Greensburg Tornado claims 11th victim

[Tony Cook]

I just stumbled across this sad news, although it apparently came out Sunday. This was a man who went into a coma from injuries suffered during the torando.

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Sep23/0,4670,KansasTornado,00.html

TonyC

[Tony Lyza]

That article cites the fatality as being the 12th. Was there another fatality from Greensburg?

[Chris Hayes]

I had always heard that there were 11 fatalities from the Greensburg tornado, until the 12th today.

[Dick McGowan]

List of victims (http://www.kansas.com/233/story/64630.html) according to the Wichita Eagle dated on 5/8/2007. So this is the 13th victim of the tornado family that night. One was from Macksville (Police officer), and one was from Hopewell (EF-3, I believe).

So this would be the 12th victim from the "Greensburg" tornado.


A lot of the victims were fairly old; I kind of wonder if they were asleep at the time, or had trouble getting into their basements. It is still mind-blowing that more people weren't killed. I still wonder how no one was injured or killed driving south on 183, or east/west on US 54/400 or US 50 around Macksville KS. There seems to be a lot of vehicles that travel on those highways, especially semis.

[Bill Hark]

A lot of the victims were fairly old; I kind of wonder if they were asleep at the time, or had trouble getting into their basements. It is still mind-blowing that more people weren't killed. I still wonder how no one was injured or killed driving south on 183, or east/west on US 54/400 or US 50 around Macksville KS. There seems to be a lot of vehicles that travel on those highways, especially semis.
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I have seen studies that show tornado deaths tend to be higher for older age groups. I suspect this is a combination other medical problems (eg heart disease) that make healing and survival more difficult along with less mobility to seek shelter.

I think the death toll in Greensburg is now 12 not counting deaths in other areas.

Bill Hark

[Tony Cook]

I took the death toll from the SPC site, which still has not been updated to reflect the latest fatality:
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/torn/2007deadlytorn.html

I noticed the discrepancy between the AP story and the SPC numbers, but thought the SPC site was correct. Their stats attribute 10 deaths to the Greensburg tornado and two to the Macksville/Hopewell tornadoes. The police officer is listed as a victim of the Hopewell tornado, which may account for the discrepancy.

This ST thread seems to indicate also that the police officer was not in the Greensburg tornado, but one of the subsequent monsters in the tornado family:
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12380&highlight=Greensburg+tornado+officer&page=2


TonyC