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Mayor Lori Lightfoot acknowledged Monday her administration should have done a better job of communicating with Little Village residents but stood her ground on the need for yet another demolition on the site of a shuttered coal-fired power plant.

In fact, the mayor argued the turbine building is in such imminent danger of collapsing, the northbound lanes of Pulaski Road are being shut down to protect passing motorists.

The building that were talking about not the large one is a risk. It is unsafe. It is structurally compromised, Lightfoot said, adding that she also worries that while the city and community keep talking, something could happen on site that poses a danger to the workers that are there.

Also, its right up against Pulaski Road, the mayor said. So were taking the steps to shut down the northbound lanes, which are at the eastern edge of the site, for safety. This is not a nicety. This is a building and buildings that are structurally unsound.

Lightfoot said she went out to the site Friday night to walk the grounds again and see the perilous conditions with her own eyes.

Its not safe for anybody. So while we absolutely must continue to educate residents and demonstrate to them visually as well as orally what the dangers are, those buildings must come down. Were gonna do it step by step. But we have to bring them down, she said, refusing to say when the demolition would take place.

Last Thursday, the Lightfoot administration gave the go-ahead for a second demolition on the site of the former power plant, infuriating Little Village residents still reeling from the disastrous implosion of a 95-year-old smokestack on the site on April 11.

But a few hours later, the mayor put the turbine building demolition on hold for what she claimed was the next several days after a group of protestors gathered outside her Logan Square home. On Monday, Lightfoot acknowledged picketing outside her home goes with the territory.

The mayor also talked openly about the need to communicate more clearly and candidly to a Little Village community that has borne the brunt of the coronavirus and was victimized by what activists call environmental racism long before the pandemic.

This is a community that really has felt disrespected, lack of resources, in the middle of a very difficult and challenging environmental problem for decades. We have to recognize that. I have to recognize it and I do, Lightfoot said.

Were not gonna be able to erase decades of feeling in one moment. Thats not gonna be possible. But we do have to constantly look for other ways in which we can reach out, help educate and listen to what people in those communities are saying. And certainly, we should have done a better job last week. Were trying to address that shortcoming now.

On April 11, armed with a city demolition permit that local Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd) tried to stop, a now-fired sub-contractor for Hilco Redevelopment Partners demolished the smokestack without the promised safety measures.

That caused a giant plume of dust to rain down on the community. Homes, vehicles, streets and sidewalks were left filthy.

Lightfoot blamed Hilco, slapped the company with $68,000 in fines and vowed to overhaul a flawed city regulatory system that allowed it to happen.

After the demolition, the turbine building was left half demolished and exposed to the weather elements, including wind and rain, which rendered an already unsafe building an immediate threat to public health and safety, according to a structural analysis prepared by the citys Department of Buildings and obtained by the Sun-Times.

With photographs to back its assertions, the report concluded that:

Steel columns are exposed and unbraced in both dimensions.

The adjacent building structure that originally provided lateral support to the steel columns has been removed.

Large areas of exterior brick are unsupported and remain in place solely due to mortar adhesion and the brick could collapse due to its own weight and wind pressure.

Structural steel roof trusses are damaged and deformation of trusses and cross bracing could get worse.

The exposed steel makes the site an attractive nuisance to scrappers who regularly trespass on the site.

In the interest of public safety, the turbine structure is unsound and needs to be removed immediately, the report states.

It is expected that the demolition of the turbine structure will take approximately one-to-two days, weather permitting.

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Mayor Lori Lightfoot admits her people should have done a better job telling Little Village residents about - Chicago Sun-Times

TIRANA (Reuters) - Albanian authorities began demolishing the national theatre building early on Sunday after dragging away two dozen actors and activists protecting the site, drawing a large crowd chanting shame and dictatorship.

A woman holds a sign reading "Who resists today wins tomorrow" as she attends a protest against the demolition of the National Theatre, during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Tirana, Albania May 18, 2020. REUTERS/Florion Goga

For more than two years actors, activists and the opposition have contested plans by Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama to build a new theatre, saying the existing building was part of the countrys heritage, and accused him of corrupt practices.

