TORNADO!

[nashvillebill]

Woke up in the middle of the night to pee...went back to bed, and it was totally quiet. No thunder, no lightning, no wind or rain.

Then I heard a noise...kinda like a loud truck slowly making its way down the street. Huh? But the noise persisted, and got louder...and deeper...and louder...then it dawned on me. TORNADO! I tried to grab the dog and cat to head to the basement, but the lights went out and the house started shaking. So I just kinda stayed in the hall and hoped for the best...the wind blew the basement door open and I could feel air blow through the house. Finally the roaring passed, and I found a light to go outside to survey the damage.

My house survived relatively unscathed--blew off a gutter downspout, took some shingles off the detached carport, damaged under an eave, but the yard was full of debris. My neighbors were not so lucky, two boat docks got picked up out of the lake, shredded into pieces, and dumped into my yard. Tree limbs and outdoor furniture scattered everywhere, and the neighbors dog pen (a very large structure) was now crumpled in my driveway. (Their dogs ran awy scared but came back safe). Utility pole two houses down was sheared in two, it took about 9 hours to restore electricity today.

Weather service confirmed a tornado touchdown. This makes the 4th tornado that's hit near to my house in the 15 years I've lived here.

[Rocker949]

Yeah, well, I can't think of too many things more unpleasant than that. However, April 27, 2011 was a freaking nightmare. It made me wish I lived in Europe or something. I couldn't even find a way to communicate with anyone for about five days, not even by cell phone. One of my friends thought I was dead, and rightly so. I would have thought the same thing.

Note:
For anyone wondering about the April 2011 reference---from Wikipedia---

The April 25 to April 28, 2011 tornado outbreak was the largest tornado outbreak ever recorded. The outbreak affected the Southern, Midwestern, and Northeastern United States, leaving catastrophic destruction in its wake, especially across the state of Alabama.

[oniman7]

Both of the above scenarios are terrifying. I live in Florida and thankfully have never been through a tornado. I've been through several hurricanes, but only on the outsides where they dump thunderstorms and lightning for 3 days. Seen a tornado once and seen a couple water spouts but they never did any damage. We did have some flooding that was up to a couple feet for a while.

Glad everybody got out safe, including the neighbors' dogs.

[pflash4001]

Glad you guys are safe. I read about that in the news earlier. I hope those around you are also ok.

[Jools4001]

Good to see you got through OK.

It reminds me of a day in late June around 10 years ago when I woke up to a grey day with persistent drizzle, in what is supposed to be our summer. I was a bit gloomy about it.

Then an hour later I was on a conference call as part of the worldwide role I held at the time. I was on the call with colleagues from the SF bay area, others from Houston, another from Taiwan and another in Melbourne.

On that day, they'd had an earth tremor in the bay area that had been big enough to cause a fair bit of concern. In Houston they'd been sweltering in a heatwave for weeks and temperatures even overnight were in the 90's. Taiwan was bracing itself for a Typhoon that was due to hit within hours and Australia was experiencing huge floods. I was quite glad of the drizzle: you know where you are with drizzle.

[michael_atw]

Similar thing happened to the pastor at my church last year - tornado went through his yard, took down some 150 year old trees, threw his trampoline into another tree, and somehow managed to skirt in between the huge barn and house.

[Rocker949]

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/30/515...to%20Galleries


Here are a few pictures from the storms that hit various areas last night.

[Fretless1!]

Originally Posted by Rocker949

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/30/515...to%20Galleries


Here are a few pictures from the storms that hit various areas last night.

11, 14, 16, and 17 are about 1/2 mile from my house. Other than a lot of debris in the yard, we're OK.

[Unprofessional]

I've been really scared of them since April 3, 1974.

Glad you and yours made out so well.

What I remember most is the yard being full of wood splinters about two inches in diameter and about two to three foot long. Some were stuck into the sides of houses and into telephone poles and tree trunks. It looked like some longbowmen had been doing battle.

[Rocker949]

Originally Posted by Fretless1!

11, 14, 16, and 17 are about 1/2 mile from my house. Other than a lot of debris in the yard, we're OK.

I take things like this very seriously now, way more than I used to. Even when they say it's just a moderate risk, I realize that can still be very bad.

[Rocker949]

Originally Posted by Unprofessional

I've been really scared of them since April 3, 1974.

Glad you and yours made out so well.

What I remember most is the yard being full of wood splinters about two inches in diameter and about two to three foot long. Some were stuck into the sides of houses and into telephone poles and tree trunks. It looked like some longbowmen had been doing battle.

In second place to the April 2011 outbreak, although actually more violent because there were so many EF-4 and EF-5 tornadoes. I don't know as much about this one, though.

[pocketgroove]

Wow, that's terrifying! And in January, too. Glad to hear that everyone was okay and property damage was minimal.

[guitar ed]

Back in May of 1985 I was on my very first business trip, in Madison, WI. I had a few after dinner beers, and I was watching Johnny Carson, when they interrupted Johnny to announce a tornado alert. A cardboard map with Madison in the middle, and cut out tornado's surrounding Madison.

Being a good California boy, accustomed to earthquakes, I immediately called down to the hotel front desk, in a near panic. I told the desk girl about the news, and asked "What do I do now?" She told me to go look out the window. So I did, and I came back to the phone and asked "What does a tornado look like?" She told me to look for a funnel cloud.

So I looked again, and reported back. I replied "Nothing." She said "Good. But if you see one, come and get me."

How much beer had I consumed earlier in the evening? It was over 10 years later that I realized that I had looked out only one side of the building.

Sometimes it amazes me that I have survived as long as I have.

edg

[tplyons]

Glad to hear you're okay.

On that note, I always loved NJ for it's relatively mild weather. Didn't want to do the southeast because of hurricanes and tornadoes nor west coast because of earthquakes.

Up until last year, we didn't have earthquakes, tornadoes, or hurricanes really. Last year, we had at least one or two of each.

Needless to say, other places aren't looking so bad.

[Tat2dHeart]

Glad you're okay, Bill. I grew up in tornado alley, so I've been through more than a few. You just never can tell with tornadoes.

[fourstringdrums]

Glad you're alright. For as much as I bitch about the weather in New England, I'm thankful we don't have to deal with tornadoes and earthquakes.

[stratovani]

Originally Posted by fourstringdrums

Glad you're alright. For as much as I bitch about the weather in New England, I'm thankful we don't have to deal with tornadoes and earthquakes.

I don't know about that. There was that tornado that occurred in early June of 2011 that touched down in Springfield and cut a swath through Monson and south central Mass. I remember seeing the damage in Southbridge and Sturbridge, and that just a few miles south of Spencer. We get tornadoes, just nowhere near as often as the Midwest, thank God!