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"I'll never forget it as long as I live.
My friend, her daughter, my two children, and I were
at the Sikes Center Mall in Wichita Falls, Texas. And they announced over the intercom to
go over to the low lying area, because the tornado was at Memorial Stadium. Only about a
mile away. We had to go get our children because they were shopping for shoes at a
different area. After we got to the low-lying area, my son was standing up. Well, I just
jumped on top of him and knocked him down. And the tornado was there.
I had my son underneath me. It frightened me. It was raining so hard that it felt like we
where going to drown. It blew and blew and blew, forever it seemed like. And then it
stopped.
At that time I raised my head and looked up. And I don't know if it was the pressure on my
eyes ,or what. But I can never describe what I saw. Because there was nothing there. I
couldn't see anything. Then it started and done the same thing again.
It blew and it blew and it blew. One second it felt like it was going to flatten you like
a pancake on the floor. And then, the next second, it felt like it was going to pick you
up and throw you through the roof. And it would do that over and over and over. Then it
stopped.
We got up. I realized all the rain I thought was going to drown us was really debris
hitting us. Mostly everybody stayed calm and were helping eachother. I, then, saw the wall
in front of me. Most of it was gone. It had pipes with water spraying out everywhere. And
you could smell gas.
My friend was bloody, but the kids and I were fine."
Hot SprIngs, Arkansas
SPRING 1997
Niki Mariskanish remembers:
" My family and I were on vacation in
Hot Springs, Arkansas. We went for a ride on The Duck (a World War II personnel carrier
that drives on land like a bus and drives into the water as a boat). It was a warm, sunny
day. And we were enjoying ourselves. The water was like glass.
Shortly after we got onto the lake, the sky grew dark, and heavy winds started. All of the
sudden, big lightning and ear-splitting thunder began. The waves were tossing us, and
coming into the boat. To me, it felt like the whole boat was going to tip over. All of us
were very scared.
We were trying to pull down the window flaps to keep the rain and waves out. But,
everybody was already soaked.
The driver got us to land as fast as possible. And we were so happy we were safe.
When we got back to our hotel, we found out on the news that we were within a few miles of
the tornado. "
Name: -- Enjoyed reading the letters from those who have experienced encounters with tornadoes. As a child, I observed how my grandparents reacted to bad weather. They would always say "The weather is God's doing and man can't do anything about it." Whenever the weather turned bad, they would make all of the kids sit quietly, especially if it was a thunderstorm. They would tell us that when it thundered, that was God talking and we should be quiet and sit still. I grew up with a fear and respect for the weather.
For many years there were those who would make fun of the way I was always observant of the weather. This went on until 1992 when Hurricane Andrew spawned a tornado which hit St. John parish in Louisiana. This tornado passed through the neighborhood in which I spent my childhood. I lived in Lafayette, Louisiana at the time and the brunt of Hurricane Andrew was expected to hit the Lafayette area. But St. John parish was on the Northeast side of the storm, which is the most dangerous side of a hurricane. This tornado destroyed many homes and there were some trailers that were never found. As I listened to the stories of the people who went through this experience, it lets me know that the fear and respect I've had for the weather is not anything to laugh at or to be taken lightly. For it is only a miracle from God that only 1 person was killed from this F-4 tornado which devastated this area. A good result of this experience is now the people in that area take the weather very seriously because that tornado was definitely a wake up call! Name: DAVID My name is David Criswell, my family-cousins, uncles, brother, and grandparents- are all survivors
of the last tornado that hit Oklahoma, May 3rd, 1999. It was terrible, my grandparents and uncles
houses were both destroyed. They were lucky to survive. The state gave them a new house and some
vehicles to get them going again. When I last went to see them, I noticed how much space there was in
Moore, Ok. Apartment buildings that I use to live in weren't there anymore, I don't remember the name of
the complex but I do remember that it was down the street from 27th and Shields. I just can't imagine
what is going to happen to all the residents of these buildings, a lot of families don't get along very well,
but I think in circumstances like these, there's nothing one can do about it. Name: Victoria I live in scotland, i have never seen a tornado in real life i have seen them on the
telly and i know what they ca do. I have think that tornados are amazing and they fasenate
me, i don't know what it is about them that makes so intrested in them. There was a
torndao in Brimgham last year (1998) but that was only a F2. We do get alot of tornadoes
over hear but they are mostly all in the country side and do not do any damage. Iam
planning to move to America when i am older so i am trying to find out as much information
as i can about them and were they are most likley to hit I still think that they are
fasenating things but they ae also very dangours. The informaion that i have read so far
has been very useful to me and the pics are so amazing. As i said earlier on i would like
to move to America and i known about torndo ally but i am not quite sure where it is so i
still need to find this out. Thanks for all the information it has been very useful. Name: Alana In November 1992 there was a huge severe storm here in Adelaide. There was hail and rain
and it was really murky. Then there was a report of a tornado. I remember high
winds and terrible hail and trees falling over and stuff but other than that I can't
remember much. It caused like 13 million dollars damage or something. Pretty bad
for little old Adelaide, South Australia!!!!!!
SEEya, hope to hear from some of you soon!
Alana.