A large police force showed up before dawn and removed members of the Alliance to Protect the Theatre, using pepper spray. Mechanized diggers then began demolishing its front column, bearing the words National Theatre.

The fate of the building, constructed in 1939 and made into a national theatre in 1945, has divided society, with many angry that Rama had chosen to act during the coronavirus lockdown.

This is no longer about the theatres demolition but the downfall of democracy and freedom. We are in a dictatorship, an unidentified member of the alliance said on a Facebook video.

Rama, whose government says the theatre was decrepit and in need of modernisation, stuck to his idea he was pushing for progress, after building a new soccer stadium and market.

These are the same people who rise against every project in Tirana. They do not want development, but they cannot stop Tirana, Rama said in a Facebook post.

Protesters shoved police blocking access to the site and chanted down with the dictatorship, leading to 37 arrests. One policeman was hospitalized after being hit by protesters, while a Reuters witness also saw one protester with head injuries.

One of those arrested, media analyst Alfred Lela, said after his release that police had used unjustified violence and verbal abuse. Policemen kicked protesters, who threw water bottles, according to a Reuters witness.

The police said accusations of violence were untrue.

Critics of the original plan for a new theatre said the work had been awarded to one of the governments preferred partners without being subject to tender, with the construction of several new high-rise properties included in the deal.

The Socialist government withdrew that plan in February.

Protesters have claimed that a six-month period is required by law for a new project to be approved, and that the government has not secured the proper permits to carry out the demolition.

Mariya Gabriel, the European Unions Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Commissioner, last week urged further discussions before any decision was made on the theatre.

Opposition Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha said the demolition was illegal, and had also demolished the foundations of society.

President Ilir Meta, who holds a largely ceremonial role in government, has complained to the constitutional court about the demolition, which he has called an legal, moral and constitutional crime. The court is yet to rule.

Reporting by Benet Koleka; Editing by Jan Harvey

Read more:
Demolition of Albanian national theatre sparks angry protests - Reuters

Buildings next to a collapsed hotel construction project in New Orleans are coming down.

Crews began demolition Friday of one of three buildings near the collapsed Hard Rock Hotel structure in the citys Central Business District. Officials have said those buildings must be cleared to give space for the hotel demolition to safely begin.

The bodies of two workers who were trapped inside the collapsed structure on Oct. 12 remain between the 8th and 10th floors. Two construction cranes that had been leaning over the project were brought down days later with explosives but the rest of the building has been standing for months as the city and developer argued about how best to bring it down.

Crews expect to recover the workers remains in early June.

Demolition is scheduled to begin on a second building this week, WWL-TVreported.

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The company manufacturedsuch brands as Bicycle, Bee, Aviator, Aristocrat and many more.

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Joe Simon, Special to Cincinnati Enquirer Published 1:43 p.m. ET May 20, 2020

Check out this video of the demolition of the U.S. Playing Card Company building in Norwood May 19-20. Cincinnati Enquirer

The United States Playing Card Co.building at 4590 Beech St., Norwood, is in the process of being demolished. Only part of the site will be demolished while the building with the clock tower, which is onthe National Registerof Historic Places, will remain for the U.S. Playing Card Redevelopment.

The company manufacturedsuch brands as Bicycle, Bee, Aviator, Aristocrat and many more.The building was designed by Samuel Hannaford & Sons.

During World War II, the company made cards that could be pulled apart when submerged in water. The inside was a map and when all the cards were put together, it was a large map. These were supplied to prisoners of warwho could use the map to reach safetyif they were able to escape.

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Watch the demolition of the U.S. Playing Card Co. building in Norwood - The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jennifer Lewerenz | May 19, 2020 AT 6:41 am

(KNSI) - A central Minnesota church, heavily damaged by fire, will be demolished this week.

The 122-year-old St. Mary's Church in Melrose will be no more as crews are getting set to tear the building down.

