In which I confess my tornado phobia . . .

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Dear Scarlett67,

You have a phobia, not a healthy respect for nature’s ability to kill you.

During a tornado watch, the appropriate response is to absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, except pay some attention to the weather outside.

During a tornado warning (ie a radio broadcast covering your county) the appropriate response is to go inside, inventory the kids, & pay about half attention to the weather outside & half to whatever you’re doing.

When you hear either your local sirens or you hear a tornado, then you get up, grab the kids & go to the best basement spot you’ve got. For 5 minutes. After that, it’s either past you or isn’t gonna really happen. Unless the sirens sound again, in which case lather rinse repeat.

Now if you live out on the prairie about 10 miles from the nearest town, then you don’t have sirens and will have to be a little more cautious. In which case you need to rig up your business so you aren’t spending 10 minutes screwing with computers every time the radio goes beeeep. e.g. If you insist on a local computer backup, keep one external drive in your shelter spot which you change out every week with the one attached to your PC.

The idea that a tornado warning, much less watch, means an entire county should be cowering in its basement having hurriedly assembled its valuables and told its kids to say their prayers for the final time is lunacy.
And yes, we do have tornado watches around here every few days throughout spring & summer. And I think we’ve had 5 tornado warnings in the last 2 weeks.

22

[QUOTE=Baker]
I’m a native Kansan, and grew up being used to tornado drills in school.
[/QUOTE]
Same here.

[QUOTE=Baker]
But today is June 8th, the 42nd anniversay of a massive tornado that hit Topeka, my city, when I was 11. I was watching “Lost in Space” and getting annoyed with the constant breakins for weather announcements. Then the sirens started, and this happened:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/top/events/66tornado.php
[/QUOTE]

From that link:

I well remember that storm system too! I was slightly younger than you. At the time we lived on a farm south of Leavenworth and Lansing, KS, and one of those went through our property. Dad was at work and mom was trying to get us downstairs but my brother and I were running around opening windows (I’ve heard since then that opening windows to “equalize pressure” is an old wives tale). There was a window in the kitchen right next to the inside door leading down into the basement. Outside, on the other side of the window, was a raised area (later made into a patio with the window made into a door leading out to it). On the patio, just a few feet away from the house, was our camper (the kind that goes onto the back of a pickup truck) up on blocks.

Mom was screaming at us to hurry and we all started going down the stairs. No sooner had she shut the door when we heard a terrible shattering crash, which was that window blowing inward. Until then my brother and I had been having fun and goofing around, but that put the fear of death in us and we flew down to the basement “safe room,” scared out of our wits. We ended up spending the night down there.

Dad couldn’t get home until the next morning, because there was so much debris on the roads. He was freaked, not knowing what he’d find, but we were all ok, and so was the house, but boy, it was close. That camper had been flung about a quarter mile away and was resting on its side, with a tree right through the middle of it. Several buildings on the property were either gone or heavily damaged. Tornados do some weird things. One shed, containing dad’s motorboat, was completely gone. The boat was still there though and weirdly enough, an empty pack of cigarettes was still resting on the dashboard. Tools that had been hanging up on the walls were resting on the ground at exactly the spot where they had been hung.
Zebra is right, tornados are not to be trifled with or taken lightly. You won’t see me laughing at you Scarlett67.

23

[QUOTE=olivesmarch4th]
Baker, that thing is monstrous! Why on earth were you guys not in the basement that time?
[/QUOTE]

Oh, we were in the basement, I must have not been clear. The bed we hid under was in the basement.

See how young Bill Kurtis looked? That tornado changed his career, that’s for sure! He even stayed calm on air when he learned the tornado had Washburn University(where his wife and daughter were) right in it’s path. Kurtis undoubtably saved many lives by staying put, and staying calm. Years later, in an interview, he said he wondered how to convey that THIS time was for real. In the space of a few seconds he thought about cussing, about yelling. But he’ll be immortal for his “For God’s sake, take cover!” And I heard him say it.

I know a woman, just a little older than myself, who watched it cross town. Her mom was in a fourth floor room in St. Francis Hospital. It was impossible to shelter all the patients, so she stayed with her mom. “What else could I do?” she said. But she did tell me the doctors and nurses scooped up all the babies and little kids from the pediatric units and were able to get them to the hospital basement in time.

24

[QUOTE=LSLGuy]
Now if you live out on the prairie about 10 miles from the nearest town, then you don’t have sirens and will have to be a little more cautious.
[/quote]

Ding ding ding.

