The Tornado Test

For much of the world, early 2020 is remembered for the COVID-19 pandemic. In Tennessee and surrounding states, it is also known for an outbreak of tornadoes.

The 2020 Nashville Tornado Outbreak

Beginning the night of March 2 and lasting through the morning, a major cluster of storms spawned 15 confirmed tornadoes. The National Centers for Environmental Information estimated $1.6 billion in damage. More than 300 people were injured. 25 people were killed.

One particularly violent tornado touched down near the Cumberland River and crossed it several times, hitting an airport, an industrial area, and a residential area—resulting in five deaths and approximately 200 injures—before moving on to strike Tennessee State University with wind speeds of up to 135 miles per hour.

The Aftermath at TSU

After the storm, Tennessee State University officials reported that a few buildings had been destroyed and the schools’ agricultural farm had been severely damaged—killing and injuring some livestock. Thankfully, many of the students and faculty had left for Spring Break, and no injuries were reported from the campus. That left the approximately $20 million worth of destruction to deal with, which is when TestEquity’s contact at the university shared this photo of our TE-1027S chamber—-mostly intact amidst the rubble.

Keep Testing in Progress

While there is a certain type of pride in seeing our product withstand a tornado, we also saw a problem we could help solve. Clearly, Tennessee State University’s testing capabilities had been reduced.

“The situation was out of our control, but we wanted to help our customer get up and running again as fast as possible. Everyone from our sales team through production, the warehouse and management pulled together to make it happen!”

Larry Green, Director of Chamber Operations at TestEquity

We worked with TSU to determine the best way to meet their active testing requirements and arranged a demo of two smaller TE-1007C units to help keep their testing on track without further delays.