March 11th, 2016, crews responded to a fire at the church, which had started sometime before 5:00 that afternoon. Crews from three departments battled the blaze, which caused more than a million dollars' damage.

In 2018, a teenager confessed to setting the fire, after a 22 month-long investigation by the Stearns County Sheriff's Department, Melrose Police Department, The State Fire Marshal's Office and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. The boy, who was 13 at the time of the fire, was charged with first-degree arson.

The fire caused extensive damage to the altar and sacristy area. The wood altar, which was made in Germany, and installed prior to the church's dedication in 1899, was completely destroyed.

Along with fire damage, there were several feet of standing water in the basement.

In 2019, parishioners who were trying to stop the church's demolition lost an appeal. St. Mary's is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the group argued that the church couldn't be torn down under the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act. A judge from the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the St. Cloud Diocese, saying that it was an internal matter.

The church was a fixture in Melrose with its 130-foot towers, but those towers will come down as soon as Tuesday. A new $10 million dollar church is under construction nearby. The new building will use stained glass and the bells from the old building.

Original post:
Demolition This Week for St. Mary's Church in Melrose - KNSI Radio

Work is expected to begin July 1 with demolition completed by the end of this year.

A nearly century-old Erie school building will be coming down this fall.

The Erie School District on Monday opened bids to remove asbestos from the former Roosevelt Middle School at 2300 Cranberry St. and to demolish the school when thats finished.

The Erie School Board is expected to award the bids by June 11.

Asbestos abatement is expected to begin about July 1.

Demolition should begin by September and be completed by the end of the year, said Neal Brokman, executive director of operations for the school district.

There were four bids to remove asbestos from the 99,000-square-foot building. The bids ranged from $178,000 to $587,000, Brokman said.

Asbestos abatement is expected to take about a month to complete, Brokman said.

There were 12 bids to demolish the building once asbestos is removed. The bids ranged from $379,000 to $1,248,000, Brokman said.

The asbestos abatement and demolition bids will be reviewed by architects to make sure they meet project specifications before they are presented to the School Board for action.

Items that can be salvaged from the building and reused, including the decorative tile surrounds from drinking fountains, have mostly been removed, Brokman said.

"At this point, anything architectural was removed by the district a while ago," he said. "We still plan to go in and take out all of the usable lockers that are in the building. That way we can repurpose them in our buildings or make them available to the community. We have received several emails and phone calls from people requesting lockers."

"Pickers" additionally have gone through the building and bought transom windows, wood shelving, cupboards, cabinets, old tables and other items, Brokman said.

The former Roosevelt Middle School had been deteriorating in recent decades and was closed in 2007. The school district tried for years to sell the building, listing it for $159,000. But there were no takers.

The school was built in 1922 and was named in honor of Theodore Roosevelt.

The Erie School District expects to allow the public to buy bricks from the longtime school. The bricks could be sold to benefit the Foundation for Eries Public Schools

"What we want to do is work with the general contractor on the job and try to arrange to salvage as many bricks as possible for people in the community who want them," Brokman said.

Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @ETNmyers.

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Roosevelt demolition to begin with asbestos removal - News - GoErie.com

This report was made with the participation of companies from 18 European countries through an online survey, made from 6 to 15 May 2020.

The report includes graphics with the information at European level and country by country, as the situation differs substantially in each part of Europe, and even week by week.

Given the social and economic impact that the lockdown has had on the European demolition industry, the EDA Board has been meeting regularly to monitor the situation and support the industry, exchanging best practices and valuable information for the members.

The impact of the COVID-19 on demolition makes 63% of projects have had to be rescheduled in Europe, leaving only 9% of planned activity intact.

Although between 5 and 20% of the projects have been canceled, this percentage represents only 28% of the total number of current projects of the companies.

Particularly noteworthy are Denmark (where 56% of the projects have not been affected at all) and Finland (where 100% of the projects have been rescheduled but remain in force).

In general the demolition industry has temporarily stopped its activity for some weeks (53%), although there are several countries where activity has not stopped, such as Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands.

A significant percentage of companies from France and Russia, have been forced to close between 1 and more than 2 weeks.