Date: 31 Jan 2000
Time: 16:55:24
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Comments
Date: 26 Jan 2000
Time: 19:29:26
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Comments
Date: 19 Nov 1999
Time: 10:24:34
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Comments
Date: 16 Jul 1999
Time: 03:11:17
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Your Story
Name: GWEN
Date: 11 Feb 1999
Time: 18:10:08
Remote User:
My two daughters and I were in the 1979 Tornado on that terrible Tuesday Apr 10. We lived in a Trailer House off Windthorst Rd, in Wichita Falls TX. I had just gotten off work, went and got the girls, went to the store for supper. The sky was beautiful and blue. We went home, I started supper. Then as I turned on the TV, I heard of bad weather around the area. I continued supper. Then I heard talk of tornados closing in on Wichita Falls. I never heard any sirens. I heard more on TV, heard cars honking outside, and I got on the phone to call Mother. As I was talking to her, I opened the front door to see what the noise was that I was hearing. As I looked out my front door, I saw nothing but solid black and debri flying all around, which was only 2 blocks in front of me. I yelled to Mother on the phone: "My God, we're gonna get hit!" She yelled at me to get the girls and go get under the bed! I grabbed the girls, went to the bedroom and got under the bed. Before I could say a prayer, the Tornado hit us. I was knocked out immediately. The tornado lifted our trailer house off of its foundation, took it up in the air, turned us over and over, blew us about 1/2 to 3/4 mile away from the park, then the trailer exploded, and the girls and I fell to the ground. The trailer and all of our belongings were blown to who knows where, but the girls and I fell within 6 feet of each other in a field. The girls remember the dresser flying over their head and so on. When I woke up, it was raining, I was my oldest daughter. Her leg looked like it was completely dismantled from her body, I then heard the youngest daughter crying. I could not get up and walk, as I had a fractured pelvis, a crushed ankle, and a bedspring wire approximately 16 inches long hanging through my head and eye. It had entered through my left eye, and was protruding out the left side of my head. My oldest daughter told me to pull it out. I said no, for I was afraid I was going blind. We started yelling and yelling. Some couple came walking by in shock, staired at us and walked away. We kept yelling. My mothers husband had a man working for him, that knew we lived in that area. He decided to drive around to see if he could find us. Out of the whole trailer park, only 3 or 4 trailers were left standing. Mother tried to drive out that way, but the freeway was blocked with turned over vehicles and such. After a while, the friend who came to find us, drove up in a pickup. He could not believe it was us. He carefully lifted us up, put us in the back of his pickup, and drove us to the hospital. He then went back out there, found Mother and told her. When she came to the hospital, she found a nurse who was her friend. The nurse brought her to me. Mother said: "No that is not my daughter!" The nurse said yes it was. I was covered in mud and debri, and my hair was all matted with mud and debri, I was all bruised. The nurse told her yes it was. My oldest daughter's leg was broken, the youngest daughter had cuts and bruises on her face. We were in the hospital for a long time. We know God is the one who left us together during the fall and saved us, when everything else was blown to shreds. The only thing we had left, was the car, which was real beat up. A policeman also found my purse in all the rubble. What is sort of funny now, is that when we were able to get out of hosp and try and start our life again, what kind of shelter did the gov't put us in, but an old trailer house that had some damage. Yes, the first storm that came up, the trailer rocked and rocked, and we just about had heart attacks! For years, we were so frightened when the wind would get us just a little. We are much better now, and alot smarter! I had been in 3 other tornados while growing up. I never was really scared when it hit our house on Saxet st, or the time it hit our school. But now I really respect those deadly terrors! Thanks for allowing people to share their stories. Gwen L Wichita Falls TX.
Name: ann
Date: 11 Nov 1998
Time: 22:14:37
Remote User:
I was in the 1998 spencer tornado.
Name: A M
Date: 11 Nov 1998
Time: 22:09:48
Remote User:
I was in the 1998 tornado in south Dakota we were on a trip to soix falls SD.we went up to spencer were the tornado was going to hit. We didn't Know what was going on. WE were at my aunt's house. We were down in the basement for a hour. Her house was still there.She was lucky this time.That was my first tornado experience.
Name: Kit-Kat
Date: 10 Nov 1998
Time: 23:40:14
Remote User:
Its not my expirence but it is my neighbors. She was down in Florida when a few warnings were issued. All of a sudden when they had just got in from the beach,her family was forced to go to the basement because the tornado was heading for them. Down in the basement there was a ton of screening blocking the windows so my neighbor got to look out. When she did she saw the tornado come wipping down the street. She also saw it rip the house acroos the street up and the rest of the houses on that side. Ever since when we get a warning{in Wilmington,Delaware} she is always packed and ready for it while us teens are outside wishing we could see it! I luv tornados!
Name: micah
Date: 10 Nov 1998
Time: 16:26:55
Remote User:
My family and I were headed to Dallas Texas one Sunday evening and we had ran over something and it gave us a flat tire.So we pulled over on the side of the road to change it. My dad noticed that the sky was turning sort of greenish color and it started to thunder and lightning and it began hailing.So we got in the car to wait and see if maybe it would stop soon.Then all of a sudden as if a lion had roared we heard a very louc roar. We looked behind us and there it was,the funnel was so short,but so wide.We got out of the car and ran to a near by ditch and kept low.When all the wind had stopped and all roaring and fear went away we got out of the ditch and saw that our car was a half-mile away turned upside down.We did'nt worry about the flat any more, we were just glad to be alive and safe.
Name: Andrew
Date: 08 Nov 1998
Time: 22:14:22
Remote User:
My dad and I were at my grandpas campsite and we were listening to the radio and they said "a tornado wacth is on for Lake Huron,north middlesex and southren huron counties We could hear thunder a see lightning in the distance,suddenly the skys went black so my dad and I went to the beach to check the weather(my dad volunteers for Canwarn). There was a large wallcloud and part of the funnel was coming down from the cloud.
Name: Ben
Date: 08 Nov 1998
Time: 19:10:05
Remote User:
I have been a trained storm spotter for an Illinois county government for the last 2 years. This past spring, I saw three tornadoes. Two of which were twins, side by side. The one was a multiple vortex tornado, which menas it has two or more funnels within one large funnel. They were both very loud. These tornadoes sounded more like a vintage locomotive whistle than a freight train. It sounded like a piercing high pitched whistle. The baseball size hail was fun too! The Tornadoes did very little damage and iunjured no one. I imagine they were F-2's. The first tornado would have been measured as an F-1. After reading several of your stories, I came to the conclusion that many of you are unsure of what you saw, or you are lying. It is easy to tell who has a credible story or not.
