Toxic Town Hit by Tornado, May Pose Health Risks

Murray Evans in Picher, Oklahoma
Associated Press

May 12, 2008

A deadly tornado blew through a heavily polluted former mining town where lead-filled waste is piled into giant mounds, sparking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to check for high lead levels on Monday.

The tornado was one of several that combined to kill 22 people in the Midwest and the South over the weekend, raising the nation's 2008 total to about a hundred, the worst toll in a decade.

This year is on pace to see the most deaths since 130 people were killed in 1998, the eighth highest total since 1950, according to the National Weather Service. The record is 519 tornado-related deaths in 1953.

(Related news: "Strange Winter-Tornadoes Tear Through Midwest, Kill One" [January 8, 2008].)

Toxic Hot Spot

In Picher, the devastation was complicated by the town's status as one of the most polluted hazardous-waste sites in the nation.

Miles Tolbert, the Oklahoma secretary of the environment, said he did not think there was an immediate public health hazard to the town's 800 residents, but more testing is needed to be certain.

On Saturday, a tornado with the second-strongest rating killed six people, destroyed a 20-block area, and blew dust off mountains of mining waste, or chat piles.

"You can look at the chat piles and see that a lot of the material has blown off," said John Sparkman, head of the Picher housing authority. "We went up on a chat pile an hour and a half after the tornado hit, and you could see dust blowing fine material all over the place from that vantage point."

Long-term exposure to lead dust poses a health risk, particularly to young children.

Rare Strength

National Weather Service assessment teams determined the twister that hit Picher had an EF-4 rating, the second highest rating, and was 1-mile-wide (1.6-kilometer-wide) at its widest point, meteorologist Mike Teague said Monday.

The tornado's winds were estimated at 165 to 175 miles-an-hour (265 to 281 kilometers-an-hour).

"These storms are fairly rare to be that strong. The devastation was nearly complete in a few areas," Teague said.

"Albeit isolated, there were some sections of neighborhoods where houses were just completely taken off the foundation. Gone."

(See photos of a tornado that devastated Greensburg, Kansas, in 2007.)

Incentive to Leave

The tornado could be the ultimate incentive for those 800 or so residents who have been reluctant to leave the polluted town, now that most of their homes have been ruined, Sparkman said.

One of those residents, Sue Sigle, had been hoping the government would offer more money for her home before she moves. Then the tornado came.

As she began the task of salvage Sunday, Sigle kept a smile on her face, noting that she was fortunate to be visiting family in Missouri when the massive twister hit.

"I'm OK with everything," Sigle said. "The Lord is going to take care of anything. ... I was going to move anyway. I guess I'll just have to move sooner."