For the first half of May, nearly half of the European demolition sites are currently open, suggesting that the industry is continuing or has returned to a kind of normality.

The only case where the proportion of open and closed sites currently is similar is in Greece.

After getting through March and April, when several European countries had problems with the supply of personal protective equipment (PPEs), nearly two-thirds of survey respondents now said they have sufficient material.

Countries such as Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands or Serbia showed hardly any incidence regarding PPEs.

Asked about the reduction of staff, the numbers show how COVID has impacted in Europe in a social and economic way.

A total of 64% of European demolition companies have been forced to reduce their staff, although 27% have been temporarily reduced.

The economic incentives that National Authorities have implemented to mitigate the consequences of the crisis are particularly remarkable in Ireland, France and Finland where a significant percentage have reduced their staff only temporarily.

The Netherlands, Denmark and Italy are the countries least hit by the layoff.

The full report is available here

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More than 50% of the European demolition projects rescheduled - RECYCLING magazine

Welcome to the latest edition of Missed Fists, where we shine a light on fights from across the globe that may have been overlooked in these hectic times where it seems like theres an MMA show every other day.

In one of the cooler quirks of this past weekend, Alistair Overeem finished his main event fight with Walt Harris at UFC on ESPN 8, just minutes before the calendar turned over to May 17, the date of Overeems 40th birthday, on the East Coast. It was the 46th win of his career.

Overeem also became just the second man to win a fight in four different decades (1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s), a list that includes he and Aleksei Oleinik and thats it. Vitor Belfort could join them when he debuts with ONE Championship.

To celebrate, lets look back on the earliest days of The Reem, before he became an MMA Mainstay, and a couple of his K-1 clips just for funsies. It should be mentioned that most of these bouts appear to be of the mixed rules variety, as opposed to pure MMA as we know it.

AL: Look at this young gunner. Thats a 19-year-old Overeem fighting for the first time. His opponent? The absolutely terrifying Ricardo Fyeet. Were going to be talking a lot about how Overeems look evolved over the years, but I dont know if he ever matched whatever it is Fyeet had going on here.

JM: Well from a pure style point, no. No one has ever matched Ricardo Fyeet here, except maybe Rufio in Hook.

Can we mention again how wild it is that Overeem is one of two fighters to ever win bouts in FOUR different decades. Hes the Vince Carter of beating ass!

AL: The graphic is cut off, but it looks like this event was sponsored by some sort of live sex show. At least now he works for a reputable company that works with such sponsors as Reebok and Manscaped.

JM: You know, I was just wondering what the official electric trimmer of the UFC was, and now I have my answer. I can finally sleep tonight.

AL: A good sign that Overeem was marked for greatness? He rockets out of his corner with a flying knee. Thats the first strike he threw in his MMA career...think about that.

JM: We might as well get this out of the way now: If youve never seen early Overeem fight, youre in for a bit of a culture shock, dear reader. Before he became THE REEM, Overeem was a beanpole kickboxer with a wicked sharp grappling game, as you see here.

AL: Seventeen of his first 31 wins were by submission!

Theres some wild brawling, but for the most part Overeem realizes its a good idea to trip Fyeet down when he can to slow the pace of the fight. Eventually he just grabs the dudes head and chokes him out. Thats a recurring theme in the early stages of his career, as a lot of his wins came from him tripping up less well-rounded kickboxers.

JM: Yeah, Overeem can kickbox. Hea a K-1 champion after all. But why get punched in the face when instead you can just twist some hapless fool up into a pretzel?

AL: After dropping a decision in his RINGS debut to Yuriy Kochkine, Overeem bounced back with his first TKO victory in his fight against Watts. This fight lasts longer than his first one, but hes even more in control here. Watch how he spams that clinch knee-trip combo. If it aint broken, dont break it, like Charles Oakley used to say.

JM: Im really in love with the pumping house music that is introing all of these fighters.

AL: Maybe the best part of this whole exercise.