Well, what I do is simply shut down so I don’t have to futz with it every time I hear the beep. In ideal conditions my schedule isn’t so tight that an evening off the clock is going to blow my deadlines. And quite often even a mild storm takes out my satellite Internet connection, so if I need to be online to work, and unless I want to fool around on my slow backup dialup account, it’s just easier to shut down and make up the time later. Like I’m supposed to be doing right now. :dubious:

I do keep an external backup (with spare power/USB cables and backup-software CD) in my safe-deposit box at the bank, but I swap that one out only about every few weeks. So the local backup has my most recent files. And I can’t “back up” hard copy, so into the basement it goes.

No kids to inventory, just dogs, and they’re usually shadowing me during stormy weather. The cockatiel and the outdoor cats are on their own.

25

I grew up in Northwestern Louisiana which is also part of Tornado Alley. When I was in 9th grade, one struck and not only built a trail the size of an interstate highway but also destroyed the homes (well mobile homes) of two classmates. Both families fled at the last second and submerged themselves in nearby ditches as it past over and their mobile homes went missing. When I was a sophomore in college, a tornado passed over my town and bounced exactly on the brick church that I grew up in. I have no idea what the theological implications of that are but it destroyed the entire thing.

Tornadoes are one of the only disasters that make people more and more afraid the more that they see them. I saw two of them forming when I was younger and then drop straight down resulting in immediate execution of our tornado survival procedures. No thanks. I don’t want to see any more of them in my life if I can help it.

26

[QUOTE=Scarlett67]
Last night we set it to alarm only, and it went off around 3 a.m., no idea why, it was just playing the same all-state watch that had been announced yesterday. Pah.
[/QUOTE]

Anybody else have an experience like this? I’m in Georgia, just got 2 new weather radios, and the first night I had it I was woken up to the sound of voices downstairs broadcasting a sunny weather report. Is it a network glitch or a radio glitch? The upstairs one didn’t do this, though they were tuned to the same band; makes me think it’s a bad radio.

27

A tornado dropped down on Omaha last night - at 2:30 in the morning, naturally. I think I may have set an Olympic track and field sprint record dashing for the basement; fortunately, the damned thing wasn’t all that close to my neighborhood, and my house seems to be OK. Remind me why I moved back to this part of the country again?

28

[QUOTE=LSLGuy]
When you hear either your local sirens or you hear a tornado, then you get up, grab the kids & go to the best basement spot you’ve got. For 5 minutes. After that, it’s either past you or isn’t gonna really happen. Unless the sirens sound again, in which case lather rinse repeat.
…
The idea that a tornado warning, much less watch, means an entire county should be cowering in its basement having hurriedly assembled its valuables and told its kids to say their prayers for the final time is lunacy.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe things are better these days (or maybe they cry “wolf” a lot, deadening folks to responding) but I recall from my distant childhood in Michigan that the real scary stuff always seemed to happen at night, and the radio would tell that there was a warning, but wasn’t very specific. The weather was always totally freaky during the hour or so when we were in the basement, with loads of thunder and lightning and everything else letting loose around us. There was so much noise that I always wondered if we would recognize the tornado sound out there “like a freight train”… I’m certain that had one come close there would have been no question.

Going upstairs 10 minutes after the warning was issued was simply not done.

Of course, this memory could have been amplified by childhood, as many memories are.

29

[QUOTE=minor7flat5]
Maybe things are better these days (or maybe they cry “wolf” a lot, deadening folks to responding) but I recall from my distant childhood in Michigan that the real scary stuff always seemed to happen at night, and the radio would tell that there was a warning, but wasn’t very specific. The weather was always totally freaky during the hour or so when we were in the basement, with loads of thunder and lightning and everything else letting loose around us. There was so much noise that I always wondered if we would recognize the tornado sound out there “like a freight train”… I’m certain that had one come close there would have been no question.
[/QUOTE]

As bad as all the “totally freaky” weather is pre-tornado, yes, you will hear the “freight train” just before it hits, especially if the power is out and you don’t have a loud TV/radio on.

(Been through 2, fortunate that our homes weren’t damaged although some of our neighbors’ homes were)

Back in the old days, the warnings were less specific because the people making them had fewer tools than they do now.

30

The Pennsic War is a re-enactment groups ‘national convention’ I guess would be the best way to put it. Pennsic 25 had tornado touchdown within half a mile of some 10 thousand people and merchants in tents. The winds around the tornado did an amazing amount of damage even though it did not go through the main tent area. I know that we had about $500 damage to the 2 tents mrAru and I were using, and there were 25 people in our little camp that year. We were up on what is called the Serenghetti - about 180 acres of flat land with tents, a battle field and a parking area.

