On May 11, 1970, at 8:30 p.m. an F5 tornado roared through portions of Lubbock, Texas. The storm killed 26 in the city of 149,000, injured hundreds and, according to the National Weather Service, did approximately $250 million in damage. That amount is equal to about $1.25 billion in 2005 dollars.
Jeff Klotzman and Jim Douglass of Lubbock radio station KJTV-AM (950) discussed the storm and its aftermath on the air this morning with experts and survivors.
News coverage of the tornado from The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal is available at Lubbock Online.
After the tornado Texas Tech University established the Wind Science and Engineering (WISE) Research Center at its Lubbock campus.
Focusing on multidisciplinary, wind-related research, education and information outreach, the center works to exploit the useful qualities of wind and mitigate its detrimental effects.
According to Wikipedia, the center led the effort to develop the Enhanced Fujita scale (EF scale), which has been used in the United States since 2007 to rate the strength of tornadoes.
The EF scale replaced the Fujita scale introduced in 1971 by Dr. Tetsuya Theodore (Ted) Fujita of the University of Chicago.
The Enhanced Fujita scale was developed from 2000 to 2004 by the WISE Center's Fujita Scale Enhancement Project, which brought together dozens of meteorologists and civil engineers.
More information on the Enhanced Fujita scale is available from the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.