JM: I think that is whats wrong with MMA. The culture never advanced past the 2000s Affliction era, when really, it shouldve stagnated with 90s everything. Give me house music and Saved by the Bell color schemes all day.

AL: Dont forget the hair styles. But well get to that.

JM: Overeem beats Watts by unveiling the devastating knee attacks that will go on to be a staple of his game for over two decades. But Im more interested in the start of this bout. Overeem walks to the ring without gloves on, but then, he has them on when its fight time. Did he not get his hands wrapped? Has this always been the case with RINGS, and Ive just never noticed before?

AL: Yes, thats right. Hes literally fighting a Can here.

JM: Oh man. This is definitely the best music so far.

AL: This would be perfect for a Jordan Jamming edit.

JM: Im vibing this hard. Almost as much as Im digging Allister Overeem. Just think of the possibilities: Allister The Alligator Overeem.

AL: Ah yes, how could I forget the MMA tradition of having the spelling of your name butchered to begin your career? First it was Allistair and now, Allister. Getting colder.

JM: Also, poor Can. More like Cannot, amirite?

AL: Once again, we see The Reem using intelligent grappling to control his opponent. See? We told you there was a pattern. The difference this time around is, he blows Sahinbas away with a knee, as he would to so many future victims.

JM: Yeah man, Overeem was four fights into his career, and we already saw the bones of all of his success. Slick grappling and savage knees.

AL: Were really just mentioning this fight because of Overeems hair. Brutal.

Lets just pretend this was an homage to Kevin Randleman if that makes it any better.

JM: He went full Melvin Guillard (except for the part where he immediately started grappling). Never go full Melvin Guillard.

AL: Overeem was just 4-3 heading into this one and coming off of the first losing streak of his career. This win over Verschuren was the first of 12 straight, and he wouldnt lose consecutive fights again until 2006, when he faced a murderers row of Lil Nog, Ricardo Arona, and Shogun.

JM: Now that is all true. And far be it from me to disparage The Great and Powerful Reem. But uh, that win streak doesnt exactly jump out at you as far as a whos who.

AL: I know youre not dismissing the likes of Sergey The Kid Kaznov, Moises Swamp Rimbon, Dave My Name is Almost a Palindrome Vader, Aaron The Frijolero Brink, and Mike Batman Bencic.

JM: Just saying, Travis Fulton had a win streak of 40 at one point, and not one of them was a porn star, as far as I know. (I kid, I kid. While Aaron Brink was never good, he fought some good names in his time, including Alistairs older brother, Valentijn #themoreyouknow).

Also, shouts to the commentator here who sounds stunningly sophisticated while talking about a dude getting his arm snapped in half.

AL: You know we had to include this for the walkout alone. Look at that manly man. Bas Rutten was handling ring announcing duties, and Im nearly certain that when you see Overeem whisper into his ear, he said, Hey, dont forget the whole Demolition Man thing.

JM: 2 Hot 2 Handle is one of my favorite MMA organization names of all time. I think it might just be because of 2 Fast 2 Furious.

AL: Needs no further justification.

JM: Im a simple man.

Also, speaking of porn stars, Overeem comes out to this fight looking like a male stripper who just missed the cut for a Village People cover group. Maybe its just the music, but shouts to the producer who cut to the woman in the audience when Overeem started his sledgehammer walkout.

AL: Shes really buzzing about it! Strong bachelorette party vibes.

JM: Hes carrying a sledgehammer. Into a fight! Id be buzzing too.

Also, Im going to stop poking fun at The Reem, because I dont want him to ever knee me like that. It looks unpleasant, to say the least. When someone is asking you, Whats your name? What day is it? You know youve made a mistake somewhere down the line.

AL: This was Overeems last fight before making his PRIDE debut. As you can see, by this time, theyd got that whole name thing down. Hed finally made it.

JM: The Demolition Man is such a blah nickname. For one, hes mostly tapping people out. For two, he looks like hes 17 years old. Man is a stretch.

And for three, if youre going to be The Demolition Man, you need to go full send on it. Get the bleach blond Simon Phoenix flat top. Dont just carry around a hammer. Commit, dammit!