31

Lived in Oklahoma for 50+ years. Have seen a lot of Tornado’s and their destruction.

Was on a sailboat in the British Virgin Islands in the summer of 1972 and was surrounded by 13 water spouts that were going every which a way. We missed them all.

June 8th, 1974 I took a direct hit in Tulsa … Me and the two kids, 6 months and 3 years old went to an interior closet when the rain changed direction. The tornado could not be seen for the rain that time.

This picture from the ground was taken 3-4 days after it happened.

This one I took coming back from a mapping flight I had about the same time.

I was more watchful for a few years after that to storms coming from the S/W.

We have had them all around us in central Arkansas this year, some quite close. More deaths than usual but there are more people in the path is seems also.

Couple of sisters have been through hurricanes on Guam, I was in one that came close to the Florida coast in about 89 or 90. I tried to body surf in 15 foot waves. Bad idea. OUCH… Had house fires and floods. One earthquake but I was asleep and missed that.

What LSLGuy said is about right. But… Do what you need to do. Your fear and your solution. Works for you.

32

I’ve been too close for comfort a couple of times in my life. The last time was in 2004; during the rest of that season, and the season after, whenever the storm sirens went off I would grab my cell phone and a comforter and carry them around until it was over. I figured that if one hit, I’d cower in the bath tub with the comforter over me.

I’ve been calmer the last couple of years, though. Actually, last Tuesday the sirens went off twice and I didn’t do a darn thing about it. I didn’t hear a tornado, ergo, no tornado.

33

It’s threads like these that make me realize that daily experience is so different even for people who live in the same country as me. I cannot even imagine listening for a tornado siren. I mean, we get them, rarely, but I don’t even know if we have a siren and I definitely wouldn’t know what it was if I heard it. Our terrifying weather is the kind we can see coming for a week, marching across the Atlantic.

34

At least some areas have tornado sirens. There are no earthquake sirens; and believe me, few things are more terrifying than hearing the roar of an earthquake build to deafening while your house is being shaken like you’re inside a blender or something. After Northridge, I’m not sure I’ll ever have complete faith in the solidity of the earth under my feet again. And I still can’t decide if I prefer storms that you have warning of and earthquakes that you don’t!

35

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
I cannot even imagine listening for a tornado siren.
[/QUOTE]
You’d be fine here, we don’t have any sirens. They’re only in areas with a higher population density. That’s why you get a weather radio and heed the warnings. Lately there’s been some relatively minor shaking,too. I’m thinking it would really bite if we had a big earthquake and a tornado at the same time.

36

No way would I ever live in tornado country. Those things are terrifying. I’m glad they aren’t common in the Northeast.

37

[QUOTE=Mumio]
No way would I ever live in tornado country. Those things are terrifying. I’m glad they aren’t common in the Northeast.
[/QUOTE]

I’d rather live with tornadoes than hurricanes. Tornadoes are like Russian roulette. With hurricanes, all the chambers are loaded. :eek:

38

[QUOTE=Scarlett67]
I’d rather live with tornadoes than hurricanes. Tornadoes are like Russian roulette. With hurricanes, all the chambers are loaded. :eek:
[/QUOTE]

Word.

I’m moving in two weeks, leaving Tornado Alley far behind. In the 20 years I’ve been here, I cannot begin to count all the tornado warnings, nearby tornadoes and severe thunderstorms I’ve been through. I’ve experienced no damage to my home or property ::knock on wood::

Where am I going? Boston, where I’ll have to live through blizzards and hurricanes. I respect tornadoes, I don’t take them lightly but they are not miles and miles across. And as LSGuy posted, they are usually over within 30 minutes. Not so with hurricanes or blizzards.

39

[QUOTE=Scarlett67]
I’d rather live with tornadoes than hurricanes. Tornadoes are like Russian roulette. With hurricanes, all the chambers are loaded. :eek:
[/QUOTE]

No, they’re okay - I don’t mind them much because you can see 'em coming. I mean, they’re no picnic, and I looked Hugo in the face, but I’d much, much rather have the warning.

40

We get tornados in Virgina every so often, and tornado warnings once or more a week recently.

I was in a movie theatre parking lot when a really weird storm hit 5 summers ago or so. The sky turned a yellowish green, with a really dark cloud overhead. Then a huge wind started blowing, rocking my car so hard it thought it might turn over. Then something blew into my driver’s door just below the window and shattered the window completely, glass all over the side of my face and all over the car. I had to sit out the wind and rain like that.

Since then I’ve been more scared of storms.

I swear I don’t remember any tornados around here at all when I was a kid.