Yikes!Highest-res drone footage of the Andover, KS #tornado
9 Replies to “Honey, I Finished The Tornado Shelter”
Wowsers!
In 1993, my wife and I were living in a new construction area in far west Houston. (We were recent Canadian imports to Texas, with no experience of Texas scale severe weather.) It was windy.. really strong gusts but nothing to worry us newbie Texans, right?
Any way, I looked out window and saw what I thought were sheets of newspaper in the gusts. Nope.. and then sheets of 4×8 plywood started falling in the street. And in my backyard. HFS! All of those construction site stockpiles were arriving by air mail.
Anyway, that day was when I learned to place close attention to weather alerts.
It looks like the tornado may have had two or more funnels rotating together?
If you hear the warning, get someplace safe and stay there. Stay clear of the windows.
and just like that your house, your business and maybe your life is gone. The destructive power of even a small one is amazing.
In 2019, we had an evening of tornadoes and heavy thunderstorms (accompanied by high straight line winds and rain) that practically wiped out the power infrastructure in our county in just a few minutes. The forecast was for light showers.
At just about sunset, we heard the tornado sirens go off and our phones started blasting tornado warnings loudly. We had guests for dinner, and Rex and I went out on the front porch to look northwest. We live in a valley and we could only see the green tinged storm clouds in the near distance. In short order, the storm was upon us and we decided it was best to be indoors. As the weather quickly deteriorated, we headed for the basement and the sounds outside were terrifying.
We were there for a short time, literally praying for deliverance. We heard what sounded like a freight train and the room went deathly silent. That horrible roar lasted only a short time, and we made not a sound. The power went out abruptly. After a short time, everything quieted down and we emerged to a darkened home and yard. Our house guests left after a while and they later told me it took them almost 90 minutes to dodge the debris for what is normally a 15 minute drive.
Overnight, I was awakened by loud and raucous noises near the house. I grabbed a rifle and went to investigate. A road crew was up on the roadway above the house clearing storm debris. They were there for an hour and a half. I sat on my porch and enjoyed the cool breeze out of the north west until the crews were done and gone.
The next morning was scary. No power (we are on a spring and that meant no running water for us). I took one of the exchange students and went up the valley to look at a downed tree. I found a 100 yard wide swath of destruction that went about 500 yards long through the forest just east of my house. The swath rose out of the trees just about 100 yards north east of the house. If it had not rose when it did, the house would have been destroyed.
When we came upon what I have come to call the scar, my exchange student was asking me questions. For the first time in my life, I was completely speechless. I opened my mouth to speak, but could only utter rough, unintelligible grunts. The tears were streaming down my face. I have never felt that level of awe, fear, and shock. I later found the top halves of trees hundreds of feet from the stump from which they had been wrenched.
The electric company sent a triage team that morning. When I explained that our valley does not have municipal water and ran on wells and springhouses, the guy got a concerned look on his face and said quite clearly, “I will make sure I get that in the report”. He told me it might be 4 or 5 days until we get power. Well, 30 minutes later, we had three crew of workers here replacing the lines from our home (the last on our leg) up to the main road. The worked from 11:30 until about 6:00 and then left. Fifteen minutes later, we got power and we had water again. Yay. The house across the street was worse off and they had to wait until the next day as their poles were broken off at the ground. Their water comes from our spring house, so at least they had water. We had them over for dinner that night because we knew they had no power.
I was humbled by the experience. It was a week before the county was fully brought back on line. I am sure that our power was restored more quickly because we had no water. I did find out that the transmission lines had tripped off for our county in response to the almost instantaneous loss of power over the county. That probably made the issue much less severe as the local transformers were not destroyed by the occurrence.
I’m certain the carbon tax I paid last week will go a long way to taming that weather
Why I moved from the Mid West in 1978 and went to Western Montana. Grizzly Bears and Wolves but no tornadoes. I have had a house
hit by a tornado in Wisconsin and a hurricane in Florida. I’m done with any place East of the Continental Divide.
We get them here too. Imagine if this had hit Winnipeg?
Edmonton’s on the north edge of Alberta’s tornado alley. The storm that hit the city in 1987 did a lot of damage and, of course, killed a lot of people when it touched down at a trailer park.
It was regarded as a fluke at the time. Then, in 2000, a tornado hit a campground at Pine Lake near Red Deer, killing a number of people. Had it touched down about 100 metres on either side of the path that it took, nobody would have been hurt.
In the aftermath of Pine Lake, a system of procedures was set up. The Emergency Measures Organization has a fully kitted amateur radio station at its facility in NW Edmonton and it works closely with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service. One reason is that hams can provide immediate information compared with the government’s radar, which can take several minutes to update.
Wowsers!