Name: Mike
Date: 30 Oct 1998
Time: 20:43:29
Remote User:
I was in a tornado when I lived in Plainfield, IL. It's not so fun, it's actually pretty scary. And I really just wished it never happened.
Name: Jon
Date: 26 Oct 1998
Time: 22:13:50
Remote User:
My family was driving on the highway on our way to jackson mn. when we saw a twister out in the fields. it was pretty cool. but scary too. when it was over my knees wouldn't stop shaking.
Name: jimmy
Email:
Date: 25 Oct 1998
Time: 19:16:56
Remote User:
Tornadoes are very destructive storms. I have one thing that is very important: If a tornadoe is by your county, go down in to your cellar or a basement. Don't forget to: bring food like can foods, water, a radio(battery powered), cloths (if its a day or two. That's my experience of tornadoes.
Name: red
Email:
Date: 23 Oct 1998
Time: 18:37:58
Remote User:
ONE day in my small town in texas, we were outside in the showers of rain when, out of nowhere, hail as big as plums were falling. we got in the brand new house my aunt bought. It was pretty big. it had two floors and while inside, had the radio on. we heard that there were four tornadoes,rated f2's and 3's. they were closing in on ourhome and tore itup.
Name: Scottie
Email: ......
Date: 22 Oct 1998
Time: 20:23:02
Remote User:
It was June 1990. The summer was in full bloom in our small eastern colorado town with the usual nice weather and summer activities. The afternoon on June 6th was rather humid and it was very warm aswell. As the evening fell upon our small community of only 2,000 people, the skies turn dark and the winds picked up (not unusual for this time of year). Everyone thought it would just be another late afternoon thunderstorm. But what was really going to hit us was much worse then we could possibly imagine. I remember that I was at our church helping my sister get ready for her wedding which was to be held later in the week. As we were leaving the church, marble size hail began to fall to the ground and we hurried home. Still not too alarmed we went home and sat in the house waiting for the storm to pass. It was then that the tornadoe sirens blew! We cracked the windows and gathered the pets and headed down to our basement. Then, the lights went out and we sat there in complete darkness. We heard the wind wistle outside like a train then all of a sudden it was quite! With no warning, the wind started again, only this time it was worse. Our ears popped and the pressure wistled through the ventilation system and then it became quite agian. Soon the "all clear" wistle blew and so we went upstairs. Thinking that the tornadoe had struck on the outside of town, which usually happens, we had no idea that 75-90% of our business district was distroyed and 200-300 homes were left in ruins. As we walked out of our house and down the street towards downtown, huge trees blocked the roads, power lines we down all over town, and we realized that it had hit us head on.
Name: Amanda
Date: 20 Oct 1998
Time: 18:38:19
Remote User:
When I was very young (about 2 or 3), I visited an aunt that lived in Oklahoma. We were at her house when they issued a tornado warning for her county. She made all of us go outside and get into the cellar(pretty much like the one that Jo and her parents get into on the movie "Twister"). We were down there for quite a while and thought that nothing was going to happen, but then we heard it! It really does sound like a train. It was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life. My aunt thought that it was over and she opened the door and got sucked up right into the tornado! That was the most horrible sight that I have ever seen! :( After the tornado was over, we got out of the cellar to find my aunt. We found her and amazingly she was still alive, but by the time we got her to a hospital, she died.
Name: ricky
Email:
Date: 20 Oct 1998
Time: 17:04:20
Remote User:
my grandpa died from a tornado in oklahoma
Name: Lara
Date: 20 Oct 1998
Time: 12:11:33
Remote User:
This is not my story, it is a story my boyfriend told me. He was brought up on a farm in NW Kansas. On this farm there was a little hut where they kept the smaller tools. The hut was surrounded on each side by a tractor, a truck, and a harvester. A tornado touched down close by and was coming towards the farm so my boyfriend and his family hid in the basement. When they emerged after the storm, the tornado had 'taken' the little hut and carried it almost 20 miles away, but had left the tractor, truck, and harvester undamaged! It must have 'bounced' or something to pick up one object and leave the others unharmed. I myself have never seen a twister as I live in London, England (I am British) but after hearing this story I am totally fascinated by them and would love anyone to mail me with any information they have on these types of storms.
Name: Grant
Date: 17 Oct 1998
Time: 22:17:27
Remote User:
June 17,1989. My family and were on our way home from Vacation at Disney World. Since My dad had a few more days left on his vacation we decided to stop in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and spend a few days at the beach. Well when we were getting close we had to go on a bridge that was about 25 miles long. I am not sure of the name. But It was pitch black out and their were tornado watches out everywhere. When we were about halfway across the bridge we heard over the radio that several Tornados had been reported touching ground right near us. We could hear the sound of the Freight-Train as it made it's way towards us. The Radio Broadcaster told the people on the bridge that the safest thing to do is to get out of your car and try and get near the sides of the bridge and lay down and cover your head. Well we did that. We got soaked and the whole thing lasted for about 8 or 9 min. then we got back in our car and went to the beach and tried as hard as we could to enjoy the next few days at the beach
Name: Ed
Email:
Date: 17 Oct 1998
Time: 01:52:18
Remote User:
There's a school in Rye Cove, Virginia (located in the southwestern part of the state) which has a large plaque mounted outside containing the names of inidividuals killed there by a tornado in the 1920 or 30's. My grandmother was a teacher there when the tornado hit and she used to tell me stories about it when I was a child. She mentioned the tornado struck just as the students were returning from lunch and her back was broken from a pot-bellied stove which was thrown onto her as the twister hit the school. She mentioned that prior to the tornado, everyone who lived in the area had been under the misconception they were protected from tornadoes by the surrounding mountains. After the tornado, she was always nervous when she heard even the slightest rumble of thunder.
