Have you been in or near a tornado or have family who have?

[uppityperson]

Please let us know any details you are comfortable sharing. I was in one as a toddler and am fascinated by, in awe of, fearful of them.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

1. My mother was in a big tornado in Waco, TX in the 50's

She came out of it just fine, but was apparently very near the path of the tornado. I believe this particular storm killed a few people in Waco.

I have seen rotating clouds beginning to form a funnel, but that's about it.

[Lars39]

2. I voted other...Been in one and had family members in one.

Husband was in two during the same day.

[Brickbat]

3. I have been in countless warnings and been to the basement many times. Family members have lost

their houses to tornadoes. I've heard dozens of freaky stories from relatives who saw crazy stuff happen in tornadoes. I've seen funnel clouds, but no tornadoes.

[Buzz Clik]

4. 15 years in Kansas, 20 years in Colorado, now in Indiana.

Tornadoes are a way of life.

[LiberalLoner]

8. I hear you. The one tornado I experienced was when I was a kid and my family was stationed

at Ft. Leavenworth. My parents were at a social event at the club and had to stay overnight due to the tornado. My older sister got the rest of us down to the basement, under a bed and with blankets covering us to protect us from any glass. I still remember having to be quiet and stay still (I was five, that was hard for me back then) while my sister listened to the radio for news.

When we went out the next morning there were big branches all over the place. I still remember all of that vividly.

[Buzz Clik]

10. I was in Kansas for the Hesston tornado -- one mile wide. Flattened the entire town.

One of my students live on mile out of town from where I was, and a small tornado played skittles with his extended family's homes: it skipped from his aunt's house to his parents house and then to his uncles house. It tore them all to shreds and ripped off the top half of a brick silo.

Damned things.

[LiberalLoner]

13. Scary! n/t

[elocs]

5. Amazingly I have lived in western WI for over 50 years and never been in or near a tornado

nor do I personally know anyone who has been.

[Divernan]

6. As a teenager, on my uncle's ranch in Kansas - just like Dorothy.

Back in the 1950's, we had no weather channels or anything to warn us. We were all in the ranch house because of the driving rain. The tornado skipped over the ranch house, and blew the roof off the foreman's house and drove it into the barn. Later my cousin and I drove around and saw windmills bent in half and a neighbor's chicken coop. The tornado blew the sides of the coop away, and dropped the roof on all the chickens, killing them of course. No one died in that tornado, fortunately.

I've also experienced floods, hurricanes & earthquakes - and visited the island of Montserrat while its volcano was erupting. The most frightening force of nature to me is the ocean. As a scuba diver, I know that when you're caught in a strong ocean current you are swept away and there's nothing you can do except get to the surface and hope that your dive boat spots you. That's why we carry mirrors, whistles, and brightly colored, inflatable "safety sausages".

[Mugu]

7. My grandmother lost every possession she owned to one. n/t

[ReggieVeggie]

9. one day in high school, Montgomery AL was hit with 9 touchdowns

I didn't actually see a tornado but I heard a couple. Always interesting driving down the road and there's a bright sky to the east, but you look up and around you and everything is all black.

[hobbit709]

11. within a half mile or so of a small one-still about 5 miles too close in my book.

[FirstLight]

12. momma grew up in Mississippi

they didn't have a storm cellar, watched from under the kitchen table as it took the peach tree from one neighbor's yard and drove it through the next neighbors house... she was all of 6 yrs old... :scared:
Earthquakes are all I have been in, but nature sure is scary in its power...

[CrownPrinceBandar]

14. In a small tornado near Lake Travis, TX 1997.......

I was working for the county park service at Mansfield Dam and was evacuated to the county satellite office. Hunkered down with some folks and saw the twister pass almost directly overhead. This was part of the same storm that killed in Jewell and at the Albertson's in Cedar Park.

It was my first, and I guess I was too naive to be scared.

[Webster Green]

15. I was a few blocks away from a killer F3 in central Florida.

It came through in the middle of the night. The lightning was almost continuous, and I could see the blue/green flash of power transformers exploding nearby. I was watching from the front porch (really bright idea). When I went out the next morning, I was shocked to see just how close the path of destruction was to our house. It went on to kill 12 people in Sanford.

*edit to add: This happened in 1998.

