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#163313 05/06/07 08:51 AM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 421
togol Offline OP
Member
There has been a rash of severe weather this weekend
on the Great Plains. two nights ago in Kansas and again last evening in South Dakota, Kansas and Oklahoma.... I hope everyone there is safe !!

there was one about a mile down the road from my home last week

I could only watch as I was South from it and talking to my hysterical wife on the phone who was saying the house was rocking.

and a Sheriffs Deputy was taken for a ride when her car was picked up and tossed 150' she went to the Hospital in critical condition





Tom
togol #163314 05/06/07 10:13 AM
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 827
Likes: 1
J
Member
Tom,
I'm glad that you and your wife are safe! Did you have alot of property damage?
Joe

Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 421
togol Offline OP
Member
Joe ,
Thank You
aside from some BIG branches on the road we are fine.

I was on my way home when the first one hit I did see the storms heading East, by the time I got to LaPorte the sky was black and moving fast and then found out that one had touched down on my home road
I will say that I was dumbstruck when she called me to say that the South Bend weather was telling folks that ANOTHER one was on the way and it was following the same path .....that was when she started to panic and I couldn't get up there cause the Emer folks were all over the place diverting traffic and rescuing that Deputy and trying to find a place to hide themselves...those were some unpleasant sickening moments

but we are fine

this must have been part of the storms that tore through Planfield .....again...




Tom
togol #163325 05/06/07 03:26 PM
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 869
Likes: 4
R
Member
We had that tornado on our local news in New Zealand.

Lucky that you are all ok.

Tornado's are fascinating to watch from a safe distance South Eastern side, but no good when your house is on its track.

Hopefully it didn't do too much damage.


The product of rotation, excitation and flux produces electricty.
RODALCO #163337 05/06/07 08:17 PM
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 827
Likes: 1
J
Member
Tom,
I can't even guess how many times I've looked off the wing to see LaPorte on the way over to Plymouth, Goshen, or to Knox VOR. I had weather sneak in on me one time to stop me at Valpo when the sky fell above Griffith. No twisters though.
I still vividly remember my long student cross country back in '91. Just west of Carroll Cty Ohio's airport, I was really yanked about. I remember my clipboard flying and hitting the ceiling a couple of times as I was yanking the throttle back. It was a very bumpy ride all the way back to my home airport in Pittsburgh. After I landed, white knuckles and all, I learnd that a Tornado had touched down a very short distance from where I encountered my clear air turbulence. Of course the forecasts hadn't called for any convective activity.
I've had moments of high speed excitement under canopy, dealing with strange winds just above landing flare. Like when flying, I found I was too busy responding to the problems at hand to have time for fear.

I was in Redwood City Ca. in '89 when the big quake hit. I remember how helpless I felt because there weren't any checklist items I could perform to make things better. I remember how worried my loved ones were until I could get through to them late that night. I think I understand how you felt until you knew that your wife was safe. I would much rather deal with my own emergencies than worry about the safety of someone I love.
Joe

RODALCO #163339 05/06/07 08:59 PM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 421
togol Offline OP
Member
we made the NZ news ??

the one building that I did see damaged was a cinder block garage with a boat inside..total loss. and lots of trees

but the monster in Kansas was a killer, and there was much more devastation there, since the whole town is gone


Tom
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 421
togol Offline OP
Member
Joe, I can't imagine what flying through something like that feels like, you would have my DNA all over the windshield and seat, and wings

but I still can't get over how helpless I felt when she was on the phone and I really had no idea what HAD happened, since the info I got from people just standing on the roads and looking North and from the cops at the roadblocks put the thing almost in my yard since everyone thought there were two touchdowns about three miles apart.....and my house was almost in a straight line between the two.

as it turns out, the info that the NWS lists, put the tornado in two places that don't intersect.like saying some thing happened at State St. and Halsted


, when something like this happens confusion is the order of the day

and there is nothing we can do about it,

there were more tornado watches this morning for the Southern Plains


Tom
togol #163341 05/06/07 09:28 PM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 421
togol Offline OP
Member
here is the NWS report: (excerpted)
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/070426_rpts.html
1958 PLAINFIELD WILL IL 4162 8820 TORNADO MOVED 3.2 MILES FROM ROUTE 126 AND EASTERN AVE IN PLAINFIELD TO ESSINGTON ROAD AND PATRICK HENRY PARKWAY IN BOLINGBROOK. AN SUV IN THE PARKING LOT OF A NURSING (LOT)

2050 10 NW CROSSVILLE CUMBERLAND TN 3605 8516 MOBILE HOME DAMAGED AND NUMEROUS TREES DOWN. (OHX)

2058 PLAINFIELD WILL IL 4162 8820 TORNADO MOVED 3.2 MILES FROM ROUTE 126 AND EASTERN AVE IN PLAINFIELD TO ESSINGTON ROAD AND PATRICK HENRY PARKWAY IN BOLINGBROOK. AN SUV IN THE PARKING LOT OF A NURSING (LOT)


2108 4 E MICHIGAN CITY LA PORTE IN 4171 8680 REPORTED NEAR US 20 AND FAIL ROAD (IWX)
2114 LA PORTE LA PORTE IN 4161 8671 200E AND RANGE ROAD...TORNADO REPORTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT (IWX)


2125 10 NE LA PORTE LA PORTE IN 4171 8658 PATROL CAR FLIPPED OVER (IWX)


2140 6 E LA PORTE LA PORTE IN 4161 8660 TORNADO REPORTED ON THE GROUND NEAR US20...NAER 650E AND FAIL ROAD (IWX)


2250 2 NW WINCHESTER BROWN OH 3896 8368 BARN KNOCKED OVER. FRONT PORCH TORN OFF. COUPLE OF TREES DOWNED. (ILN)
..........

Last edited by togol; 05/06/07 09:30 PM.

Tom
togol #163348 05/06/07 11:42 PM
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 202
3
Member
Couple of questions regarding structures in the "tornado alley":

I see that a lot of homes in the US are timber construction, is this because of the plentiful supply of timber, the lack of concrete & brick for home construction or is timber the preferred method of construction?

Is it mandatory to have a storm shelter/bunker/safe room in homes in "tornado alley"?

May seem like silly questions from the other side of the world but my limited education on tornadoes comes from "Storm Stories" on the weather channel & the ABC & CBS news feed from the US.

32VAC #163356 05/07/07 12:36 AM
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 806
Member
Tom:

I too am glad to hear you and your wife are o.k. smile

I grew up in Ohio in tornado alley and recall seeing a few twisters too close for comfort.

The oddest incident happened when I was stationed In Tucson in the Air Force. My crew and I were load training in a hangar, when suddenly the wind kicked up, lifting a 4 foot square aluminum drip pan from under the plane, hitting me and my crew chief before flying out the hangar door. We closed the hangar door, paused our training. The lights went out briefly, then the phone rang. The control tower was calling to check in on us, as a tornado had touched down about a thousand yards from the hangar!!

I had mentioned to my guys that the sky had that peculiar tornado look right before we started training, they didn't believe me. (They weren't from tornado-prone hometowns.)

After that, they listened very seriously if I expressed any doubts about the weather. smile

Then there was the time we almost got a direct hit from lightning during aircraft recovery....but that's another thread. smile

32vac:

I think IMHO the timber is simply the preferred method...brick homes would need more skilled labor that wood frame I'd guess. 'Tis all about the buck... smile

And I don't know of any areas that mandate a shelter/bunker. Heck, in the house I grew up in we did have a basement, but the last house I lived in there for about 6 years, all we had was a very damp crawlspace. frown Not much protection there I would imagine.



Stupid should be painful.
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