Name: Alan
Email:
Date: 17 Oct 1998
Time: 01:35:40
Remote User:
It was on/about May 10th in '82 while I was living in Del Rio, TX. We'd been experiencing some really hot weather and the humidity was up around 80% which was unusual for the desert climate we normally experienced. Around 6 p.m. we had a pretty potent storm which skirted the northern part of the town. Since I lived in a mobile home at the time, I usually kept a watchful eye on the weather. I imagine the storm was in reality a mesocyclone because as it continued to more or less rotate in place, the southwestern edge finally approached the town. Around 7 p.m. the radio announced a tornado warning for Val Verde county and we heard various sirens going off at fire departments located throughout the area. Since sunset was about an hour or so away, there was plenty of sunlight which backlit the tornado which appeared to be just coming over the horizon to the northwest. The tornado was slowly moving southeast which placed my mobile home park directly in its path. We were advised by the police department to evacuate to the local civic center which was approximately two miles away and everyone calmly but quickly jumped into our cars & trucks to get there. Upon our arrival at the civic center, there was a rather large crowd outside looking skyward for the approaching funnel. It took the tornado nearly 30 minutes to reach town and to our relief it was now not on the ground but instead only a funnel cloud dangling ominously from the base cloud. It appeared quite large (several hundred yards wide) as it slowly glided over us and I clearly remember a hissing/whistling sound. Also, the air smelled somewhat like sandstones do when rubbed together. We watched the funnel continue gliding southeast and then it retracted into the base cloud. During the entire event, I don't recall any lighning or heavy rain but I do recall a very frigid downdraft as the storm passed... the temp dropped from the 90's to the low 70's in less than a couple minutes.
Name: Melanie
Email:
Date: 14 Oct 1998
Time: 17:49:59
Remote User:
I was at Cedar Pointe. My friends and I were in line for the magnum when the people running the ride started screaming at us, teeling us to get out of line. We had no idea what was going on until we saw people staring at the sky and screaming. We had never seen anything so huge in our lives. We made the mistake of running, as did almost everyone else. We got trapped in a dead end, but luckily the twister went back into the clouds before reaching us. Just as soon as we started walking again, we saw another one coming down. When we surveyed the sky we noticed numerous funnel clouds everywhere. This time we found our way to a gift shop and buried ourselves under the sweatshirts. I'll never forget this experience.
Name: sandy
Email:
Date: 12 Oct 1998
Time: 23:34:34
Remote User:
I was home one day,it was really cloudy out.The tv went out then I heard it the loud rour. I ran down the stairs with mydog and cat. It only lasted 10 minetutes and it was over. My home for 40 years was gone.
Name: Sarah
Date: 09 Oct 1998
Time: 15:15:53
Remote User:
It was a really sunny day and my family and I were having a big party and there was a lot of people there that I didn't know. We were partying when all of the sudden the sky startd to go green and it started to get really windy. Suddenly a big swirling mesacyclone spawned an F5 tornado. We all went running for saftey. Some people ran for their cars but most went to our basement. A lot of people died in that tornado (none from my house).
I am 17 years old. My freind and I are moving to Oklahoma to become future storm chasers. Hope to see some of you tornado lovers out there!
Name: Anonymous
Email:
Date: 08 Oct 1998
Time: 18:30:48
Remote User:
Last July I was attending my friends softball match at our town's park. You must realize that our park contains 5 or 6 playing fields.....they were all filled. It started to rain and everyone was packing up their gear and leaving. All of a sudden I saw a roof of a auto body shop go 40ft into the air. People were screaming and running to their vehicles. That was when I realized that the tornado had went through a field where my brother's team was playing. The car in front of mine was sitting at the stop sign with the tornado coming straight for us. Then I yelled," Don't worry about abiding by the law get it in gear!!!" No one was harmed but it caused a lot of talk in our small town. On the news the next day our F1 was claimed to be a "microburst" which I found to be a lie. After all, have you ever seen a microburst send a shop into the clouds?
Name: Cecilia
Date: 07 Oct 1998
Time: 01:41:52
Remote User:
Me encantó la película Twister , y cuándo ví en La Nación ,un artículo sobre tornados ,me entusiasmé y decidí buscar la Página.En mi país ( Argentina ) no hay ése tipo de catastrofes naturales,pero hay otras como inundaciones y sequias.Tengo 11 años y me gustaría estudiar tornados .Si pueden mandenme información en castellano.Thank-you.
Name: mike
Email:
Date: 19 Sep 1998
Time: 21:26:49
Remote User:
well, we were paint-balling,and a tornado touched down. luckily, thanks to God, we were fine.
Name: JEFF TIBBITS
Email: NONE
Date: 18 Sep 1998
Time: 20:58:49
Remote User:
IT WAS MAY 7 1995 ILIVE IN OK.IT WAS A PARTLY CLOUDY DAY.I GOT BACK FROM CHURCH AN AND WAS ABOUT TO GO FISHING.MY BROTHER CAME IN AND SAID THEIR ARE LEAVES FALLING OUT OF THE SKY .WE WERE WATCHING A MOVIE,SO WE DIDN'T SEE ANY WEATHER REPORTS .WHEN WE TURNED ON THE RADIO IT SAID THERE WAS A TORNADO 6 MILES SOUTH OF LONE GROVE THATS ABOUT WHERE I LIVE ,SO WE QUICKLY GOT INTO THE STORM CELLAR.WE HAD PREVOIUSLY BEEN HIT BY A TORNADO IN 1995.ABOUT 3 MIN. LATER I HEARD A LOUD ROAR AND MY EARS POPPED AND HURT FROM THE PRESSURE.THE DOR CAME UNDONE AND FLAPPED UP AND DOWN.ABOUT 10 MIN.LATER WE GOT OUT.THERE WAS ABSOLUTLY NOTHING LEFT OF MY HOUSE.NOT EVEN THE FLOOR.WE GOT OUT ,THANKED GOD FOR PROTECTING US ANS PROCEEDED TO COLLECT SOME OF ARE BELONGINGS.WE REBUILT AND MOVED BACK IN 2 YEARS LATER THE TORNADO KILLED 8 PEOPLE,ALL IN TRAILORS,IN COOKE AND LOVE COUNTY.WE LIVE IN CARTER IT ORIGINATED WITH A 1/2 A MILE WIDTH .BY THE TIME IT GOT TO MY HOUSE IT WAS 1/4 MILE WIDE.THE WINDS WERE RATED 200+ WHEN IT GOT TO MY HOUSE AND DIMINISHED AS IT PROGRESSED NORTH.I WAS 10 WHEN THIS HAPPENED.
