TORNADO STRIKES CEDAR POCKET - NOVEMBER 8, 1999

Brisbane Storm Chasers Homepage members Anthony Cornelius and Ben Quinn surveyed the damage done by this tornado.  The following is a brief report on what we saw.

We talked to several farmers around the area, most were very helpful.  The first was a house about 400m away from the damage path.  The occupants commented that the wind sprung up very quickly, and they heard an "airplane roar" coming over the valley.  They didn't suffer any damage themselves, but apparently had been busy cleaning their yard of debris that was blown over for most of the morning.  They reported that they had sections of guttering blown into their yard, and plaster board on their roof.

After this, we visited another famrer who had a direct view on the properties that were damaged, and who claimed he saw the tornado.  Mr Peter Walton was extremely helpful.  He described "sheets of iron went swirling high up into the air."  I asked for clarification on this, and he confirmed that the debris was definately rotating, and was rising to approximately 300ft in the air.  His son also saw the tornado.  No funnel was observed, but had admitted that they were not looking for any funnels/lowerings.  But reported that a friend of there's had reported a V-shaped funnel cloud on the outskirts of Gympie.  Another interesting comment made by the farmer, was that the rain was very heavy initially, next it stopped and the wind picked up (and they saw the tornado), and once it had passed it rained briefly again.

We inspected an area of bush/trees that had been damaged by the tornado.  On the way down to this area, a large sheet of corrugated iron was sighted about 500m (at least) to the nearest house.  This lay just outside the damage path.

Upon inspection of the trees, it was clearly evident that there was no discrimination of damage towards small/large trees.  The tree damage was far from extensive, but about 60-70% of the trees were either pushed over or snapped in half.  All of the damage was lying in different directions, in fact an appoximate circular allignment could be made by careful inspect of the damage pattern.  Large grasses/shrubs were also lying in different directions.  There was debris from trees scattered well into the field beside the area of trees.

After this, the occupants of the properties that were effected by the tornado returned back home, and with permission we were able to inspect some of the damage.  THe first house had already been tarped up, but had apparently been moved off its stumps by several inches, and had a large portion of its roof torn off.  The field after the house was completed littered with small bits of plaster board, some corrugated iron, and even some rubbish (soft drink bottles, plastic wrappers etc).  A very large tree had also been pushed over, it had an extremely large root base - approximately 3M X 3M.  It appears to have litterally been "ripped" from the ground, with a crater of at least 1M in depth being left behind.  The trunk was about 2.5-3ft thick, and was very tall and lacked large amounts of foilage.  A large sheet of iron was sighted about 200-250m from the edge of the damage path.  Most likely, it was thrown there by the winds.

The last property surveyed suffered the most severe damage.  From a brief inspection, the house looked to have only suffered minor damage, with part of its roof missing.  However, at the rear end, the entire back of the house was missing!  The roof and walls could not be found (intact anyway), and apparently some of the furniture had also been blown into the field, but had recently been brought back into the house.  The house was a weatherboard home, but it was by no means weak, or look weak.  However, of important interest is that the section of thehome that suffered the most damage, was actually an extension on the house, not the original house itself.  However, when facing approximately northwards and in line with the house, most of the damage was to the left/west of the house.  One could also speculate that the approximately edge of the tornado hit the edge of the house.  But there were also trees down about 10-15m to the right/east of the house.  Around the house, it was interesting how the tornado damaged some items, yet leaved other items virtually untouched.  The playhouse was fine, except for a large dent and some meta wrapped around it.  Another thing that I took note of, was that it appears one window was blown out, with the curtain still outside, caught on the broken glass.  Other interesting notes were that there was corrugated iron wrapped around trees before the first of the damaged houses!  One could speculate that the tornado's winds carried debris back behind the house before wrapped them around trees before the house.

The damage appeared to be about 1km in length, although it may have travelled for longer, all others areas were inaccessible.  The width was about 100m at the widest section, averaging 60-80m.

I personally believe this tornado was a F1 tornado.  Even thougb the house was extensively damage, given that the the extension was almost destroyed, and the old section was almost untouched, it would appear the extension was weaker than the original section on the house.