Also, this music slaps. I recognize that has nothing to do with anything else, but Overeem needs to come out to jams like this again. Recapture that youthful magic.

AL: Hed bleached his hair enough up to this point, thank you very much.

Theres a new wrinkle here as he shows some ground-and-pound in addition to just controlling Vuori when he gets him down. This is one reason why Overeem has been able to stay relevant. You see a fighter with no ego, one who is constantly learning and adapting. He looks so much more refined just two and a half years after the Fyeet fight.

JM: Maybe its that hes getting better. Maybe its that he fought a 0-0 fighter in his 13th professional fight. Who can say?

Not gonna lie, having never done a deep dive into early Overeem before, it makes a lot of sense why they matched him up with Chuck Liddell in round one of Pride Total Elimination 2003 trying to set up a Murilo Bustamante rematch for Liddell. But Quinton Rampage Jackson mucked it all up.

AL: The objective of this feature was strictly to focus on Overeems career before making the jump to the big show. But wed be remiss if we didnt include at least a couple of his kickboxing ventures.

There was the first meeting with kickboxing superstar Bard Hari in K-1, that ended with Overeem crumpling him with a vicious left hook.

JM: Youre not gonna catch me saying anything bad about K-1 Overeem. Man did some real things here. I will just note this is when Overeem officially locked in the Barry Bonds parallels though.

AL: Yes, perhaps readers needed more of a warning before we jumped seven years ahead from 2 Hot 2 Handle to the Ubereem era.

JM: The MMA world didnt get much of one.

Overeem got SWOLE and focused on his power game, and he stopped doing the things that made him actually awesome (grappling/anything other than power hitting). And like Bonds, the manner in which he got SWOLE is hotly contested.

AL: Vitamins, water, and a healthy sleep schedule.

JM: Horse meat, bruh. Horse meat.

AL: And then there was the legendary knee knockout of Ewerton Teixeira that actually resulted in K-1 changing their rules surrounding the legality of clinch knees.

JM: Whenever you literally break an organizations rules because youre so violent, you know youve done something either incredibly wrong or incredibly right. In this instance, its a bit of both as The Reem provides us with A++ violence, but also probably took a few years of Teixeiras life.

AL: It was a safe bet that Teixeira would not have as long a career as Overeem after this. Then again, few ever will.

JM: The man only just turned 40. Its not inconceivable to think he could keep fighting for another decade.

AL: See you all back here in 10.

If you know of a recent fight or event that you think may have been overlooked, or a promotion that could use some attention, please let us know on Twitter @JedKMeshew and @AlexanderKLee using the hashtag #MissedFists.

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Missed Fists: The beginning of Alistair Overeems two decades of demolition - MMA Fighting

Armed with automatic weapons, riot gear and black ski masks, the Albanian police and Special Forces units moved under the cover of darkness in the early hours of Sunday when the capital was sleeping and stormed the premises of the National Theater in Tirana, detaining a handful of artists and activists that had barricaded themselves in there.

The activists were forcibly put into police vans and detained, while a bulldozer moved in to turn the building into rubble, before dawn broke and the citys residents awoke to discover the nighttime raid.

Built between 1938 and 1939, during the Italian occupation of Albania, the National Theatre Complex was first built as a cultural centre. Designed by the Italian architect Gulio Berte, it was originally named the Skanderbeg, after Albanias national hero, and comprised two parallel buildings, housing a cinema and a theatre, divided by a pool.

In 2018, the government proposed to demolish the historic building and replace it with a new theatre designed by the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, through a Public Private Partnership, PPP, scheme with a Tirana-based developer and government contractor, Fusha Sh.p.k. Under the proposed concessionary agreement, Fusha sh.p.k would build Ingels project in exchange for public land and the right to construct six tower blocks adjunct to the new theatre, worth 119 million euros.

See the article here:
Why a Theatre's Demolition Has Sparked Outrage in Albania - Balkan Insight

The novel coronavirus isnt the only thing that has ravaged the U.S. this year.

