Tornado within 1/4 mile of my house tonight

[katerkat]

My thoughts are with you all! After two years in Tornado Alley, I am so ready to move! I can handle two feet of snow - but tornadoes scare me! (Of course, a couple weeks ago, a tornado touched down 4 miles from where we're moving. )

 

[Betsyt82]

I have already told DH that if I wind up in a torado prone area of the States that I need to have a basement or the reinforced tornado room in the house. I saw a show on the tornado closets that are made out of reinforced cinder block. I don't understand having a house with out a basement to hide in incase of tornados.

 

[Jungle Skipper]

Argh! Thank goodness it's finally daylight outside!

Yesterday as a whole was AWFUL here. The weather was horrible....last night at about 10pm, I just new this house was coming down (thank goodness everything is okay here for the most part)

During the day at about 4pm, the sirens went off here...and of course I'm housesitting, in a strange house with 2 puppies less that 3 months old who think the world is ending...I pack them down to the basement and realize these people have no flashlights or candles....how prepared. So the puppies and I sat praying that the power stayed on!

Then it just stopped...the skies cleared, look great outside....then right after dark, storms start rolling in again....and the weather men are all going haywire...its coming right at us! (in between I decided to go invest in a flashlight..just in case!)

These storms last night were nuts...I'm just glad they are over....

Its one thing being tedious around storms like I am, its another thing when you dont like being in a weird place by yourself, like I am...put these two things together...bad storms and a strange location alone...with puppies who dont know what the heck is going on....and you've got a nightmare...I didn't think the sun was ever going to come up....sigh...

Jungle Josh

 

[Claudia1]

Glad you are still with us, Jungle Josh! Last night waw crazy!

 

[accomp]

Originally posted by Claudia1
I'll never forget one trip to WDW. We saw Chuck Lofton, local weatherman and the Channel 13 crew doing a remote broadcast at the MK. We spoke with Chuck and noted the ominous clouds. We chatted with a CM that assured us that no funnels would be coming thru. Chuck disagreed and we followed his lead.

I really like Chuck Lofton. He did such a great job covering the storms yesterday as they were going through, too.

 

[powellrj]

Originally posted by Claudia1
I'll never forget one trip to WDW. We saw Chuck Lofton, local weatherman and the Channel 13 crew doing a remote broadcast at the MK. We spoke with Chuck and noted the ominous clouds. We chatted with a CM that assured us that no funnels would be coming thru. Chuck disagreed and we followed his lead.

We went back to our BVVV and a tornado waring was already in place. I call the front desk and asked about procedures for tornadoes. She kept saying that we did not have anything to worry about. I explained to her that we were from tornado country and I was worried. She assured me that, "we never get those kind down here."

The next morning we woke up to the horrible news of the night time and early morning devasation around Kissimmee, including some deaths, from the tornadoes.

I have a healthy respect for these acts of nature.

Chuck really put his time in yesterday. We were switching between 8 and 13 all evening just to follow the minute by minute progressions of the storms. Just as we would think it was over, more storms seemed to pop-up and be heading our way. It was a long night.

By the way, does anyone know how things are at Indiana Beach? The kids are going up on Wednesday and I had heard there was damage, but I never heard how much. I know that Holiday World had water damage last week so thats why they are going to Indiana Beach.

 

[minniepumpernickel]

Thats really scary! I saw all of this on the news too! Stay safe everyone!

 

[Celluloidgal]

Greetings from Tornado Alley

Wow, sounds like you guys had a heck of a night. Having been through several myself, I can relate to some of these posts. Interestingly, I have found, in my own experience, that who I am with affects how scared I am. When I am at my house, with all my family with me, I'm fine. But if I'm separated from my kidos/DH or I'm at a strange place...I have high anxiety

Funny, here in Texas we don't have basements. The ground is just too dang hard. I wish we could So we end up cramming our 6 people family into a closet or bathroom, with our emergency supplies...It's quite a site. Did I mention we have a Great Dane too?

 

[Beauty]

We had awful weather too. Around 1 a.m. the sirens went off and the weatherman is saying there is a tornado heading for town. We got J.C. and put him in the tub (No basements here either). It was over soooooo fast though. I still haven't heard today about how bad any damage was here in Ms.

I'm just so glad its over!

 

[princesstommi]

How scary!!! I'm so scared of big storms and tornadoes. Doesn't help that I moved to a prime location for them! But so far this year, the storms have missed us.

Glad to hear you are okay!

 

[scarlett873]

i detest this weather!!! my parents, sister, brother in law, brother, and my sister's MIL were all at the race when the storms hit. i was scared to death until they finally got home!! the storms were all over the place here. we could hear the sirens for another county in our area going off...i know we had a tornado warning in our county, but it must've hit another part of the county cuz we never saw anything here...we did have some nasty winds though...

glad everyone's ok...

has anyone heard from serena????

 

[Claudia1]

I meet Chuck Lofton at a benefit I was organizing years ago and he remembered me. He's a really great guy off-camera, too.

Wow..... tornado alley and no basement!

I didn't drive past the damage today. In fact, I specifically choose another route because I was quite irritated at the loooooong line of cars heading in that direction. My DD wanted to go an look but I told her that it would not be considerate of those trying to clean-up for us to clog the trafficways. I can remember helping my Aunt & Uncle clean up after the Palm Sunday tornadoes in the 60's and having trouble getting around from the sightseers. Just a pet peeve of mine.

 

[Beauty]

Claudia ITA with you about sightseers. I feel so bad for everyone that lost something.

 

[mrsdon]

The sirens were going off in my neighborhood for about 2 hours last night.
The storms were awful.
A big tree in my front yard got hit by lightning.
My kids usually park in front of the tre, but last night neither one did thank goodness.

 

[luvmk]

We were driving home from the 500 last night when we heard on the radio that our subdivison had been hit. I was a nervous wreck because our children were at home. We are very lucky that we didn't sustain damage. Two houses across the street were leveled. Thank God nobody was home when it hit. We woke up to find mattresses and parts of the homes in our yard. I still can't figure out how a tornado 100 yards away didn't do any damage to our house or family. I'm still thanking my lucky stars. It's been a long morning of helping the neighbors sort through the debris. It really makes you realize how precious life is.


Rachel

 

[Celluloidgal]

OK

We've had an extremely mild "tornado season" here...UNTIL I POSTED ON THIS THREAD!

Last night the sirens went off. Ergh. I was hoping we'd escape that springtime ritual. I was at a planning meeting, the rest of my family at home. I hate when we are not together during warnings. The meeting was only about 2 blocks away. As soon as the sirens stopped & wind calmed down I jumped in the truck and raced home to my family in the bathroom. My 4 year old slept through the whole thing.

Electricity went out during the storm. Didn't come back until about 7:00am today. There are still a lot of people without power. It's too hot here in Texas to be without power too long. We slept with the doors & windows open last night.

We are expecting more storms today.

 

[Claudia1]

Glad you're OK, luvmk! So close and so lucky!

Ours was an F3 up here. Residents were very, very lucky around here because they had absolutely no warning.