1 year later: how the world’s largest coal mine recovered after impact from massive tornado

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - North Antelope Rochelle Mine is the largest coal mine in the world. Located about 65 miles south of Gillette and just east of the small community of Wright, the mine produces around 60 million tons of coal annually - around 10% of the United States’ annual coal production.

Giant machinery can be seen reshaping vast grasslands at North Antelope Rochelle Mine (or, as employees often refer to it, “NARM”), extracting coal and restoring the land to what it was before. NARM lies in the Powder River Basin, a hotspot for coal production.

The afternoon of June 23, 2023, saw a long list of unfortunate coincidences beginning to come together. The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center issued an enhanced risk for severe weather across the northern plains with a concentrated risk for tornadoes over much of eastern Wyoming. In the early afternoon, storms began to form above the Rockies and strengthened as they moved to the east. Two storms began to rotate - becoming “supercells.”

The supercell to the south was well-documented by storm chasers, meteorologists, and severe weather enthusiasts, producing several weak tornadoes near Chugwater. The storm to the north, however, was more difficult to analyze. The northern supercell was about halfway between radar sites in Riverton and New Underwood, meaning radar beams hitting the storm were too high in the atmosphere for meteorologists to see what was going on at the ground level. In other words, the supercell had entered a “radar hole.”

“When it comes to tornadoes, we want to see that rotation close to the ground,” said Shane Eagan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Rapid City. “And 15,000 feet is not very close to the ground.”

Eagan and his colleagues issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the supercell, adding a “tornado possible” tag. Back at North Antelope Rochelle Mine, employees found themselves in the path of the powerful storm and began to take precautions. Tara Moody was operating dispatch for NARM that day, using an app to track lightning strikes and relaying the information to workers exposed to the elements in the pit. Moody was preparing to issue an all-clear when she received an ominous report.

“An employee called us back on our channel 1 and said ‘Hey, I think there’s a possible funnel cloud sighting,’” Moody recalled. NARM was undergoing a shift change at the time, meaning more employees were present than at any other time of the day. Moody glanced outside but couldn’t see anything due to large amounts of rain and hail coming down. She closed the door and gathered nearby employees into the designated storm shelter.

At 5:42 PM, a powerful tornado touched down on top of North Antelope Rochelle Mine, almost immediately growing to a width of 800 yards. The twister was wrapped in rain, only visible from up close.

As the tornado moved towards NARM’s most populated sector, fueler Andrew Gregory found himself in a dangerous situation. Caught outside without time and shelter, Gregory hid underneath a large fuel truck. The twister tossed Gregory around, breaking his femur. Dozens of employees’ vehicles were destroyed, including Moody’s Jeep Renegade. A train had been knocked over. Shipping containers, trailers, and mining equipment were tossed thousands of feet. Some of these large objects ended up in a nearby pond, where they still sit today.

Moody and others emerged from the shelter to find their workplace devastated. With hail still coming down, Moody was surprised to see people out and about.

“We had a employee walk over from our central warehouse, which I thought was weird,” Moody recalled. “I’m like, ‘What are you doing out, walking around in this?’ And he said, ‘My building is gone.’”

In addition to the central warehouse, the west change house and first aid building were in ruins. With eight people seriously injured, the loss of the first aid building was a challenging one. Back at home, NARM Director of Operations Dustin Upton was receiving dozens of frantic text messages.

“Your first reaction is still the unknown of: is everybody okay?” Upton said.

It took Upton an hour to reach NARM. When he arrived, he was relieved to see numerous ambulances had arrived - even those from neighboring mines not associated with NARM’s parent company Peabody Energy. Even with all of the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the North Antelope Rochelle Mine tornado, somehow, everyone at the mine had survived.

Upton enacted a plan to keep production going at NARM. He shifted the majority of operations to the northern side of the mine while cleanup and repairs began on the southern side.

“We all had our assignments, and everybody executed on the assignments and delivered it as a team result to be able to get back shipping coal within a day and a half at NARM North and a week here at NARM proper,” Upton explained.

Upton said he appreciated the efforts of employees, outside contractors, and volunteers alike in rebuilding and repairing NARM’s critical infrastructure. Operating a massive coal mine is hard work by itself, and meticulous planning and execution allowed his team to do this while also managing a disaster zone. Moody said a heightened sense of community developed among NARM’s employees after the tornado, which also contributed to recovery efforts.

Today, some reconstruction is still ongoing, but most of the impacted buildings have been rebuilt. NARM met its quota in 2023 despite dealing with disaster recovery for the latter half of the year, producing 62 million tons of coal in total. Upton said NARM surpassed its output goals in the first quarter of 2024 and was slightly behind in the second quarter - which he expected as NARM spent much of the spring restoring land on the northern half of the mine.

Eagan and others from the National Weather Service traveled to NARM earlier this year and taught a course on severe weather awareness, with the hope of keeping people prepared in case another powerful storm rolls down the Powder River Basin.

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