Tornadoes have killed 76 people in the first five months of 2020, already making it the worst year for tornado-related deaths since the historically deadly year of 2011. The National Weather Service tracked 351 tornado reports last month, making it the second most-active April on record.

It is a frequent and deadly phenomenon. But scientists say the public has a misperception of who is truly at risk: The Deep South and Florida can be more prone to twisters than Tornado Alley itself.

Professor P. Grady Dixon, a physical geographer at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, says Tornado Alley the Great Plains states running from South Dakota to Texas is a vernacular that he wishes would go away, because it doesnt accurately describe the regions most susceptible to powerful tornadoes.

Its a misleading term, Dixon said. I understand why people use it, but I wish it would go away because I dont want people to think its only those square states in the Great Plains that get tornadoes.

He is one of the authors of a 2011 study that discovered some parts of the South and Southeast are the most prone to tornadoes in the nation. So far in 2020, southern states have suffered the most deaths: Tennessee leads the nation with 28 deaths and Mississippi has lost 13. No lives have been lost in Florida this year.

The study concluded that the Tampa Bay region and other parts of the Interstate 4 corridor experience as many tornadoes as some parts of the Great Plains however, theyre not powerful enough to cause significant damage.

Youre not going to have strong tornadoes most of the time in Florida, Dixon said. Counting the number of days with tornadoes, though, Florida has as many as any other state in the country.

The Washington Post wrote about how prevalent and deadly tornadoes have been in the south and why Tornado Alley is misleading.

Villanova University assistant professor Steven Strader, who specializes in environmental hazards and societal interactions, told the Post that the South is more vulnerable to tornadoes because it is denser than the spread-out farmland communities of the Plains.

Not only do Southern states have more sprawl, he said they also have more people living in mobile and manufactured homes. In Florida, those residents are always the first to be evacuated during a hurricane.

When a tornado does occur in either region, odds are much greater in the [South or Southeast] of it hitting something, Strader told the Post.

But Florida also has a natural advantage that protects it from the kinds of powerful tornadoes that have taken lives in other southern states. Its the Gulf of Mexico.

Tornadoes form when fronts cold or warm collide, producing severe weather. Thunderstorms are the most common result. Pressure and temperature changes can also come together to form a tornado. Those violent columns last minutes, but can produce devastating winds of 100 mph to an extreme of 300 mph.

Cold fronts can cause tornadoes in states such as Louisiana and Mississippi, but those fronts typically lose a lot of its power by the time they reach Central Florida.

"The warm Gulf has a way of helping slow down the forward momentum of cold air that causes tornadoes elsewhere," Dixon said. "It comes down to latitude."

The problem in Florida, he said, is that residents seem to keep being surprised by tornadoes.

"Anytime this happens, people in Florida who have grown accustomed to great weather, say Oh my gosh, this isnt supposed to happen here, he said. Well, theyre wrong. Florida has tornadoes frequently.

The difference between Alabama or Oklahoma with Florida is, they have far fewer tornadoes per event."

Floridians should be especially cautious now that hurricane season is almost here. Twisters often accompany storms as they make landfall, and hurricane season officially starts June 1.

The last thing you need during a hurricane is another hazard embedded with it, which is what makes the hurricane-induced tornadoes so scary, Dixon said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Thursday that the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season could be an extremely active one. If that prediction holds, that also means residents may find themselves dealing with more tornado watches and warnings this year.

A tornado watch means conditions are ripe for tornadoes to form in the area, so residents should start seeking shelter or take precautions, according to the weather service. A tornado warning is issued when a potential twister has been detected or reported.

During a tornado watch or warning, Dixon suggests residents take shelter toward the center of their home. An underground shelter isnt necessary.

What about manufactured housing? Its not the units themselves that are at risk, Dixon said, its how theyre anchored to the ground. If those fail, the results could be catastrophic.

For any tornado youre going to experience in Florida, you dont need a really strong storm shelter, Dixon said. Its about putting walls between you and the outside.

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Florida is more prone to tornadoes than you think - Tampa Bay Times