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I just walked though a tornado...

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  • #1

    I just walked though a tornado...

    Kinda and yes, I was stupid.

    The TV had us in a tornado watch and the news was saying they were forming near us so I figured I'd head out with my cheap camcorder and try to take a video of it.

    Note to self for future reference - the news can be a few minutes behind.

    I walk out and the wind was really strong (and I mean REALLY strong) and erratic but it only lasted a few seconds. I walk around and don't see anything - I was looking over to where they said the funnel clouds were forming. I didn't see anything other than dark clouds and heard the low constant rumble of thunder.

    I saw a nice double rainbow over to the east but that was about it. I headed inside.

    News reports came in - two did touch down. One near University & McNab (very close to where I live) but they kept saying Tamarac (the town to the west of us). they later changed it to North Lauderdale (where I live).

    A little while ago I was talking to a local officer and he told me the track it took as well as that there was "a lot of damage" in the community directly to the west of us (some roof damage, lots of trees down, destroyed sheds, damaged fences) - nothing major just a lot of it.

    I just followed the course of where the reports said it touched down and it folloed a straight line - that ended just before it got to my community and within a few dozen feet of my house.
    Quote Dalesys:
    ... as in "Ifn thet dawg comes at me, Ima gonna shutz ma panz!"
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  • #2
    Wow! That's nerve-wracking, and cool!
    (but mostly nerve-wracking)
    "Is it the lie that keeps you sane? Is this the lie that keeps you sane?What is it?Can it be?Ought it to exist?"
    "...and may it be that I cleave to the ugly truth, rather than the beautiful lie..."

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    • #3
      Considering you didn't get blown away, I vote mostly cool.

      Closest I came to seeing an actual tornado was a few years ago as I was driving to work, a half hour away, and had to drive through a massive storm, including a spate of hail that forced me and the car ahead of me to pull over till it passed since visibility was about nil. Got back on the road and continued heading south, about a mile later I looked to my left and saw a bunch of low-hanging clouds moving in about 4 different directions. I barely had time to wonder if it was a "funnel cloud" (even though it wasn't actually funnel-shaped) when the EBS tone sounded over the radio and a tornado warning issued for the county I was in.

      Last year on June 5/early morning June 6 a couple massive storms came through my area dropping funnels. A couple tornadoes actually touched down from the first storm, destroying a rural high school and killing about 5 people. It was rated as a weak F4. I was at work when it happened, and just before the second storm rolled through I was on the road trying to make it home before it hit, and ended up driving right through it. It's 2am, rain is pouring in buckets so hard I couldn't see more than 5 feet in front of my car, rain flooding the highway, and then a tornado warning was issued with the area I was driving though named as being in the path of the storm. I have never been so scared in my life. All I could do was keep going to try to get north of it before an actual tornado came through; I wouldn't have been able to see it coming in the dark and the rain anyway.
      You're focusing on the problem. If you focus on the problem, you can't see the solution. Never focus on the problem! --From Patch Adams

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      • #4
        I sent my husband out in a tornado once. Make that twice.

        I didn't realize it was one, just thought it was a severe thunderstorm. The wind was going pretty crazy and we have a scary tree that kinda looms over where I park my car. It was hailing and rain coming down so fast that it didn't have time to drain, leaving a couple of inches of water on the ground. I was worried the tree might try to finally blow over this time, so I asked him to back the car out from under it. He ran out, did so, and ran back in...only to realize he'd left the keys in the ignition and the car on. So he had to run back out in it and retrieve the keys. Thus the "twice."

        The power was already out, and he went back to the room, and next thing I know the screens over the windows were swinging back and forth, banging against the windows. I went to our room, said calmly, "I think it's a tornado." He didn't believe me.

        After the wind and rain died down I went outside with a flashlight to investigate. We had several large tree branches hanging down, one on a power line, and the place where the power line anchors to the house was ripped off. Tree branches all over our street, and the smell of pine sap was very strong. Our neighbor was sitting on her porch and hollered at me, saying it was definitely a tornado.

        The next morning I walked down our street and down the cross street to the highway to see what had happened around the neighborhood. The house on the corner had a HUGE tree fall on the porch...looked like someone had just twisted and snapped it and tossed it over. Completely collapsed the porch and blocked the front door. Another corner house had a similar incident with a tree, only it fell against the house and I think it only caught part of the roof.

        Turns out the tornado went down that cross street. I don't believe it actually touched down fully, but that was the path of the funnel cloud, and the wind was still rotating and strong enough to do what it did.

        Oh, and another time I was staying at a hotel in southern Indianapolis, the night of the Indy 500 race actually, back when I was driving over-the-road. A storm came through, and a tornado skipped over the truck stop and hotel I was at. I had ordered takeout and had just called to cancel the order due to the storm, when the driver showed up anyway. I wound up tipping him 20 bucks for coming out in a tornado.

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        • #5
          We had a microburst here a few months ago. It was, hm...the day before or earlier in the day that Alabama got razed by tornadoes, I think the day before. Out of nowhere the sky clouds up, wind starts just a little, then one amazingly massively gust that was like a bomb going off.

          Brand new DK, 10 feet from the entry of an inn, and you bet your bippy the power went out, and stayed out a healthy chunk of the day. Healthy for everyone but the WoW toon, of course.
          "English is the result of Norman men-at-arms attempting to pick up Saxon barmaids and is no more legitimate than any of the other results."
          - H. Beam Piper

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          • #6
            Quoth draggar View Post
            ...within a few dozen feet of my house.
            I can just hear your dogs arguing... Over who gets/has to be Toto.
            I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
            Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
            Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

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            • #7
              had a microburst hit our neighborhood back in 2000. nasty and didnt have power for 2 days

              tornado hit my town 2 years ago, that was fun. some things will never look the same (even if it was only an F1)

              and pretty sure i drove through the effects of one last year.

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