Name: Bubba
Email:
Date: 18 Sep 1998
Time: 20:04:26
Remote User:
Yado, Texas September 18, 1998
It had been a pretty muggy day there were a couple of tornadoe warnings in our area. In the middle of the afternoon I decided to take a look outside and I saw a huge funnel cloud touching down in the distance. I watched it, and watched it. Finally I relized it was coming straight toward my house. Frieghtened, I threw a bunch of cushions in my bathtub and sat in it with a pile of blankets on top. I could hear the wind howling more and more, the tornadoe was very close. The next thing that happened was that my roof was slowly being torn off. Suddenly a huge wind drew the tub and I into the air. It sent me swirling around and around, then I suddenly crashed to the ground, about 30 yards away from my house. I looked up and relized the whole neighborhood was a disaster, luckily me and many others managed to survive. Buba
Name: Glen
Date: 16 Sep 1998
Time: 07:47:11
Remote User:
West Memphis, Arkansas December 17th, 1987
It was a night, I will never forget. I was sleeping on the couch when my brother came in and said: "Glen, get up!! There is a tornado coming!" He told me, while I was half asleep, that the temperature had risen from 50 degrees to about 70 degrees, which was an indication that a tornado was coming. No warnings had been issued, but my brother picked me up off the couch and took me to the hallway along with the rest of the family. I was still half asleep while my family was praying. Then I finally realized what was happening and I joined in. Then all of a sudden, I heard something that sounded like an approaching train and our house was ratteling and we realized what it was... . We were all scared to death. After a few minutes, there was an extreme silence around us. We were so happy that we had not been blown away, because the tornado had wiped out our entire street except three houses. Evidently, it had jumped over us and the other two houses. I thank God that we did make it out alive.
Name: Mike
Email:
Date: 15 Sep 1998
Time: 23:43:50
Remote User:
My tornado story is not the most excting but I have been obsessed with these funnel shaped storms for as long as I can remember. I have had nightmares upon nightmares of them and expect to see one eventually. It just seems like my destiny. At the same time as being horified to ever experience one, I also have a strange desire to see it as well. It sends goose bumps up my spine even thinking about them. I was a counselor in a day camp in my early teenage years in White Plains,NY. We do not get a lot of tornadoes in NY so no one really ever talked about them.... no one understood the sheer power of them. Most people didn't even know the difference between a hurricane and a tornado. I knew because I was scared of them... I have no idea where this fear was founded. Anyway, I digress. I was driving home one afternoon, after camp and the sky was turning pretty dark. I just turned north onto I-684 and the sky above the road ahead seemed more and more ominous as I drove north. My house was still about a half an hour north and my mom's office was on the next exit so I got off and waited for my mom to get off work instead of her driving the train to my dad (this was the only way I could get the car). Anyway, we ended up going out to dinner and my Dad met us there. At dinner (which was in Mt.Kisco), the waiter told us that a tornado had struck in Putnam County. That was where my house was but Putnam County was a big place. Well, what luck would have it... the tornado touched right down in the middle of my condo complex. I do not know how many were injured but I don't believe anyone died. However, the property damage was immense. It was declared a disaster area. The inside of our condo was fine but our roof had another roof sticking out of it and all the siding was stripped. If I had driven home like I had earlier planned I would have been right in the middle of it. The people next to us stated that it came out of absolute nowhere and sounded like a frieght train dropped out of the sky. I now live in Tampa, Fl and we have severe thunderstorm warnings all the time. Tornadoes have ripped through the sunshine state this year. I feel it is my destiny to see one of these monsters one day and I tremble just to think about it
Name: Leslie
Email:
Date: 15 Sep 1998
Time: 19:10:06
Remote User:
It was in 1985 but I still remember it as it were yesterday. I was only in kindergarten at the time attending Jessieville Elementary School. One evening I was home Mount Tabor, Arkansas near Jessieville and it had begun getting quite dark outside which was quite unusual for the time of day that it was. After getting pretty dark we began to hear news flashes on the television set and they said that our area was in a line of tornadoes and that we should not tarry but take cover immediately. Just then the electricity went out and we were watching the T.V. but of course it went off to. My family acted immediately after that and so caught up in what was going on they left me in the living room setting on the sofa and I was so young that I did not know what was going on and I did not know what to do. I sat there and cried for the weather had begun to get pretty bad and above the sofa I was setting on there was a window and it shattered out all over me. After that my family came to my rescue forgetting about me before and they put me in under a bed in a nearby bedroom. My cousin got in the bathtub and put a matress over herself and that kept her protected. We found out that the tornado did alot of damage and that it was not only one but after splitting up it became three of them. It destroyed my aunt and uncles house which was where I was living at the time but down the road we were building a house and the storm did not even touch the building site and I thought that was miracle. I am so thankful to God to be alive today because I know that alot of people die in storms such as this.
