User blog:Jarrell Tornado/May 27, 1997–Central Texas tornadoes

Today marks 20 years to the day that mother nature conspired to wipe 50 homes and 27 lives off of the face of the Earth. It was on this date in 1997 that a storm that would define the "5" rating in tornadoes, and the most recent tornado to attain such intensity in Texas. On the afternoon of May 27, 1997, multiple severe thunderstorms exploded into the afternoon sky from the highly unstable conditions that had permeated all morning. Several of these storms began unexpectedly drifting to the southwest under the influence of a passing "gravity wave" (outflow boundary) from a dying storm system around the Oklahoma/Arkansas border. Hugging a dry line that helped sustain this growing supercell by allowing it to constantly regenerate its updraft, the storm moved at about 10 mph and produced several tornadoes earlier in its life, two of which were rated F3. Nearing the small community of Jarrell from the northeast, the skies over the community of 1000 darkened as the ominous storm slowly crept its way to Williamson County, Texas. A small, thread-like funnel had descended to the ground near the Bell-Williamson county line due west of the tiny community Prairie Dell, and paralleled the I-35 for two miles before it abruptly widened and rapidly gained intensity. The next 5 miles would contain the most violent wind damage ever photographed, of which remains unparalleled to this day.

Making a curve to the west and sparing the center of town, multiple news crews that were documenting the storm caught video of the 3/4 mile wide tornado as it ground its way through the Double Creek Estates in northwestern Jarrell. Debris flew through the air around the rapidly rotating funnel as it slowly tracked through the neighborhood. 45 minutes after its touchdown, the tornado dissipated at the edge of a wooded area. Concerned locals and emergency responders arrived within minutes of the storm; to a completely destroyed subdivision which had just moments earlier contained 50 homes. In the worst-affected part of the path, there was quite literally nothing standing. Homes had been reduced to bare slabs and the debris was finely granulated into fine splinters with nothing remaining at the foundations; not even plumbing fixtures, or in some cases, anchor bolts. Trees were shredded apart and utility poles were snapped just above ground level, roads were sheared of asphalt, 300 head of cattle in nearby pastures were killed and stripped of their hide, and ground scouring was as deep as 18 inches.

Further to the southwest, two other deadly tornadoes struck in Williamson and Travis Counties from a new mesocyclone forming from the storm system as the Jarrell mesocyclone dissipated. The first of these two was an F3 which struck Cedar Park. Inflicting one indirect fatality, the storm is undoubtedly most remembered for the infamous damage it produced, in which it ripped the roof off of the local Albertson's, marking its path through the structure. The second notable tornado was an F4 which touched down on Lake Travis. As it rapidly achieved at least F3 intensity, it caused extensive damage to a marina on the lake shore. Then increasing to F4 intensity, it severely damaged a reinforced building containing a telephone switching center and completely destroying a stone house nearby, leaving the foundation slab swept clean. It soon entered the Hazy Hills subdivision, housing in as a strong F3, with some evidence of F4 intensity, as it moved through the subdivision destroying numerous houses and mobile homes, killing one man before dissipating.

The Jarrell tornado was the first and only F5 in Williamson County history, causing 40.1 million in damages. The storm easily defined the concept of swept away; leaving no damage indicators behind for surveyors to determine how sturdy the structures in the path may have been. However, the extremity and consistency of the damage led to the tornado's well-deserved F5 rating a week after the event took place. However, this was not the worst part of the tragedy.

The biggest blow was to the residents of the community. Being small in size, every person in Jarrell knew each other as if they were all one big family. 27 of those lives were taken on this afternoon; with many of them being well-known and respected in the town. Half of the dead were teenagers. It took many months for residents to even put the thoughts of the tragedy behind them, and some were fearful at the first sound of thunder for years to come. However, time has healed its wounds, and a rebuilt Double Creek neighborhood stands in place of what was lost; with very little visible scars of the event. At one of the former locations of a home where an entire family perished stands a memorial to the lives lost on this day (and one from an F3 in 1989), with 27 trees planted to honor the victims, and their names engraved on a plaque at the entrance of the memorial.