by jeanniebeanz 22 Replies latest jw friends
Today, a small tornado touched down in South San Francisco and people went nutz. It was very localized and basically blew out a few windows, but looking at the local news you'd think that the sky was falling.
Since some of you live in 'tornado alley', can you please enlighten us Californians as to what you consider to be a 'real' tornado? LOL
Jeannie
Another tornado, eh? There was one in Sacramento last month. We've been getting crummy weather of late...
I live in Arkansas and have seen the destruction of many tornadoes. They are not taken lightly at all here. Whole towns have been just about flattened. I have seen straw that was blown into concrete silos..........like a nail driven in a board. The tops of trees covered with aluminum and insulation. Dumpsters moved across the road from where it originally was......Cars turned over.
I was driving through a town that was hit about 6 years ago..............furniture scattered all over. Roofs totally gone. There was a toilet in the middle of a road with a sign on it........Do I belong to you ?
I was in a tornado about 20 yrs ago. We lived on the side of a cliff in Little Rock. We took cover under a viaduct. The tornado came over us like with the sound of a train. The grass was laid over flat to the ground. We were ok .........but there was alot of damage close to where we lived.
I have seen a bridge totally gone from a tornado picking the water up from the lake and demolishing it.
Whew!!!!!!!!!!! and on and on!
San Francisco is such a beautiful city. I was there last year. Hope you never get what we see here.
Leolaia,
Yes, the weather here has definitly been strange lately. I don't think that we have ever seen weather as bad as they get in areas of Kansas, Arkansas and Texas. Thank goodness.
Purps,
You must have been terrified at the time! Wow! I've been through a couple of earthquakes that had me fairly shaken but nothing like what you described.
J
btt
Has anyone else lived through a tornado?
J
Yes, it was the scariest thing I've ever experienced. I spent a few years of my childhood living in north central Missouri. A tornado hit the school when I was in 7th grade. They made the kids sit in the hallway when it hit. The noise was tremendous. A huge roar, things expoding (actually the house next to the school), glass breaking. Dirt filled the air. Something I never want to experience again.
Thank goodness we moved back to Western Colorado a few months later where tornadoes are extremely rare.
Yes I have. It was horrible. I hated it. When I was a kid I had to ride in one out in service. Bouncy, noisy and I had to ride in the back seat. It was a terrible service car.
Oh, wait....you said tornado...I thought you said Toronado.
We had a few tornadoes here in CT. The only one I remember vividly was the one that touched down at the Bradley Air Museum.........it took huge planes and tossed them about like toys. I was about twenty miles south, and I remember looking at the sky.....it was a funny greenish grey color........then it got as black as coal.......and it poured so that the water came up to the bottom of our car in the middle of the intersections...........later, we heard about the tornado........I remember my mom saying that it looked like a tornado sky........she had spent some time in Alabama, so she knew a bit about them...........lol.........she was RIGHT........even tho I poo pooed her as I used to often do when I was young.....amazing how much smarter she's gotten as I've gotten older! LOL!
I cant say that I have. Of course, I've never lived in a trailer, so thats probably why.
In 1986, there was one just north of Minneapolis. I had just finished field service, and decided to go to Northtown mall in Fridley. I was in the parking lot, and saw a funnel cloud. I thought to myself how cool it was to see, and it got longer, then finally touched ground over a housing develpment that was being built. I saw debris start to fly, and then knew that I better run inside, as it was just across the highway. People were running towards the mall, and running into the stores yelling Tornado! Then the sirens went off, and people were running towards the middle of the mall. I decided to go back outside, and there were 5 or 6 of us outside watching it. All you could see were roof shingles, and big pieces of wood and debris being sucked up. My ears started popping like I was in an airplane, and then the sound started-yes, it really does sound like a freight train! It made it's way to Springbrook nature center just across the highway, and was getting really close. Trees were being snapped and whisked away in the sky like kindling. 2 Security guards then saw us outside, and told us to get our as**es inside, or we would be arrested. We then proceeded to the middle of the mall, and had to sit there for over an hour, because the tornado kept hopscotching all around, and lasted a long time. After we were clear to go, and the tornado was gone, I went out to the parking lot, and my car had the windshield broken, along with minor damage to some other cars.
I went home, and called a brother at the hall who was a friend of mine, and we took my car and went to the nature center that had been hit. All of the cars in the lot had been totalled, and trees down everywhere. I had a big 78 cougar, built like a tank,-(Yes, it was a 4 door)-LOL and we did a little demolition derby in the lot, it was quite a lot of fun. It was in the papers the next day, and there was quite a lot of video footage of the tornado, as a helicopter was flying in the area, and was able to video the event.
It was really scary, but at the same time, it was neat to see nature full force.
I would NOT want to go through the experience again though....