In 1993, my wife and I were living in a new construction area in far west Houston. (We were recent Canadian imports to Texas, with no experience of Texas scale severe weather.) It was windy.. really strong gusts but nothing to worry us newbie Texans, right?
Any way, I looked out window and saw what I thought were sheets of newspaper in the gusts. Nope.. and then sheets of 4×8 plywood started falling in the street. And in my backyard. HFS! All of those construction site stockpiles were arriving by air mail.
Anyway, that day was when I learned to place close attention to weather alerts.
It looks like the tornado may have had two or more funnels rotating together?
If you hear the warning, get someplace safe and stay there. Stay clear of the windows.
and just like that your house, your business and maybe your life is gone. The destructive power of even a small one is amazing.
In 2019, we had an evening of tornadoes and heavy thunderstorms (accompanied by high straight line winds and rain) that practically wiped out the power infrastructure in our county in just a few minutes. The forecast was for light showers.
At just about sunset, we heard the tornado sirens go off and our phones started blasting tornado warnings loudly. We had guests for dinner, and Rex and I went out on the front porch to look northwest. We live in a valley and we could only see the green tinged storm clouds in the near distance. In short order, the storm was upon us and we decided it was best to be indoors. As the weather quickly deteriorated, we headed for the basement and the sounds outside were terrifying.
We were there for a short time, literally praying for deliverance. We heard what sounded like a freight train and the room went deathly silent. That horrible roar lasted only a short time, and we made not a sound. The power went out abruptly. After a short time, everything quieted down and we emerged to a darkened home and yard. Our house guests left after a while and they later told me it took them almost 90 minutes to dodge the debris for what is normally a 15 minute drive.
Overnight, I was awakened by loud and raucous noises near the house. I grabbed a rifle and went to investigate. A road crew was up on the roadway above the house clearing storm debris. They were there for an hour and a half. I sat on my porch and enjoyed the cool breeze out of the north west until the crews were done and gone.
The next morning was scary. No power (we are on a spring and that meant no running water for us). I took one of the exchange students and went up the valley to look at a downed tree. I found a 100 yard wide swath of destruction that went about 500 yards long through the forest just east of my house. The swath rose out of the trees just about 100 yards north east of the house. If it had not rose when it did, the house would have been destroyed.
When we came upon what I have come to call the scar, my exchange student was asking me questions. For the first time in my life, I was completely speechless. I opened my mouth to speak, but could only utter rough, unintelligible grunts. The tears were streaming down my face. I have never felt that level of awe, fear, and shock. I later found the top halves of trees hundreds of feet from the stump from which they had been wrenched.
The electric company sent a triage team that morning. When I explained that our valley does not have municipal water and ran on wells and springhouses, the guy got a concerned look on his face and said quite clearly, “I will make sure I get that in the report”. He told me it might be 4 or 5 days until we get power. Well, 30 minutes later, we had three crew of workers here replacing the lines from our home (the last on our leg) up to the main road. The worked from 11:30 until about 6:00 and then left. Fifteen minutes later, we got power and we had water again. Yay. The house across the street was worse off and they had to wait until the next day as their poles were broken off at the ground. Their water comes from our spring house, so at least they had water. We had them over for dinner that night because we knew they had no power.
I was humbled by the experience. It was a week before the county was fully brought back on line. I am sure that our power was restored more quickly because we had no water. I did find out that the transmission lines had tripped off for our county in response to the almost instantaneous loss of power over the county. That probably made the issue much less severe as the local transformers were not destroyed by the occurrence.
I’m certain the carbon tax I paid last week will go a long way to taming that weather
Why I moved from the Mid West in 1978 and went to Western Montana. Grizzly Bears and Wolves but no tornadoes. I have had a house
hit by a tornado in Wisconsin and a hurricane in Florida. I’m done with any place East of the Continental Divide.
Joplin Mo F5 Tornado in 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfdK6H9d6J0
Alonsa Manitoba EF4 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq6wMyIK_pw
Elie Manitoba EF5 2007
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F7Z4d0y_7E
The two strongest in Canada.
We get them here too. Imagine if this had hit Winnipeg?
Edmonton’s on the north edge of Alberta’s tornado alley. The storm that hit the city in 1987 did a lot of damage and, of course, killed a lot of people when it touched down at a trailer park.
It was regarded as a fluke at the time. Then, in 2000, a tornado hit a campground at Pine Lake near Red Deer, killing a number of people. Had it touched down about 100 metres on either side of the path that it took, nobody would have been hurt.
In the aftermath of Pine Lake, a system of procedures was set up. The Emergency Measures Organization has a fully kitted amateur radio station at its facility in NW Edmonton and it works closely with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service. One reason is that hams can provide immediate information compared with the government’s radar, which can take several minutes to update.