Talk:Derecho and tornado outbreak of April 4–5, 2011

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There is no possible way, re: damages

The damage totals at the top of this article are absolutely not even close to correct. (I know that someone said, six years ago, that there should be a discussion in another post... but that was six years ago.) Dym75 (talk) 19:57, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

@Dym75: NOAA confirms in the Storm Event Database that tornadoes between April 4–5, 2011 caused $514,708,000 in property damage and $330,000 in crop damage. So the infobox for the tornadic damage is accurate. NOAA’s billion dollar climate and disasters list is down for maintenance today (as I can’t access it), but based on the tornadic damage being basically dead accurate, I see no reason to assume the $2.8 billion is also inaccurate. Whenever the list is not down, we can double check that though. Elijahandskip (talk) 20:05, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

No offense but this is definitely a mistake on their part. I just looked in the Storm Event Database and the tornado that allegedly did $500M in damages was an EF1 that did things like damage a fire department building, wreck an awning at a gas station, knock a church steeple over, shingle damage, tree damage, etc. For the heck of it, I looked up the April 2011 Storm Data publication and it does, in fact, show $500M (Bristers Store, Lawrence County, 1654-1707 CST) which, based on the damage description, is absolutely a data entry mistake. There's another listing (Ruth, Lincoln County, 1648-1654 CST) on the previous page with the same text and total damage of $1M. Either (a) the second one should be $500K, not $500M, or (b) the second one should be $0 and the total damage for the event is, in fact, $1M. (I wish I could attach screenshots. Since I can't, you can see what I'm talking about on pp 564-565 of the April 2011 Storm Data report or by clicking your link and looking at the list of events.) Dym75 (talk) 01:12, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

I agree 100% with you that those damage totals seem to be an error on the side of NOAA. However, I think WP:NOTSOURCE would come into play here. We have a reliable source. aka NOAA (the US Government) saying X property damage. Unless someone could locate a source (or contact NOAA, which I have), which says a different damage total, I think we are stuck. If it is listed by NCDC/NCEI in Storm Data, is is considered to be the official damage total, no matter how inaccurate it is. I have sent an email to NCEI to see if that damage total is a typo or accurate. If they say it is inaccurate, then we can't do anything except wait for them to fix the typo. If they say it is accurate, then you, myself, and others will probably be shocked. But yeah, I agree that it is probably suppose to be $500k rather than $500M. Elijahandskip (talk) 01:24, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

Oh, dear, lol. I also sent an email earlier since I also wanted clarification. With two people asking, I'm sure one of us will get a response. (I also need to get notifications on these different articles that I've stumbled upon so I know what to do and when.) As for shock, well, yeah. It wouldn't make a lick of sense if they came back and said, "yes, it caused $501M in damage" which would lead me to believe they left out an important detail like, "wiped out a major airport including historically significant fighter jets" (something like Windsor Locks 1979). Dym75 (talk) 02:25, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

@Elijahandskip Have you received any response to your inquiry, re: $500M typo? I got an email back a few days ago and was told they’d look into it and get back to me. Dym75 (talk) 00:21, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

I just fixed it. The NCEI report has $1m and $500k. See [1]. 199.76.113.26 (talk) 17:28, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

They must have changed it after @Elijahandskip and I emailed them, but didn’t notify either of us. Great work. Thank you! Dym75 (talk) 12:45, 18 May 2024 (UTC)