A rarity for my area... [Archive]

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djscoo

August 18th, 2009, 23:57

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090818/ap_on_re_us/us_texas_storm

This is the first tornado in my lifetime that has actually touched down in my town (we're used to hurricanes :wavey:) I work in the mall which is across the street from the businesses mentioned, and there was a skylight that blew out on the opposite side of the mall from my store. I was hoping I would get a few days off out of this, but they just sealed off one section of the mall. Other stores didn't fair as well though.:kilroy:

Lionheart

August 19th, 2009, 00:51

Glad you all made it through the tornado. They can be ruthless and destroy entire towns.

When I was a kid growing up in Amarillo (one year), we had 3 tornado alarms a night in town during some storm season they have, and back then, Amarillo was like a village. One highway, some neighborhoods, couple of hotels.. That was it. I remember many many nights, going into the front room with the rest of the family, pillows in hand, in front of the TV, listening for the tornado spottings on the local news so that we would be warned when to head to the little celler basement we had, which was only about 3 feet high. Scary times..

We moved the following year. :d

lifejogger

August 19th, 2009, 04:55

Fortunately tornadoes on the gulf coast of Texas are usually small but still they can be dangerous. My wife and I were driving on the southwest freeway
in Houston once during a thunderstorm when a small tornado came down and lifted our car about a foot of the pavement and then set it down again. It happened so fast we didn't have time to be scared.

OBIO

August 19th, 2009, 07:10

One time, way back during the Dust Bowl days, a tornado lifted my house off the farm and carried it far far away. When the tornado decided to drop my house, it landed on some mean old lady with red shoes, in a town full of little people. In order to get home, I had to follow a road made of yellow bricks and fight some flying primates. After that, I knew there was no place like home.

OBIO

p14u2nv

August 19th, 2009, 08:10

lol OBIO...I think I have worked with a few of those flying primates looking back on my work history!

When I lived on the coast of NC I was only close to a twister once. I was awakened about 6 am to this loud howling sound outside and yes it does sound just like a long freight train. All I did was light a smoke and sit there waiting for my demise. There was no where else to go. The only damage that was reported was at a location about 1 mile north of me where 3 houses were being built. They were at the rough framing stages and of course all the frames was gone and all that was left were foundations.

That was as close as I ever want to be...unless of course I get to see some real flying primates then I might consider an exception!

jhefner

August 19th, 2009, 08:49

We used to live in Beaumont, not far from Parkdale Mall. I remember shortly after 911, a tornado skipped to the west of town. The only two businesses damaged was a gas station whose owner was seen cheering while watching the twin towers come down, and the strip club across the street. :applause:

We then moved to Groves; and lived there a year almost to the day when Rita came through. It is not unusual to have tornadoes form in the midst of hurricanes; and it appears one did, and skipped through Groves. Several buildings were demolished or had their roofs pealed back; there was a tree that shaded most of the backyard and the driveway (you couldn't put your arms all the way around it) that was knocked over by winds. A fire station in the nearby town recorded winds of 150 MPH, with gusts to 180.

We then moved to the town we now live in. We had a "rotational event" form on top of our house one night. It was non-stop lightning outside, and rain so dense, you couldn't see the street in front of the house. Rain was beating on the windows on three sides of the house at the same time; it was only after it moved on that we could hear the tornado sirens....

It broke some branches on the trees in the yard, and took some shingles off the roof of the house next door. It then moved to ENE to tear up some signs and lift the roofs off of a couple of buildings.

Dangerousdave26

August 19th, 2009, 08:58