Severe weahter stories
- Thread starter CARMELO_SANDIEGO
- Start date
Was nursing a hangover in a dark basement watching golf when the weather picked up, probably 10 years ago in KC. Wife comes downstairs and says "I think there's a tornado out there". No there isn't. If there were, something would be on the TV.
5 minutes later, sirens go off. Look off the deck, there is a tornado a mile down the road. Flattened a few businesses but left our place in one piece.
Resumed watching golf. About an hour later a weather warning came on the TV. Oh, right - DVR. That would explain the lack of warning.
5 minutes later, sirens go off. Look off the deck, there is a tornado a mile down the road. Flattened a few businesses but left our place in one piece.
Resumed watching golf. About an hour later a weather warning came on the TV. Oh, right - DVR. That would explain the lack of warning.
That was a crazy sight looking at fields in the aftermath of that storm. I still have some pics on an old phone.
I have been in a field twice within 30 min of a tornado coming directly through where I was standing and managed to get out in time. This was within a two week span in SE MN. One of them had a crazy neon green roll of clouds before the tornado came through. I had never seen anything like that before.
I have also helped clean up a buddies house after this happened because a runaway barge hit the dam during a storm. I lived up the hill, so I didn’t get hit. The Army Corps of Engineers was out there for months and months trying to dig up the sunken barge and repair the dam. It was a pretty solemn sight going through there with the national guard blocking the town off and everyone’s possessions sitting on the curb.
(This is not where I grew up. Just a pic I found on google.)
We had an EF-1 go over our house 2 years ago and the neighbors giant cottonwood fell on their house. The picture isn't from our backyard, our house is on the other side of theirs. We were in the basement since the news showed the path going right over our house and it was moving faster than any I'd seen before. Neighbors were in the process of going to the basement and were basically in the hallway in the middle of the house when the tree fell. Luckily no one was hurt. We had no idea anything unusual had happened until a firetruck showed up and we realized they were leaving to stay somewhere else for the night. They were out of their house for almost 6 months.
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That was a crazy sight looking at fields in the aftermath of that storm. I still have some pics on an old phone.
I have been in a field twice within 30 min of a tornado coming directly through where I was standing and managed to get out in time. This was within a two week span in SE MN. One of them had a crazy neon green roll of clouds before the tornado came through. I had never seen anything like that before.
I have also helped clean up a buddies house after this happened because a runaway barge hit the dam during a storm. I lived up the hill, so I didn’t get hit. The Army Corps of Engineers was out there for months and months trying to dig up the sunken barge and repair the dam. It was a pretty solemn sight going through there with the national guard blocking the town off and everyone’s possessions sitting on the curb.
(This is not where I grew up. Just a pic I found on google.)
Floods are hard. I lived here in CR in 2008 and that was incredible. KCRG and the Gazette (still owned KCRG at the time) sold books and DVDs titled "Epic Surge" with pictures and highlights of their coverage. I was actually interning at KCRG at the time and that was a whole other crazy experience.
Water is a magnificent beast. The worst part about that flood is there was 0 help for any of the homeowners. Nobody had flood insurance because it wasn't a flood zone. They're still in litigation with the barge company and this was 5 years ago. The city was awarded $1MM after 3 years. To a town of only 5,000 people, this was quite the hit. Total damage was $54MM including the dam.
Let's go in chronogical order...
August 28, 1990 - First day of high school. As we're coming home, our bus breaks down. Bus driver says for legal reasons, we all have to get off the bus. Some kids start walking home, but my friend and I are a good two miles away from our homes along a busy road with no sidewalk. We're watching these clouds come in, and start kidding about what's going to come first...the storm or the other bus? Another friend's mom sees us as she drives past, and asks the driver if she can take us home. The driver says she isn't supposed to let anyone leave, but with the storm coming, she'd allow it. Long story shortened...that was the day of the Plainfield tornado.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Plainfield_tornado
My friend's mom took a Polaroid of the bus that morning as we left for school around 7:15a. There's an eerie green cast over it...a bit unnatural for even a Polaroid. Tornado hit around 3:30p.
Fast forward 10 years...working at a radio station in Omaha. It's June, severe weather was forecast as a possibility that day. It was one of those days you just KNEW there was going to be severe weather...humid atmosphere just being cooked by the sun all day. Clouds start rolling in around five, but a warning was never issued by the NWS. Myself and the news person at the station go out in the parking lot, and it has the green cast outside. The news person points up, and we both think we can see rotation right above us. Then, I get a hot blast of wind to my front, a cold, icy wind to my back, hot wind to the front again, and then again the freezing wind to my back. Wasn't anywhere near a building. I suggested we get inside stat. I don't believe a warning was issued that night.
Finally, in 2008, I got to ride out a derecho in my car in the parking lot at work. It was raining pretty hard when I ran to my car, but the wind picked up just as I was pulling out. I pulled back into the lot, and sat there for what felt like 15 minutes...was probably 5. I thought for a moment that the wind was going to overturn my sedan. It lifted the driver's side up fairly significantly.
And yeah, I was at the Colorado game, too. I didn't like not being able to see anything from the lots, so I bailed to Hilton. Plus, I was with a group that were a bit more wussy than me when it comes to severe weather.
August 28, 1990 - First day of high school. As we're coming home, our bus breaks down. Bus driver says for legal reasons, we all have to get off the bus. Some kids start walking home, but my friend and I are a good two miles away from our homes along a busy road with no sidewalk. We're watching these clouds come in, and start kidding about what's going to come first...the storm or the other bus? Another friend's mom sees us as she drives past, and asks the driver if she can take us home. The driver says she isn't supposed to let anyone leave, but with the storm coming, she'd allow it. Long story shortened...that was the day of the Plainfield tornado.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Plainfield_tornado
My friend's mom took a Polaroid of the bus that morning as we left for school around 7:15a. There's an eerie green cast over it...a bit unnatural for even a Polaroid. Tornado hit around 3:30p.
Fast forward 10 years...working at a radio station in Omaha. It's June, severe weather was forecast as a possibility that day. It was one of those days you just KNEW there was going to be severe weather...humid atmosphere just being cooked by the sun all day. Clouds start rolling in around five, but a warning was never issued by the NWS. Myself and the news person at the station go out in the parking lot, and it has the green cast outside. The news person points up, and we both think we can see rotation right above us. Then, I get a hot blast of wind to my front, a cold, icy wind to my back, hot wind to the front again, and then again the freezing wind to my back. Wasn't anywhere near a building. I suggested we get inside stat. I don't believe a warning was issued that night.
Finally, in 2008, I got to ride out a derecho in my car in the parking lot at work. It was raining pretty hard when I ran to my car, but the wind picked up just as I was pulling out. I pulled back into the lot, and sat there for what felt like 15 minutes...was probably 5. I thought for a moment that the wind was going to overturn my sedan. It lifted the driver's side up fairly significantly.
And yeah, I was at the Colorado game, too. I didn't like not being able to see anything from the lots, so I bailed to Hilton. Plus, I was with a group that were a bit more wussy than me when it comes to severe weather.
