Mayflower: Deadly Tornado Sweeps Through Arkansas Town That Endured ExxonMobil Tar Sands Pipeline Spill in 2013

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Onย March 29, 2013, ExxonMobil‘s Pegasus tar sands pipeline ruptured in Mayflower, Arkansas, sending hundreds of thousands of gallons of diluted bitumen (โ€œdilbitโ€) pouring down the town’s streets.

Now, just over a year after the massive spill, devastation has come to Mayflower and neighboring towns again, this time in the form of a lethal tornado. On the evening of April 27, theย twister destroyed huge pockets of the town of just over 2,300 citizens in a wholesale manner, with 14 confirmed dead and likely many more still notย counted.

โ€œSadly, we don’t expect it to stay at 14,โ€ tweeted Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe. At least 10 died in Faulkner Countyย alone, which houses Mayflower, according to the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.

The National Weather Service in Little Rockย has givenย the tornado that hit Mayflower an EF-3 rating on a preliminary basis. EF3 (the highest rating is an EF5) equates toย 136โ€“165 mile per hour windsย andย KATVย weathermanย Todd Yakoubianย tweeted that National Weather Service will have its final rating in by Aprilย 30.

Table Credit: Wikimediaย Commons

On the whole,ย Arkansas Geographic Information Office has reported thatย 3,200 addresses in Faulkner County have had various levels of impact.

Fate of Pegasus Pipeline Spillย Neighborhoods

According to Mayflower residentย Genieve Long, the iconic Mayflower Pegasus pipeline spill cul-de-sacย whereย oil flowed through residents’ backyards and into the streets, wasย spared.

But the RVs located by the cove connected to Lake Conwayย โ€” whereย tar sands oil spilled in the aftermath of the ExxonMobil pipeline rupture and became a key part of an ongoing class action lawsuit โ€” were not soย lucky.ย 

Just before she was forced to shower at a truck stop because there is currently no water or electricity in Mayflower, Long told DeSmogBlog โ€œthe RVs located along the cove were all takenย out.โ€ย 

A picture tracked down on Twitter by DeSmogBlog testifies to thisย damage.ย 


Photo Credit:ย Richie Graham | Twitter

Oil and Gas Infrastructureย Damage

Soon after the tornado touched ground, gas utilities giant CenterPoint Energy reported gas leaks out of its infrastructure in theย area.ย 

โ€œOur company technicians worked primarily in Mayflower and Vilonia to secure nearly 100 natural gas leaks caused primarily by uprooted trees,โ€ย Greg Strickland, CenterPoint’s manager in the areaย said in a press release. โ€œToday we will continue to perform leak surveys in the area to ensure the safety of our customers and our distributionย system.โ€

Another gas utilities giant, Entergy, also reported major infrastructure damage in theย area.ย 

โ€œ[The] Mayflower 500kv high voltage yardโ€ฆno longer [has] any switches or breakers left after tornado’s path of destruction,โ€ Entergy wrote on Facebook.


Photo Credit: Entergy | Facebook

Entergy also explained that โ€œThere are lines and poles scattered everywhere in the path of [the]ย tornado.โ€


Photo Credit:ย Entergyย |ย Facebook

Climate Change Connection? Sortย Of

How about climate change? Was this gargantuan tornado tied to climate change in any way, shape orย form?

The answer: sort of, and it depends on which scientist youย ask.

Former DeSmogBlog contributor Chris Mooney broke down the scientific inquiry on the issue in a piece published on Mother Jones. Mooney concluded that it โ€œwould be very premature to say that scientists know precisely what will happen to tornadoes as global warmingย progresses.โ€

Yet, that does not necessarily mean the converse is true. That is, Mooney says it is false to say there isย no tie between climate change and increasingly severe tornadoย magnitudes.

โ€œ[Scientists] have come up with some interesting new results, which point to potentially alarming changes,โ€ wrote Mooney. โ€œMore generally, the upshot of this research is that tornadoes must change as a result of climate change, because the environments in which they form areย changing.โ€ย 

Another article published by Climate Nexus comes to nearly the same conclusion.ย But research byย Kevin Trenberthย of theย National Center for Atmospheric Researchย in Boulder, Coloradoย indicates there is very likely a tie between climate change and the severity of tornados.

Trenberth told Scientific American:

The main climate change connection is via the basic instability of the low-level air that creates the convection and thunderstorms in the first place. Warmer and moister conditions are the key for unstable air. The oceans are warmer because of climateย change.

The climate change effect is probably only a 5 to 10 percent effect in terms of the instability and subsequent rainfall, but it translates into up to a 33 percent effect in terms of damage. (It is highly nonlinear, for 10 percent it is 1.1 to the power of three = 1.33.) So there is a chain of events, and climate change mainly affects the first link: the basic buoyancy of the air isย increased.

For now, though, debates over whether climate change caused a severe tornado in Arkansas are merely academic for those directly impacted on theย ground.ย 

โ€œIt’s hard to describe what families are going through,โ€ April Lane, board member of the Faulkner County Citizens Advisory Group, toldย DeSmogBlog.

โ€œEveryone is feeling the loss of those who lost loved ones and it’s just incomprehensible and hard to wrap your mind around. So for now, all of us are wrapping our arms around each other right now and trying to do whatever we can toย help.โ€

Picturesย Speak

DeSmogBlog has compiled the most harrowing photos tracked down via Twitter from citizens and reporters in the area.ย Sometimes you just have to let the pictures do theย talking.ย 


Photo Credit:ย Scott Carrollย |ย Twitter


Photo Credit:ย Scott Carrollย |ย Twitter


Photo Credit: Phil Buck | Twitterย 


Photo Credit:ย Tamer Yazarย |ย Twitter


Photo Credit:ย @WhistlePig11ย |ย Twitter


Photo Credit:ย James Bryantย |ย Twitter


Photo Credit:ย Ryan Liggettย |ย Twitter
ย 

Photo Credit:ย Eric Elwellย | Twitter

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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