Tornados in Texas

[exploder3211]

I am sitting here watching the weather channel, there is a tornado warning for Tom Green County in Texas (near abalieen) and another county in texas.. Bob (appnut), Daddeos (Glen) and whomever else is there are yall ok?? I know you all have had youre share of nasty weather. Just Checkin In

 

[appnut]

Those were far away, thus far.

 

[peterh770]

Welcome to Springtime in the South! Grab a six pack of beer, gas up the truck and get ready to chase some twisters!

 

[dalangdon]

One thing I DON'T miss about the midwest are the tornados. Love the thunderstorms, but the twisters scare me.

 

[chromacolor]

we are supposed to get some heavy storms and LOTS of rain today/this eve here in Omaha. Our weather peeps never predict anything correctly tho. If the storms DO hit, pray that Greg or myself do not get washed away. LOL! Perhaps it will be a good eve to pop "Twister" in the VCR!

 

[mattywashboy]

i have always wanted to experience a twister, one of my sort of childhood dream jobs was a storm chaser, after watching twister way too many times, one of my fave movies.
Twisters fascinate me, dunno why, just the power and force of them. Plus i used to watch our kitchen sink drain and that made a little water twister going down the drain and i used to imagine God pulling the plug and making the twisters down here LOL.
I know they can be scary and really dangerous, but the force of nature still amazes me
Matt

 

[whirlcool]

I have seen a few tornados in my time, they are fascinating to watch, but you have to remember the destruction that they can do.
Now would be a good time for our community members to review their disaster contingency planning. Make sure you know where copies of your insurance policies are, make sure you have a designated "safe place" in your house to take cover in and that all family members are aware of this.
One time we were on final approach into Memphis and the tower told us to abort our approach and turn back and try it again (go around) because a tornado was currently on the active runway we were susposed to land on! Strange thing was the air we were flying through was as smooth as silk, but the sky was very green!
Back in 1966 Braniff lost a jet outside Omaha, the offical report said they flew directly into a tornado! Omaha has had some pretty strong ones over the years!

 

[Unimatic1140]

One of the many things I have planned in my head for retirement is going on some storm-chasing vacactions. I have seen a few 'F1' tornadoes and would like to experience some hurricanes as well. When I lived in Florida is was a quiet time for hurricanes so the best I experienced was a couple of tropical storms.

As for tornado safety the basement is the best place to ride it out, once you turn off the video camera and get inside that is.

 

[hoover1060]

Twisters...

We have them here in Illinois, but for some reason they happen more in the outer suburbs than around me.
The most recent ones to happen here were last September, no major damage but the neighborhood around my house was a mess from the trees down and such.

When I lived in Nebraska(Seward, pop 5500) it seemed like every time it clouded up there was a tornado watch! A couple of times we had touchdowns too, one we even went to watch. We were abut 2 miles or so behind the funnel, a huge, wedge shaped thing. It was at the same time the most magnificient and terrifying thing I have ever seen. The one thing I remember most was the sound, a roar like a freight train!

 

[dalangdon]

I was on a school bus when the May 6, 1975 tornado hit Omaha. I was in Council Bluffs, but it was plenty scary over there as well. A big branch fell on top of the bus, and then a tree fell over in the road, and we had to detour. When we got to the stop, my mom was waiting with our wagon, and the hail hit: It was like a bunch of hammers were hitting the top of the car.

In those pre-cable days, with only three channels, there wasn't all the weather hype. I think that all the radio stations just put on a "we're all going to die" tape with emergency instructions on it and went to the basement as well.

For all the havoc, only three people died: An elderly deaf lady, a fast food worker and - ahem, people - a storm watcher. But we knew several people who had their homes destroyed or severely damaged.

 

[chromacolor]

Omaha had a rough year in 75. They started it with I believe the blizzard of ALL blizzards in January 75, and then the tornado which about wiped out 72nd Street. That storm was really bad in that, IIRC, had more than one touchdown and in the fact it stayed on the ground so long and traveled up 2 of our busiest streets. (72nd & 84th)
I was 9 and we lived in Tekamah,NE, which is about 40 miles north, I think we lucked out and probably just had heavy rains. I DO remember all the snow we got that year!
The storm watcher in the 75 tornado, was on a roof of a service station in the 65th & Blondo area. I can't remember if the storm sucked him away or if something big fell on him. Pretty bad way to go.....
If we get tornados today I will see if Greg will let me come over and take shelter in HIS basement (mines gross) and I will grab the heaviest washer (probably the Bendix combo) and hang on for dear life! LOL!

 

[hoover1060]

1975 Omaha Tornado

I found this on the internet, man that was some storm!!

http://www.omaha5675.org/

 

[exploder3211]

Glad to here that no one was directly affected so far.. The weather channel has it one 34/7 here lol

 

[maytagbear]

34?

I could use 10 more hours some days

I am glad that everyone (so far) is fine.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[scott55405]

Exactly 10 years after Minneapolis

How interesting about Omaha; the twin cities of Minnesota had one of its worse outbreaks exactly 10 years earlier, on May 6, 1965.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mpx/HistoricalEvents/1965May06/index.php

 

[dalangdon]

The blizzard of '75 was great! We were out of school for multiple days, and all of us kids in the neighborhood made snow tunnels from house to house.

My dad spent the blizzard on the couch in his office at Mutual of Omaha, and it was one big party, as there was a liquor store just down the street. I'm sure he had a better time than Mom did, stuck in the house with us kids

 

[58limited]

Here's a neat site with numerous tornado videos. I was raised in tornado alley and had a lot of close calls, but never actually saw a twister.

http://tornadovideos.net/

 

[DADoES]

Wayy many years ago when I was a youngster a (probably very) small twister came down the street in front of our house in the night during Hurricane Buelah on 1967. Buelah hit at Brownsville but was so huge it affected us all the way up here. Mom was sleeping with me, and I vaguely remember hearing some noise, and I *vaguely* remember wanting to look out the window which of course she wouldn't allow. A shrub was mangled a bit and various neighbors up/down the street had bits of damage but nothing serious. We were lucky. One of my grandmother's friends lost her dad in a twister that hit another small town about 11 miles further up the highway.

No twisters here during this current weather incident, although the county was under a tornado watch until 10 AM this morn. Rained like HELL last night. My yard already looks like an ecological experiment from all the weeds, now it's a swamp. For those knowing the layout, water is running through the ditch over the driveway on the FM side.

Hurricane Buelah in TX

 

[DADoES]

My sister's neighborhood in Houston was visited by a twister last night. She didn't realize what it was at first. Their bbq grill had gotten turned over on patio but nothing else obvious. She took the roommate to work this morn and when they rounded the corner there was debris, branches down atop cars, bushes mangled, a few people placing tarps over their roofs.