The power of a tornado

[bmg88201]

Tornado ripped through Arkansas last Friday, the devastation was horrific. It is amazing the power of a tornado, I saw a 1/2 inch drive 18 inch breaker bar stuck half way in an oak tree. It ripped the Astro turf off a ball field and the turf has been found in other states. Hundreds of folks have no home now, I cannot imagine the feeling of losing your home and everything you have worked for in a matter of seconds. A friend working at a hospital told me a man laid on top of his wife to protect her, she only got a couple of scratches, his back is broke in 3 places and needed 4 units of blood stat. That is a stand up man in my book. 5 dead so far, which is a miracle it isn’t more. Our governor stated that if they catch any looters the state will come down on them like a ton of bricks. Good for her, I think they should shoot them on sight.

 

[Hoss710]

I remember a tornado that swept through Laplata Md about 20 years ago. they found grass threw telephone poles. pickup and carried a few houses down the street. it tore a bank down and carried deposit slips to Delaware and New Jersey. that Tornado traveled almost 40 miles lifting up and down over to the next county . then crossed the bay to the eastern shore. it became twins over the water. lots of damage. I don't remember if there were any deaths. but over 900 homes were destroyed. scary stuff for sure !!

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Seen a few here in Oklahoma in my time; I recall one morning after a tornado in Texas, finding envelopes in the yard with Texas addresses on them. My Grandson and his wife lost their home in Wichita last year.

 

[oosik]

Several years ago - NBC news had a live broadcast of a really big tornado. Somewhere down in tornado alley. The sound was so very loud and frightening. Scared the crap out of me - just watching it on TV.

Now - I see a dust devil out in an open wheat field - brings back memories of that live broadcast.

 

[Dftodd]

Drove down Rodney Parham between I430 and I630 in Little Rock the other night.

They got thrashed pretty hard.

 

[Dftodd]

I went through both of the Vilonia Tornados. The one in 2011 went by at 2/10 of a mile from my house. The neighbor next to me needed a new roof, and the folks that bordered his property all had trees on their homes.

One of those homes was a double wide trailer that got blown off it's piers.

I lost one piece of flashing between the main roof and our sun porch, the windshield out of my truck, and had 14 mature oak trees blown over in my yard. Ended up losing another 6 over the summer. One tree I discovered later was split in half from the ground up about 40ft. That tree was 80ft tall and 36" in diameter. Was passing by mowing the yard and was shocked to see daylight through the middle of it

The neighbor next door and closer to the tornado had blades of grass driven into one of the oak trees in his yard. Looked like they were installed with a nail gun.

The F4 tornado that went through in 2014 passed by at 1/2 a mile from me.

Both tornados were spun off by similar storm fronts meeting over our area. One front was coming up from Shreveport LA, and the other storm front was coming from Dallas TX.

One couple down from us that got hit by both. Lost everything both times. Both times the wife was pregnant My wife asked her if she was gonna have any more kids