Name: Pamela
Date: 8/13/98
Time: 11:57:40 AM
Remote User:
It was probably summer 1990 or so, we were driving through Nebraska in the middle of the night. There were storms all around us. My father had a cb radio in the car. All of a sudden many different people on the cb were yelling tornado for such and such counties!! There were so many counties listed and I had no idea were we were ,I remember thinking to myself that if a tornado was around us I was going to die because we were in the middle of nowhere. There weren't but maybe 3 homes I'd seen the whole night driving. I was about 16 years old at the time, but my dad sais growing up I always loved weather. I used to ask him if a tomato was going to come when it stormed?? After that night my passion for severe weather has grown to extreme levels and I have collected everything from pictures, videos, books to even a pet tornado. Most people when they encounter something so terrifying would end up hating severe weather or fearing it even more, but if your born with a passion for it instilled in you, an experience like that just just makes you want to keep learning or experiencing it's raw power. I am always looking for real, true stories from people who have actually been through a tornado. I have never actually seen or heard one. I have so many questions. If you have real experiences you wouldn't mind sharing please e-mail me. I would love to find a weather buddy out there to talk with. Most people i know including my husband think I'm crazy for loving severe weather. Hope to speak to some of you soon!!
Name: Lisa s
Email: none
Date: 7/23/98
Time: 6:44:36 PM
Remote User:
It is so wierd, alaska only gets earthquakes and volcano eruptions and I love natural disasters and I always hope to go to kansas someday and be a tornado chaser. One day, me my dad and brother woke up to scorching heat, for the morning that is unusual. There was also no wind, which means a thunderstorm could be brewing. It made me remember the time when it was like that here, same situation, later that night we had a thunderstorm so big it messed up the high schools alarm system.OK, me and my brother couldn't stand the heat any longer without air conditioning so we went out and swam in the hotels pool for the rest of the day. That night, we all went out to dinner and then went back to the hotel,it was so dark, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the darkness and the clouds. Around 11:00pm is when everything happened. That night I was holding tight to my dad and was shivering like crazy. lots of wind was beating against the hotel and you could not hear anything but the shriek of the wind. Nothing happened that night, but there was a tornado 70 miles away from souix falls where we were staying
Name: Eric
Date: 7/6/98
Time: 5:11:24 PM
Remote User:
I was 4 at the time, but I remember like it was yesterday. The clouds started to darken and a wind started. At first it seemed like nothing, but the wind didn't die out, it just grew until suddenly there was a large burst of wind that forced us to go inside. I remember looking out of the window to see the what was going on when I saw the swirling tornado - the sound of it was almost unbearable. My mom was very scared and my dad grabbed me and put me in a closet, since that was the safest place in our house, it has no basement, no shelter anywhere, just a hallway closet. After this the house started to shake and our windows gave way to the mercyless wind. The tornado threw a large branch strait through my house. By the grace of god the tornado just barely missed our house, it had skimmed us at a dangerous 1/8 mile away. Most of our windows had been destroyed, we lost a good portion of our roof, and there was a hole in our house from the branch, and aside from that everything went fairly well I would say.
Name: Kari
Date: 7/3/98
Time: 1:59:56 AM
Remote User:
Our city was just hit by a tornado or tornados. It hit about 6 other cities that are close by. The most damage was the town where I went to high school. It tore the roof off of the gym and left it a mess.... It tore a machine shed right out of the ground, but never even disturbed anything in the shed. It uprooted trees and tore down power lines.... After it was all done. It left about 53,000 people without electricity. This happend Monday June 29th of June and it is July 2 and still alot of people are without there power. It only hurt two people. The damage is just outrageous... They are so remarkable how they tore something apart then not touch the next thing in it's path. I am so amazed by tornados and this is the first one I ever experienced.....
Name: Anthony
Date: 7/2/98
Time: 3:30:17 PM
Remote User:
I've Never seen a real twister except on t.v. but I like to draw them and collect pictures of them, here's A story I Made up, It's called "The twisters of Vancouver" (Thats where i live). On july 12 I was visiting my friend and the sky was mostly cloudy so i thought oh well so i walked over then all of a sudden a flash of lightning happened and it started to rain so i ran to my house again then the cumulonimbus cloud started to spin and a snakey cloud came out of the circulation I said to myself "oh no! A funnel cloud then the funnel sneakily came down. All of a sudden a roar like a train sounded then i shivered with fright because the tornado whipped about and then another funnel came down in just 8 seconds. a crackling hail came down then the twister started to slowly shift towards our neighborhood, i saw one of the skyscrapers get ripped out of the ground like a toy getting picked up by a baby. the 2 twisters clashed together to one great big twister rated probably an f4 or f5 i got a camera to take pictures of it while picking up debris and dust(it's probably about 2 kms away by now) then all of a sudden they snaked up into the cumulonimbus cloud and the thunderstorm moved on. I heard later that the twister touched down 6 times killing at least 200 people and that it was rated at an f5 strength. I love Tornadoes! I wanna be a storm chaser when i grow up!
