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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
 Posted - 09/17/2004 : 23:00:36
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Well, after years of seeing them on TV, in documentaries, and reading about them, I finally witnessed a tornado today. The remnants of Ivan spawned quite a few of them across the East coast tonight.
I was leaving a local supermarket, and as I took my groceries out to my car, happened to notice that low clouds were moving - fast! - from two different directions towards the same spot. After putting my stuff in my trunk, I could see the funnel cloud starting down. And, after consulting the mental map I had of the area, I realized it was...
...real freakin' close to my house.
In reality, I don't think I broke that many traffic laws trying to get home to see if my wife and child were okay. I would have been going as fast as my little Saturn would take me, had it not been rush hour, and the streets packed. A cop in front of me had problems getting through a red light, even with lights and siren.
My car radio, tuned to a public radio station, unhelpfully repeated the torando watches and warnings every couple of minutes. "What about that f-ing tornado right there?!?" I screamed, thumping the steering wheel in frustration.
I didn't see much devestation upon entering my neighborhood, but I knew that tornado damage could be highly localized. Making the final turn towards my house, though, I had a good idea that everything was okay. My plastic garbage cans were still standing upright in front of the place. Still, for all I knew, the back of townhouse row had been ripped off.
My wife greeting me cheerfully at the door was the signal for me to chill the hell out. I related my half of the tale to her. She told me that at one point, she'd looked out the back window, and seen our back neighbor's tree bent nearly horizontal by wind.
That tornado had been close.
A neighbor about 50 yards up the street had her potted plants scattered a bit. She told me that she heard a roar unlike anything she'd heard before. I realized my wife and kid had been listening to a book on tape, and it had been loud. Probably explains her only noticing the bent-over tree.
Another neighbor, a few more yards up the street, apparently took some photos of the tornado. Her house doesn't look unto wide-open vistas.
It had been really, really close.
I may spend some time driving around through the neighborhood tomorrow, trying to see if it ever really touched down. Various single sirens could be heard from my place for a couple hours afterward, but I've got no idea if they were at all related to the tornado, or just to the rain.
I do know that they shut down the nearby airport because of the thing, and evacuated the tower, too, just in case.
I used to look at tornado footage on TV and say "wow!" In the future, I imagine I will say "WOW!"
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- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2004 : 00:27:25 [Permalink]
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It's good to hear that you and your family are ok.
My closest encounter with bad weather was a thunderstorm back in -94.
I love lightning. It's so magnificent, powerful, beautiful. Whenever I can, I go out of my way to get a good view of it.
After having the third lightning strike within a 100m radius of my location (there's something special about feeling the force from the blastwave in the chest) my nerves finally gave in and I went indoors. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2004 : 00:48:24 [Permalink]
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Yeah, good to hear that all your loved ones are safe, but I for one feel gipped.
Dunno where your from Dave, but I work near the Tyson's Corner area of Washington D.C. You must live somewhat close, since we had tornado warnings there from about 7 to 8:15 p.m. I work second shift from 3:30 p.m. to midnight.
So...I really really wanted a tornado to get me out of work! Alas, it was not to be. The night was quite uneventful. Not even a blackout. I worked a full shift.
Of course, I have no family to worry about, and things like people being injured aren't quite as palpable a fear for me as for those I know who do. I don't mean to sound callous, but I envy you a bit. I would still like to see a twister at least once in my life.
And Dr. M., you've felt blastwaves from lightning strikes? Damn, that had to be close! I know this weather stuff is truly dangerous, but the idiot in me thinks it's cool anyway.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 09/18/2004 01:42:00 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2004 : 02:16:14 [Permalink]
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Glad you had no problems, Dave. Tornados are serious busimess.
I myself have seen two, in '90 and '91. Both times I was going across country on a bike. The first was in OK and the second in AZ, just outside of Flagstaff. Scary!
I have seen many waterspouts at sea, mainly in tropical waters. There is a certain beauty to these.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
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Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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R.Wreck
SFN Regular
USA
1191 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2004 : 06:08:03 [Permalink]
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Glad to hear all turned out OK Dave.
quote:
I would still like to see a twister at least once in my life.
Be careful what you ask for. This sucker hit not far from where I live back on 1990. The path was 16 miles long and probably 700 feet wide.
http://www.mgabor.com/Family%20Photo%20Show/Tornado%20Show/Plainfield_Tornado_1990/flash_detected.html
Driving through the area not long after was just incredible. Houses had just disappeared, and what was left of them looked like it went through a blender. And it the devastation went on for miles. It really made me realize the power of natural forces.
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The foundation of morality is to . . . give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibliities of knowledge.
T. H. Huxley
The Cattle Prod of Enlightened Compassion
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2004 : 22:58:07 [Permalink]
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| Wow! Real exciting once it's over anyway. I was in FL traveling around when I saw one of those small tornadoes that would be a water spout if it was over water. Anyway, I watched it and remember being a bit nervous. It looked like a tornado but I knew it wasn't real big. You could see the rotation really well. Later I found out it was capable of tossing a boat around but nothing like a big tornado. That's close enough for me. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2004 : 12:04:04 [Permalink]
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Thanks for the well-wishes, everyone.
My neighbors tell me that the tornado actually hit a neighborhood just a couple miles away from my home as the crow flies. The best mention of it I've found in news items comes from USA Today:In Centreville, neighbors said a tornado tore off a roof and an addition off one house, where its occupants huddled in a basement to stay safe. The twister ripped up trees and tore off siding and walls on some houses and spared others.
The heavy winds had "swept everything from one side of the house to the other," said Kim Bradley, who lives in the neighborhood. "There's going to be a lot of cleaning up to do in this neighborhood." |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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