[kestrel91316]

16. April 3, 1974. F5. Xenia, Ohio. Came way too close for comfort.

[Webster Green]

45. I drove through there the day after it happened.

Unbelievable destruction.

[pipi_k]

47. OMG I saw the pictures after that...

total devastation.

Actually drove through on our way home (from TN to MA) the next month. I was glad it was dark. I don't know if I could have dealt with seeing the damage. It was hard enough being in TN the day of the outbreak.

[On the Road]

17. 32 People Have Been *IN* a Tornado?

or was that the same cow voting 32 times?

[uppityperson]

18. We cannot vote more than once. It doesn't surprise me that those who have chose to

open this thread and vote. It is something that doesn't leave you.

[On the Road]

21. Sorry, Just a Joke

reference to Twister.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ne5Lb2SiFHg/Sv2Vv5X4MII/AAAAAAAAoKU/--OoPPBglI4/s400/cow+twister+1.jpg
"Look, another cow."
"Actually, I think it's the same one."

What you say makes sense. People who have been near a tornado are probably a lot more likely to click the thread. I just missed a big one in Maryland ten years ago. The damage was astounding -- could have killed hundreds if the path had been a little different.

[uppityperson]

24. Got it, I watched part of that movie before the people who were watching it told me to leave

"that is SO stupid" etc. Thanks for the clarification since I missed the cow scene.

[blogslut]

28. I'm sorry I got miffed

I'm having a humorless day but that's no excuse. I am sorry.

[On the Road]

29. No Problem -- Thank You for Posting That

Seemed funny to me when I thought of it. But it's always hard to predict other people's sense of humor or know how it will go over. Been spending too much time on snarkier sites.

[blogslut]

20. Nice

I'm sure it's fun to play with specificity by pointing out that one must be lifted up inside the funnel to actually be "in" a tornado.

As for me, no, I was never inside a funnel. Instead, I was attending to some customers who were seated next to a large window. I looked up, and saw a collection of parking lot trash swirl up into the air. The next second that window blasted apart. All of us then exited to the inner hallway of what turned out to be one very well-built shopping mall and waited and listened while the tornado took out a good portion of the roof and ripped water pipes from the walls.

As far as I'm concerned I was in a tornado.

[uppityperson]

27. A tornado is not just the funnel any more than a hurricane is just the eye. You were in one

It is not a Wizard of Oz thing but rotational wind which picks up debris and uses that debris to make more debris. Anthromorphizing here.

Is you were in the debris like that, you were in the tornado. Edited to add it was an F-5 for me. We were lucky being protected by garages on a couple sides. Other houses within 200 ft were taken down to their basements.

[jtuck004]

26. I don't remember the first one.

I must have been about 2 or 3, Dad held mom and I around a steel pole in the hardware store while the storm ripped walls and roofs away from building on that busy street. Some of us followed them when we were old enough to drive. I have ridden them out in cellars and cowering in bathrooms while electric lines were whipped over our heads and into the trees, windows broken, in another instance I grabbed my brother from the car and ran for a house as the roof was lifting off the one across the street, and I have been in more than one car that was left rocking by the wind (how close is hard to tell - you really can't see anything). My sister's family had their home destroyed around them, lost one dog, both came away with concussions but lived - everyone didn't that day.

Odd are there are hundreds of thousands of people who have been "in" a tornado, many more than once, and a good number outside. There is a corridor through Oklahoma, going NE into Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri - watching tornadoes is a pastime for millions of people through that area...they get IRRITATED if the storm warnings interrupt their television ;)

The storm spotting is very, very good in OKC, though, they can almost tell you where the storm is centered by the city block while it is happening.

[piedmont]

32. 1 of the 32 here. Ripped the shingles off my family's home, destroyed a neighbor's house.

I was around 10 or 11 I think.

[Speck Tater]

19. Stood on my uncle's roof and watched an F5 a couple miles away

in Grand Rapids, MI, in 1956. This one, to be exact:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1956_Hudsonville-Standale_tornado

As soon as the radio reports made it clear it would miss us we left the basement shelter and headed for the roof, to watch it. My mom had a fit, but my dad and my uncle climbed out to the roof anyway, and let me come along.

I was only 12 at the time, but it remains to this day the creepiest experience of my life.