Name: brent
Email: none
Date: 6/23/98
Time: 6:12:37 PM
Remote User:
It happened in July of 1997. I live in south jersey and I was up in up state New York. my aunt, uncle, and two cousins live up there. My aunt and I were going from her house to Ohio to pick up my cousin at he real father's house. you see my aunt and uncle were divorced. It was a pretty nice day, warm, and partly sunny. we were in the mountains. I looked ahead and saw extremely dark clouds and we had to drive into them! It was very windy and you could hear huge BOOMS of thunder and lightning. a few cops were stopping everybody and pulling them to the side of the road. we waited there for about five mitutes. then we heard something that sounded like a train, I looked to my side and saw a black tornado wich I guesed was a F1 or 2. i was scared, but it was at least 6 1/2 miles away and plus it seemed to be moving away. Once things had quieted down we moved on. I was very shooken up and my aunt was pale. About an hour later. we driving through some hills when we had to dodge a fallen tree in the road. I looked to my right and saw a complex of big dark cumbolous clouds. About 3 miles away on top of a hill I saw my second tonado in the day and also in my life! When I grow up I want to eather be a tornado chaser or a meteorologyst. This day is what set my life on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Name: dava
Date: 6/11/98
Time: 2:35:39 AM
Remote User:
When I was about ten I experienced a relatively weak tornado which struck one June evening (1969??) at my grandparents' home in Hamilton Co., Illinois. I guess we had been under a watch for a while because Granny was telling all the old 1925 tri-state tornado stories she remembered from her youth. So, she already had me good and scared. Then, around 8:00 or 9:00, it began storming heavily. I remember there was a heck of a lot of very close lightening and terrifying thunder. Suddenly, we heard a shrill whistling shriek which instantly caused me to think in my young mind "The air is splitting apart." A section of a maple tree crashed into the glassed-in porch and the wind was throwing leaf fragments into my face. Of course, we all jumped into hysterical action. I quickly learned the meaning of the phrase "scared silly." Grandpa was suddenly obsessed with closing the door leading to the porch. I can still see that sweet old man shoving with all his might and determination against that wind. Believe it or not, he got the job done. Meanwhile, Grandma and I ran holding hands to the kitchen where we engaged in a quick, frantic tug of war over which way to flee first. She wanted to get the flashlight from the bedroom since the power had gone out and all I could think of was beating it to the basement. We unclenched one another, and she got the flashlight while I stood glued with terror to the kitchen linoleum listening to the roaring and crashing outside. It only took a couple of seconds for her to get back, but it seemed like forever. Well, we all finally made it to the basement. One of the windows blew open and Grandpa transferred his energies to trying to close it! I can't for the life of me imagine what he thought he was doing! I think Grandma was praying. And I was holding onto the stair rail watching the rain blow by horizontally and wondering if I was truly going to faint for the first time in my life. Then the wind was gone, but it was raining to beat the band. When things calmed down enough to inspect some of the damage, Grandpa found his peach tree clipped right off at the ground. Honestly, it looked like it had been cut with a chainsaw, the break was so clean and even. Damn, that man was mad. He loved those peaches. And the tree was loaded with green fruit when it went down. In the morning we found another tree or two with their tops torn out, the TV antenna toppled, some tiles off the roof, and the side blown out of one of the barns. We could see that all the debris was blown in a circular motion, too. Althouth the twister was small and isolated, just touching down on us and nobody else, it left me with quite a storm phobia that plagued me for the next two decades. But, I made the effort to get a grip after my son was born because I didn't want to scare the dickens out of him, too. However, I am still often the first one to head for our trailer park storm shelter when the weather turns nasty. But, I do have to smile a little during those times when I remember that night so long ago with Grandpa, Grandma, and me running around like chickens with their heads off.
Name: Rebecca
Date: 5/9/98
Time: 3:50:07 AM
Remote User:
I have an amazing story for you. About two years ago I spent the summer in Houston, Texas. One day I walked to the market for some groceries as I always did before my husband returned home from work. I brought my umbrella because it looked like it maight rain. I remember everything so clearly, I even remember I bought shrimp because it was to be a special romantic dinner. As I was walking home from the market, the sky changed dramatically and very quickly. The thunder and lightening was so profound and it was all around me. My heart started beating very hard. The storm that had just arrived seemed like the worst storm that could ever hit New England (where I am from). I couldn't believe people were just driving around in this. But who was I to talk, walking around in this! I remember praying to God when I felt an enormous pressure originating infront of me. I struggled to lift my head up from the wind and saw a sight that I will never forget. In, what seemed like two seconds, I saw a greenish sky with a black background. I saw a tornadoe like clound hovering almost directly above me butfar enough away so that I would live. As I saw three lawn chairs and an enormous table bounced across the road in front of me. I blanked. I didn't know what the hell to do. I ran to the side of the road, to a fence that encircled a James Coney Island restaurant. I held on for dear life to that metal fence as the wind was choking me and wouldn't let me even breathe. The wind was so powerful, I didn't have the strength to face it. I looked over to my right and saw people huddled on the floor in James Coney Island and looking through the big patio window at me. They were pointing, and saying something, and utterly helpless. Just the I felt my feet start to lift of the ground. My body was going up, but I was still grasping that metal fence. My heart was racing, I truly believed that this was it, I was going to die in a tornadoe. I prayed and prayed and prayed. Now I was sideways, parallel to the fence, and hanging on for dear life as debris whipped around me. Fortunately, and slowly the wind started to die down. I was able to catch my breath, I felt my legs touch the ground and I was alive. People came out of the restaurant to help me. I was crying, I had mud all over my face and body, I was completely soaked and I had wet myself. Later I learned that it never even touched down! I don't understand how that much damage was down when it never even touched down. When I surveyed the damage, the brunt of the force hit about four blocks away from where I had been. Am I lucky, or what?
Name: Emily
Email:
Date: 4/27/98
Time: 10:31:26 PM
Remote User:
it was a regular Thursday afternoon. I had just come back from a choir rehersal in a different city and I was on the way to a my mom's friends to watch TV shows since we have no TV. When we got out of the car at my mom's friend's house, she paused for a moment silently and said " i think I hear a train" I listened for a moment too, but heard nothing so we went inside. At that moment I should have thought of all the tornado watches that had been going on all day, but they are normal in Wisconsin so I didn't give them much thought. We were later watching the TV show "Friends" when the power just suddenly went off. Mom turned on the radio and there was a tornado in a town 2 miles away from us. We grabbed some of tbe stuff we would need and ran downstairs and sat down there for about a half hour, watching and waiting. I remember that you could look on one side and it would be completely clear and on the other, it was dark and forbidding. We went to bed that night without a care in the world and when we woke in the next morning, we saw on the front page, a picture of the tornado from the night before and in the bottom right hand corner was a sign. That sign was less then 1/4 of a mile from the place we were staying! If when we were standing outside, we had looked on the other side of the barn, we would have seen the infamous Oakfeild Tornado which had one of the highest ratings on the Fugi( or whatever ) system! A 4 F tornado! That tornado was recorded all around the country and cost millions of dollars to restore. With the help of the nearby city of Fond du Lac Volunteers though, it was cleaned up within a week. And now, celebrating it's 2 year anniversary this summer, it is completely rebuilt. Houses and stores are now lived in and operated again and there are so many stories left with peoples minds.
