entire neighborhoods were leveled in this area with some more homes swept away, and trees were stripped completely of their bark. At certain homes, reinforced concrete porches were deformed or, in some cases, completely torn away. Numerous vehicles were tossed up to several blocks, including a school bus and a tanker truck. A church, a nursing home, Brick School District Administrative office, a catholic church, and a Walmart were all destroyed along this corridor. As the tornado crossed 4th Street. further to the east, it destroyed several large apartment buildings, a Conoco gas station, and heavily damaged a city bank. The tornado narrowly avoided hitting Brick's main commercial strip, shifting more to the north.

The tornado continued at EF5 intensity as it crossed Northern Main Street. In that corridor between about 10th and 15th Streets, the tornado continued producing catastrophic damage as it reached its widest point nearly 1 mile across. As the tornado hit the Sears at 507 Northern Main Street, employees and customers hid in the store's backroom. Unfortunately, 4 of the 16 people present in the store at the time were killed, including officer Chance D. Merales. The tornado completely destroyed numerous other businesses and restaurants in this area, many of which were completely flattened. Asphalt was scoured from the parking lot of the Sears. A nearby four-story apartment complex was also devastated, and a cell phone tower had collapsed.

Extreme damage continued in the area of Dunnare in northeast Brick. Many houses were flattened in this area as well. The last area of EF5 damage occurred in an industrial park to the north, and a nearby Kum and Go gas station and convenience store was completely destroyed. Many homes were destroyed further to the west at EF3 to EF4 strength in a nearby subdivision, and Jackson Middle School sustained major damage.

### Weakening and dissipation

The tornado then continued on an north to north-east trajectory back towards I-55 where it weakened. The weakening tornado continued to track into rural portions of Meadow and Jackson counties where damage was generally minor. The tornado lifted east of Ysule at 4:02 p.m. PST, according to aerial surveys. The total track length was 22.19 miles long, and the tornado was nearly a mile across at its widest point. A total of 167 people were killed, and 1,300 others were injured along the path. The same supercell would later drop brief twin tornadoes 29 miles west of Brick, beginning roughly 19 minutes before the dissipation of this tornado.

## Aftermath and impact

A preliminary survey of the tornado damage by the NWS office in nearby Dalesprings began on June 16. The initial survey confirmed a violent tornado rated as a high-end EF4. Subsequent damage surveys, however, found evidence of more intense damage, and so the tornado was upgraded to an EF5 with estimated winds over 200 mph, peaking at 225 to 250 mph. The scope of the damage was immense, about 15% of Brick was destroyed, though emergency officials reported some level of damage to about 65% of the city. A week after the tornado, Brick's mayor estimated that 25% of homes in the city were damaged or destroyed.

Official accountings of the precise number of buildings damaged or destroyed vary somewhat. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) technical report, in total 1,872 buildings were damaged in Brick, including 1,572 residential buildings and 300 non-residential. At least 478 of those buildings sustained so much damage as to be considered destroyed. According to a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) study, 1,402 homes were impacted, and of those, 1,023 were "significantly damaged" and 1,203 were destroyed.

### Infrastructure

The tornado also severely damaged critical infrastructure in the city, hampering emergency response and recovery efforts. Approximately 2,403 electricity distribution poles were damaged, more than 110 miles of distribution line brought down, 124 transmission towers "affected," and an electrical substation in the path of the tornado was completely destroyed. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, approximately 14,000 people were left without power, and those with homes left intact could not get it restored until 10-12 days later, when their dwellings were approved for safe occupancy. The ultimate cost of rebuilding Brick's damaged electricity system was calculated at $20.5 million.

The tornado also caused about 4,000 leaks in water service lines, dropping Brick's water system pressure below operating level and necessitating a block-by-block effort to find and repair the service line leaks, with a water boil order issued for the entire city in the meantime. Water pressure was returned to normal outside of the damage area within 48 hours, and the water boil order was lifted after four and a half days. Approximately 3,200 gas meters and 53,000 feet of gas main were damaged, and it took two weeks to stem every gas leak.

Cellular communications—voice calls in particular, were heavily impeded. By June 21, towers had been restored.

### Casualties

As of April 2023, the official death toll from NWS was listed at 167 while the City of Brick listed the death toll at 164. The difference in death tolls is allegedly caused by the city refusing to consider three people killed on I-55 as 'killed in the city limits'.

## Response

Immediately following the disaster, emergency responders were deployed within and to the city to undertake search and rescue efforts. Mayor Joey Kieran declared a state of emergency for the Brick area shortly after the tornado hit and asked for National Guard troops to go the city. Within two days, numerous agencies arrived to assist residents in the recovery process. In addition, the Highway Patrol provided 180 troopers to assist the Brick Police Department with law enforcement, rescue, and recovery efforts.

### Cleanup

The Brick tornado generated an estimated 2.5 million cubic yards of debris. Removal efforts lasted for months, and at their height more than 410 trucks a day transported debris to landfills in Brick itself, as well as yards nearby.

### National attention

President Ethan Rankins visited the community on June 23, arriving at 8:50 AM and speaking at a temporarily memorial built at the worst of the devastation. Rankins vowed to support the community as long as they needed.

## Rebuilding and recovery

FEMA maintained a large presence in Brick for a period following the tornado, with as many as 820 employees working in the city. One FEMA undertaking was the construction of 15 temporary housing sites in and around Brick, which housed 586 families/households at their peak. The city built an average of five houses a week between 2017 and 2022. The majority of businesses reopened, and more than 300 new businesses opened between 2017 and early 2023.

In April 2018, a $86 million dollar bond to continue constructing new schools and repair damaged existing ones was approved by the city. Best Buy rebuilt their store, and opened it's doors in 2019, nearly two years after the tornado.