[conflictgirl]

22. I was in an F4 tornado in Ft Worth TX - it broke out all the windows in the bldg across the street

I was on the 41st floor of an office building with glass windows when the tornado hit. It was a scary experience I'll never forget. Husband and baby were at home and I was trapped at the office for 11 hours after the tornado because there was so much destruction cars couldn't get through.

[nonconformist]

23. I'm starting to think these suckers follow me

I've had a few misses/neighborhood damage before, but:

The day I brought my first son home from the hospital a tornado hit. We lived in Kansas at the time. F1 hit, some minor damage, didn't actually see the twister (was in a shelter).

Two days later, another hit. This one we saw, as we were running to the shelter in golf ball sized hail. F2, brief touchdown, moderate damage. Screen door to house was ripped out of my hand and flew away as we fled. Car looked like swiss cheese after (the hail went up to softball size).

Saw a brief touchdown on two different occasions in the next few years, all were at a distance. Kansas was a fun time!

Moved out of Kansas.

Three years ago, an EF0 hit our house head on. We saw it as it came, taking out the transformers. Ran to basement. Moderate damage - part of the roof was taken off, a shingle from another house shattered a kitchen window, LOTS of outdoor damage too intensive to list. Our damages were in excess of 15k on our property alone. Trees had the bark ripped off and small ones were twisted together. A massive tree was completely uprooted in our backyard. Debris everywhere. Swirls in the ground. And that was an EF0 that was only on the ground about a mile. I can't even imagine what a stronger one could have done... well, I can, but I shudder to think.

I still can't believe a tornado hit our house, it just seemed so random. I've always been fascinated by them, but I'm very fearful of them now.

By the way, just like they always say: they sound like a train. For reals. When we saw the one coming for our house, we heard it first, and thought it was a train.

[ThoughtCriminal]

25. Huntsville AL - April 1974

Still have nightmares.

[Electric Monk]

30. Other, I saw 2 up close and personal, but I was visiting.

That same system killed a couple of people about 10 miles away, iirc. Long time ago.

[laundry_queen]

31. Been near a few

and I live in Canada. I'm sure they follow me. I won't get into the numerous funnels and stuff I've seen. The one that impacted me the most was an F-4 (old fujita here in Canada) in Edmonton when I was a kid. We lived in a small town just south of the city and the tornado touched down about a half-mile to a mile away from our house. I was at a friend's house and my mom was at work and she phoned us screaming at us to get the basement as she had just heard on the radio a tornado was heading for our town. We don't have sirens here. It was freaky, there was 3 of us kids in the basement, listening to the roar outside and hearing the people on the radio talk about houses flattened and bodies in the streets. We were lucky - the twister passed on the other side of town, missed the town and hit some farms. However, it went into the city and killed 27 people. I knew some of the people impacted by it.

Later that summer, while I was visiting my grandparents in another province, a tornado hit near the farm in the middle of the night. All of us cousins were scared during the storm but we didn't know how bad it was until my uncle came in the next morning to let us know someone had gone up in a helicopter to survey storm damage and saw the path of the tornado through the trees.

So, yeah, I have seen more, and it's odd being as far north as I am, but we do get our fair share up here.

ETA I forgot to add that I did see the rotating wall cloud of the large tornado and it was the scariest thing I ever saw. I was trying to convince my friends that it was time to head downstairs to the basement but they called me paranoid. Yes, after my mom called and we were listening to the radio, I did say, 'I told you so.'

[uppityperson]

40. We didn't have sirens until after the huge one came through our town. I hate the sound of it now

I grew up in northern tier of usa, my dad said he's never seen a tornado or funnel cloud. He was out of town for ours, odd that he's not seen one as I've seen plenty of funnels going up and down. Fascinating and scarier than hell. Freaky indeed.

[w8liftinglady]

33. I have lived in Texas off and on for 40 years. I've seen 15 tornados myself

a big one in san Angelo in 1979 made us run for the Beer and junk food section of HEB grocery store. Lost power and pulled off some of the roof...but we were OK.
When I brought my 21 year-old home from the hospital as a newborn in Abilene,another hit our neighborhood- again- pulling up trees,garage doors and giving off golfball-sized hail,but didn't hurt us.I was driving an old piece of crap that withstood it with it's solid steel body,while all the new cars in the neighborhood were rolled.
A bad one hiy Wilmer/Hutchins a few years ago... about three miles north of where I live south of Dallas... pulled up a lot of roofs and power lines.