Name: Jodi
Date: 4/21/98
Time: 10:19:23 PM
Remote User:
I have several tornado stories to tell. My obsession with storms began when I was 8 years old. I grew up in Brooklyn Park a northwestern suburb of Minneapolis. The summer of 1986 (when I was 8) there was an outbreak of tornadoes in the area. I had gone to a friends house to go swimming. The sirens went off, and we headed downstairs. My mother, who was the type that wanted her children with in eyesight when stuff like tornadoes happen wanted me to come home. The house I was swimming at was only a yard away. When I refused to come home, my mother ran across the yard to get me. We were heading back, and she looked up. That was what I believe the first time I heard my mother swear. She told me to look up, and when I did I saw the most awe inspiring sight I have ever seen. It was beautiful, a funnel cloud. It was white. From that day forward, I have vowed that someday I would get a picture of the next tornado I saw. Now, I live in Duluth, MN, where no tornadoes exist, I am moving this spring to ENID OK. Another experience I had was before I moved to Colorado Springs, CO. Another Brooklyn Park story. This time I didn't get to see the funnel. It was really stormy over the fourth of July in 1997. My husband and I were about to move out of Minnesota for the summer. We had packed everything at his house, and were going to bed down for the night. At about 6:00 P.M. the sirens started to wail. We went out to see what was going on, and saw nothing. Again the sirens wailed, my husband went out to take a look. He was out there for about five minutes, and then he told me to grab his 11 year old sister and get the basement. I have seen what tornadoes can do, so I ran into her room. Being a typical 11 year old, she had her television on, and was watching the warnings on T.V.. She was also taking down her Hanson posters in case the house blew down. We only had a little structural damage, loss of power for three days, and a lot of trees down. The last tornado experience occurred when we were driving home form Colorado Springs to Minneapolis for my sister-in-law's wedding. When got to the northern part of Colorado, we were on the edge of a monster of a storm. We stopped at rest stop to have lunch, and continue on. A truck driver stopped as well, he was white, I have never seen anyone that terrified before. He had told us that there were tornadoes along the freeway, and to wait the storm out. We decided not to wait the storm out, and to continue on. We found an AM station, and listened to it as we drove. The conditions were really bad. Hail was baseball sized. As we were listening the radio, we heard there was a tornado sighted in near a Sterling County Reservoir. As we heard that we passed a sign that said Sterling County Resevoir Exit. We had to stop about three feet from the sign, because the car was blowing into other lanes of traffic. We were really lucky. We couldn't see anything ahead, behind, or around us. Unfortunately we couldn't get out of the car to go to a ditch- there were no ditches, nor was there a bridge we could hide under. That was probably the most terrifying half hour of my life. The funny thing was as we continued on we kept driving into tornadic storms, and we would have to stop with no protection on the road. If the tornado came anywhere near the road we could have been killed or seriously injured. After all those experiences with tornadoes, and many more to come, I will always go to safety when there is a tornado warning. For those who live near Enid, OK. How come you build houses in tornado alley without basements or shelters????
Name: Karen
Date: 4/21/98
Time: 6:22:28 PM
Remote User:
On Thursday, April 16th, tornados swept through Tennessee. Tornado watches and warnings went on from the early morning hours, throughout the day and into the evening. When I and my two daughters, Chelsea-9 and Danielle-5, arrived home that afternoon at about 3:30 we immediately turned on the TV. Within a few minutes reports began coming in concerning the tornado that had hit the Nashville area and warnings that another was on it's way. The girls cleaned out a closet and we put a couch pillow in there. We then heard the warning for our city, Mt. Juliet, east of Nashville. As we watched the weather from the front and back doors we saw it begin to hail. The girls got into the closet with their flashlights while I continued to monitor the weather. Suddenly it grew very dark and the wind picked up quickly. The doors were shut and I headed to the closet. About that time my ears began to pop and I noticed that the drawings hanging on the outside of Danielle's closed bedroom door were waving as if being blown by a wind. We were in the closet for about 5 minutes, praying out loud for protection from God, therefore we never "heard" a tornado. When I sensed things were calm, I came out and looked out the window, then the doors. Noticing it seemed safe, the girls came out and we ventured outside. There were neighbors out everywhere. Trees were down in practically every yard. Shingles littered the yards also. Some houses in the neighborhood were severely damaged with roofs caved in and such. We had a window in the attic blown in, and the curtain on the opposite window was sucked through the window between the pane and the frame. Also, we have 3 nails from the attic floor sticking through our living room ceiling by about 1/2 inch. We praise God that noone was hurt in our neighborhood, as well as in Nashville and East Nashville, which were both hit very hard by 2 tornados. We have surveyed some of the other damage in our area with everything from small limbs down to entire trees uprooted, roofs caved in, picnic areas blown away, trees snapped and twisted, billboards twisted. One house we saw had actually been pushed forward 25 feet from it's foundation. The home of Andrew Jackson, The Hermitage, which prior to the tornado could not be seen from the road, is now easily seen, as huge trees are just laid over as if a bulldozer went through and just knocked them all down. It is heart wrenching in one aspect, but amazing in the other, as God has been so gracious to protect so many, considering the large and varied areas that were affected. We are so thankful! Thanks for letting me tell our story! Blessings!
Name: Ed
Date: 4/4/98
Time: 9:25:28 AM
Remote User:
It was about 15 years ago when my family and I experienced our first and only encounter with a tornado.
As sometimes happens, there were no warnings of a tornado, just severe thunderstorns. The tronado, which was relatively small touched down only twice. Once about a quarter of a mile to the west of us taking off roofing shingles, sidings and some roof itsef. It also levt broken windows, cans and derbis all over. When it came down again, it had skiped over our house and touched down about the same distance to our east, this time doeing much more damage to several houses. We can all be thankful that there were no injuries or worst yet, loss of life.