Tornado Season, Tornado Stories

[B607]

Spring is tornado time. They can hit in almost any state, but part's of the Midwest are known as tornado alley. I've been close to a few and have some stories, and I'd bet our Kansas and Oklahoma and Florida members have stories that would make mine pale in comparison.

I took this pic a few days ago a couple miles north of my house. A tornado late last spring drove a metal t fence post into the top of this telephone pole. The tornado hit the farm behind my truck first and tore a roof off a barn, tipped over a large stock trailer, and ripped up some trees. (and obviously a fence too!) Imagine how much wind it took to make a skinny steel fence post go airborne...and then stick it in the pole. Amazing.

Post your tornado stories and pics here. Gary

 

[icyuod2]

always been curious as to why america's most dangerous places are so highly populated.
ya couldn't pay me enough to live in tornado alley or on a fault line.
thats some scary stuff.
that being said, i can't wait to hear your stories, as terriffing as tornado's are, there just as majestic.

 

[murraymadman]

i always have dreams about tordados. what the heck does that mean? i want to see one in person real bad, from a distance of course. :wink:

 

[aka_locojoe]

1991. Photos I took looking from my back yard. This one took a turn and just missed us. Windows were still blown out of the house. A dining room chair was blown into the next room.

1999. Missed my house but hit my parents and my Daughters place of employment a fast food restaurant. My parents rode it out in their crawl space, my daughter in the walk in freezer.
My parents neighborhood. I took these from a pole when working to restore utilities.

Next door to my parents house.

Parents back yard. Got several years of firewood from this mess.

This was all that remained (vault) from the towns old historic bank.

 

[udallcustombikes]

Udall was the location of Kansas' deadliest tornado on May 25, 1955. While I didn't witness it I still think the information is interesting.
The tornado cam through at 10:35 at night and the residents had no warning. 77 people died and all but five houses in town were destroyed.
This is the house that was on my property when the tornado came through.I have built more than a few bikes in that basement.

Some pics of the automotive carnage. The last one is the City Marshal's patrol car.

Some aerial pics of Udall

What was left of the water tower

And a show of brutal force

http://www.tornadochaser.com/udall/
Here is a link to a site with a lot of information and pictures.

 

[Ratfink1962]

The 1999 tornado that Randy is talking about... My family and next door neighbors rode it out in my parents basement.

I was coaching baseball at the time, and was in the middle of having practice... decided the approaching storm looked too ominous so I called practice, and had to take several kids home myself, after getting all the kids dropped off I just got pulled up in my driveway when the sirens went off.

I grabbed the wife and my two boys since our house didnt have a basement and headed for my parents house. We arrived there a few minutes later and found my folks and their next door neighbors were already heading for the basement. After a couple of minutes the power went out, and as we were all milling aorund the basement listening to the radio reports... I heard it, so I kinda yelled out for everyone to get under the stairs... all nine of us!

Then it hit, its was VERY loud, I could hear glass breaking, wood splintering, and large bangs all through the house, sounded like 100 people with sledge hammers hitting the house all at the same time. Me and my Dad were the last two under the stairs and kinda held everyone in.

When the tornado was on top of us, I remember the house splitting in half, and all of us got wet from the rain coming in. The pressure change was incredible!!! my ears popped several times, then after what seemed like several minutes, but in reality was probably only a few seconds, it was gone. After gathering our thoughts we ventured upstairs to find total destruction.


We attempted to get out of the house thru the side door, but it was jammed tight, the front door... or at least where it used to be, was completely caved in, so with the help of a neighbor? on the outside, we ended up digging our way thru the front part of the house that was originally a bay window.

 

[Ratfink1962]

My parents house along with most other houses on the block were total losses, in the coming days... we spent a lot of time gathering what we could and putting it into storage, the house got bulldozed about a month later. All the cars were totaled, along with my dad's boat which was in the garage at the time.

My Dad's insurance company came out and took one look at it and declared everything a total loss, and cut them a check for the full value of their policy.

We consider ourselves very lucky to have ridden out a F4 tornado with no injuries, and were able to save a lot of the un-replaceables like family photos, and stuff.

West side of house, This was my wife's car...

NE corner of the house

NW corner of the house, that was my parents bedroom...

Where the house split in half...

Front of house showing bay window we crawled through...

My Dad's truck...

My Mom's brand new car, and the boat

Dont want to ever go thru that again! Should have stayed at my house, it missed it by 1/4 mile!

 

[gashuffy63]

In' '68 down in Charles City Iowa this tornado with wind speeds of up to 300 mph tore straight through the center of town. If it had hit one block over I wouldn't be typing this.

Here is a link to the complete story and a bunch of the disaster pics.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/arx/?n=may151968photos

 

[aka_locojoe]

always been curious as to why america's most dangerous places are so highly populated.
ya couldn't pay me enough to live in tornado alley or on a fault line.
thats some scary stuff.
that being said, i can't wait to hear your stories, as terriffing as tornado's are, there just as majestic.

If you took all the people that lived in Tornado Alley, along fault lines, and the coast (hurricanes) I doubt we'd all fit in your safe sate wherever it is. So we gotta live somewhere

 

[aka_locojoe]

Cameron if I recall correctly my Father and his brothers and/or some friends went to Udall from here that evening to help out. Not sure how they got word so quick.

I seen a lot of bizarre stuff working in the aftermath of these. Wish I would have taken more photos.

The 99 tornado...

After receiving a call from my daughter I headed down to her work but could only get so close driving due to the downed lines and trees. Had to walk the rest of the way in. I had brought a big flash light/lantern. The fire department deputized me and I spent all that evening directing traffic back out of town.
My Daughter told me where she worked when the storm approached her manager decided to move his prized car under a tree so it wouldn't get hailed on. That tree was blown over and crushed his car.

The days that followed were strange as the city was locked down or whatever and the National Guard set up check points and you had to show ID proving you lived in the area to get in.

All of the organizations like the Red Cross etc... were great. not only did they help those who had lost homes or suffered damage by supplying food, clothing and tools, they also fed those of us working to restore utility services lunch and evening meals.

 

[udallcustombikes]

My wife's uncle has told me about coming down here the day after with his dad to rubber neck at the carnage. On a side note he and his wife lost their house in the Greensburg tornado.

 

[Ratfink1962]

All of the organizations like the Red Cross etc... were great. not only did they help those who had lost homes or suffered damage by supplying food, clothing and tools, they also fed those of us working to restore utility services lunch and evening meals.

Randy, not sure if you knew of this, but north of the big ditch where my dad lived, I know of only one small church group that came thru to help gather things that could be saved, other than that, no Red Cross, no nothing.

I think one of the neighbors loaded a truck down with bottled water and passed it out. but it sure wanst the Red Cross.

 

[B607]

Wow, I knew you guys in Kansas had lots of tornados, but those pics are unreal. It looks like a war was fought in some of the pics. Having a basement would help, but one of those new fiberglas storm shelters you bury in the ground might be even better. Gary