Ears almost popped every time,and we were without power for a long time...sometimes days ...afterwards.

They are scary as hell.

[pansypoo53219]

34. my great-grandmother died in a tornado when grandma

was a toddler. a big one that hit fergus falls. minnesota.

[uppityperson]

39. 1919? I didn't know it had gotten hit by one. :(

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fgf/?n=fergusfallsf5

[Mnemosyne]

35. Memorial Day outbreak in 1985, NW PA. My family's home was destroyed,

with five people inside and one outside. Amazingly, everyone survived. I was 4 miles away.

Dad was trying to close the doors in the semi garage when it hit and ended up buried underneath. He had to have over a 100 stitches his arm, but was the only serious injury. Strangely enough, he was killed in an ATV accident on Memorial Day 2004, at the exact hour of the tornado.

Mom only had time to get into the hallway with my three sisters and a friend of theirs. The hallway was the only part of the house left when it was over.

I lived south of Montgomery, AL and had one pass over the house in March 1995. It did some damage in Montgomery.

My heart breaks for all suffering through this disaster.

[uppityperson]

41. "My heart breaks for all suffering through this disaster." Indeed. Very much so.

[Mnemosyne]

52. I feel so helpless, like with Japan. Too broke to donate and too far away to jump in and help.

I guess sending loving energy is best I can do for now. :hug:

[a la izquierda]

36. Last year, the first tornado in 30 years hit Norman OK

about 2 miles from my house. Scared the hell out of me. I could see the funnel from my backyard. The following week, another looked to be deadset on our campus area, and it turned.

I was panicked, because we had a geriatric dog who wanted no part of being in the closet with the two other dogs, and so my husband had to take him to one closet, while I had to take the others. Our house has no basement; it's basically on a slab.

[pmorlan1]

37. Louisville, KY 1974

I lived in Louisville, KY in 1974 when our city was devastated by the tornado.

[oldlib]

38. I have a recollection

of being in a dark place with several people as an infant. I must have been 3 or 4 at that time, possibly 1936 or 1937, in North Dakota. I never questioned my Mother or Father in this regard, I do, however, believe we were in a root cellar because of a tornado.

[Aerows]

42. I've seen tornadoes and a waterspout

A waterspout is a tornado that occurs over water. I've lived on the Gulf Coast for most of my life, so horrible weather is nothing new. After going through Katrina, not much surprises me with regards to weather.

[plcdude]

43. too often

I live in Oklahoma.

[gauguin57]

44. Just got photos this morning from a cousin whose mother and sister's homes wrecked

... by tornado in Georgia. Everyone safe, thank God.

[pipi_k]

46. April 3 - 4, 1974. Smyrna, TN

The kids (2 and 4 yrs old) and me, alone in our apartment.

Hubby at work.

Warnings on the radio all morning...got dark, looked out my front picture window and saw the scariest thing ever. A huge funnel cloud coming out of the sky, between Smyrna and LaVergne.

No basement to go to...I honestly thought we would die.

It actually went the other way, toward LaVergne. Lots of damage out there.


All these years later I still have nightmares about tornadoes.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

48. My grand aunt on my Mom's side -

was killed in one in Kansas back in the 60s. She was an elderly woman who was living in an "old folks home" that took a direct hit -- she was decapitated. :(

Tornados are fascinating/horrific events.

[quiller4]

49. My Gran moved to Washington after a tornado wiped

out all the homes across the street from her parents house. She was happy to escape the dangerous weather of her Midwest childhood and join my grandfather in Tacoma. She made the train journey from St. Louis by herself and married my Da here much to the dismay of her parents.

[REP]

50. Two. One touched down 1/4 mile from my house the year I left Kansas City

It was IN the city, near the Plaza library - a very small one, but they rarely touch down in the city.

When I got to California,one touched down about 1/4 mile from my new place - in Silicon Valley, where they NEVER have tornados.

[guitar man]

51. I've lived most my life in Oklahoma

It's damn near impossible to live here very long and not get near one. They are tragic and frightening but somehow fascinating and awe inspiring at the same time.

Memorable dates are June 8, 1974, April 24, 1993 and May 3, 1999. I was about 100 yards from the F4 that hit Catoosa, OK on April 24 1993. It wasn't quite on the ground yet when I saw it, it was hanging in the treetops and still about 2 miles from the point where it finally touched down. It was a monster :scared: