Twister

[njrqs]

I see on our news tonight somewhere over your way was a very big twister. One of the strongest ever or something??

Hope it didn't blow anyone's tractors (or homes) away /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

Cheers

 

[RoyJackson]

There were actually two Tornadoes. A total of 6 people killed. One was on the east coast, the other in the center of the US.
For details, got to cnn.com

 

[MDNick]

Neil,

It would appear that no TBN'ers were hit, but LOTS of people were. I live near Indian Head, MD. I was in a direct line of the tornado that hit La Plata, MD. Fortunately, I was not home. Also fortunately, for me, the Tornado was well above ground when it went over me. Not a scratch on me or my house, or, most importantly, my tractor./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif My biggest problem was wanting to fly back from Columbus, OH. For some reason the pilot chose not to fly through all that on Sunday. Oh well, Columbus arpt sells Corona./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

The final determination appears to be that it was an F-5. It doesn't get any bigger than that. Everyone I know has survived as did their homes, mostly. One nice hardware store and another one are GONE. Mostly down to the foundation for the nice one. KFC gone, several homes destroyed. The water tower gone, biggest thing that survived is one of those tower crains. How the he!!? This is all less than 6 miles from me. It is nothing short of incredible, and that is the description used for an F-5. This was the first F-5 in the US in 3 yrs. I may be taking my tractor into the 'zone' this weekend. Several people I know could use the help.

While any loss of life is terrible, lossing just 3 (to date) persons through al the devastation is amazing. At least one of those died from stroke. Yeah, it might scare me to death to.

Incredible,

Nick

 

[BB_TX]

The tornado was determined to be an F5 (an a scale of F1 to F5) with winds estimated in the 300 mph range. They have incredible destructive force. Here in Texas, we have lots of tornadoes, but very few ever reach F5 category. Several years ago, an F5 hit a small town in South Texas. Most homes in Texas are built on concrete slab foundations. This tornado hit a subdivision of relative new homes. The news pictures showed flat concrete slabs that had been picked clean. There was very little debris as it had been carried off with the winds. Even the plumbing fixtures were gone. I forgot the number, but many people were killed. As a life long Texan, I have only seen a few tornadoes. Scary, but at the same time beautiful in their own way. But then I tend to look at things differently. /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif

 

[tsh3]

We live near Benedict, Md. and the tornado came within a quarter mile of our house.
We had no damage at all, but just up the road 2 houses were completely destroyed,
they are just gone. Lots of barns were destroyed. One farm lost 13 out of 16 barns and
outbuildings. Just across the river about 2 miles away a lady was killed. Their small
cinderblock house was just picked up and tossed into a ravine.

 

[TonyC]

I was surprised to wake up Monday morning to our local news. We had some very bad winds at my house that night but I really didn't pay it much attention. I live near Lynchburg, Va and evidently "something" of force came through there. Many homes were damaged, trees blown down, 30 top 40 mobile homes were overturned. Whatever "it" was went straight through an RV dealer in town and blew over all of their new RV's on the lot. The downtown of Bedford, Va was shut down Monday due to power poles and live electric lines down, along with a few church steeples in the street. They still haven't classified what passed through here.

 

[BKColeman]

Tony,
I live about 20 minutes from Bedford, in Franklin County. I didn't see the tornado, but it was so windy I couldn't work outside. I was trying to wash my truck and the wind kept blowing my bucket full of water over. /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif

--Brad

 

[Harv]

<font color=blue>KFC gone</font color=blue>

I just happened to be watching this on the news this morning at the same time I was reading your message, Nick. Turns out there were 5 employess and 3 customers[/b] inside that KFC when the twister hit. YIKES!

They tried to take shelter in the walk-in freezer, but it happened so quickly that their path was already blocked by debris. In sheer terror, they all hunkered down in the back office, which wound up being the only part of the building that survived. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

 

[MDNick]

Harv,

Yeah, apparently some guy drove up that had come from the direction of the storm and said it looks like a tornadoe is coming, take cover, then he drove off. Some lady was just coming in the door when the wall collapsed on her. Fortunately she was not crushed and the wall saved her from all the flying debri. The KFC is just a brick shell. The windows point in the opposite direction from the storm, so they wouldn't have even seen it coming from inside. And it was on them awful quick I understand. I'm going to miss the nice hardware store and the bar. Really nice bar, only good one in the area. But that really doesn't compare to those without homes.

I guess an F5 requirement is sucking concrete or pavement up off the road. Heard it did this in a few spots in La Plata.

La Plata looks like a war zone movie. Helicopters flying, curfew imposed from 7:00-9:00. Even took out a catholic school and damaged a few churches. Not sure what they did wrong, but someone was not with them.

I will say, the community is well set for firewood for next year. Even some really nice oak logs. Wish I had a wood hauler like Woodmills1. Lots of big cedar as well.

Nick

 

[njrqs]

Steve

Looks like you were real close. Too close /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

I can't belive the news footage we see of tornadoes, how they cut (sometimes) such a narrow path of destruction. One house is gone and the neighbours might be OK.

We have cyclones (like your hurricances). Normally you get a fair warning they are coming and they spread their damage over a wider area. We rarely have really damaging ones, it is just the luck of the draw as to where they hit. We have a LOT of cyclone coast but not many big towns along it.

Hope all settles down over there with the towns affected.

Cheers