Tornadoes.....

[JAG1]

Have any you guys ever talked with someone that got lifted up by one in their truck or car and was put back down miles away and lived?

[diesel4life]

Only Dorothy and Toto! :tease:I've been close enough to see one (several miles out) Close enough for me

[olred92]

When i was on rescue squad that almost happened to me. I was out one dark night looking for rotation and could only see when the lightning went across the sky. It was a minute or two between a lightning bolt and when i saw the next one there was a strong rotation picking up about a half mile from me.

[rancherman]

I just send a tweet to the weatherchannel... I am getting pretty pissed off about all the hours they allocate to the 'chasing of tornadoes' (even ones from years ago) during prime time broadcast! Weather is CURRENT activity... not HISTORY. Last night was a prime example: We are all huddled down in our bunker, and all they were broadcasting was those 2 doofusses in Kansas showing a twister form and some pretty lightning.... They have romanticized this storm chasing far too much! People need more visual warning, more radar updates... NOT crap that happened 24 hours ago, and especially something that happened years ago~ I got a heck of a situation here, all my internet, and tv is satellite.. guess what happens when a heavy cloud is over me? poof. All I got for info is the last images of a bad storm that hit some poor guy 3 years ago! I swear, these 'weather chasers' are sure TRYING to get sucked up and whisked away! years ago, most normal people would take shelter... nowadays, everybody is out like a bunch of turkeys staring at the skies! OH, LOL, btw, 'no, I don't know of anyone personally going for a ride!" But I've had cattle end up a mile or two away.. (did they get vacuumed up, or did they run away)

[JAG1]

Only Dorothy and Toto! I've been close enough to see one (several miles out) Close enough for me

Ive heard of it actually happening where the people inside the vehicle were left unharmed. My wifes cousin in Oklahoma had a little girl, less than one year, that was found unharmed over a mile away. As she grew up she was terrified of wind storms. As for the weather channel.... those guys are strange. They report about areas they favor over others. They'll stand right in front of the PNW all the while talking about the East coast or other areas so you never get to see what the weather map is showing there. Then hardly ever mention the PNW region either.

[dorkweed]

I've been thru 3. It's not something I take lightly..............and it's not something I wish on anyone.................some of my friends/family kid me about severe weather if'n we're together when it happens. I either ignore them and prepare to take cover; or read them the riot act if they really tick me off...........or both!!! Being thru them is a complete feeling of incompetence because there is absolutely nothing you can do but take cover/hide/batten the hatches/KYAGB etc.

[ISX]

You should be a weatherman JAG... Turn your tv on lol.

[dorkweed]

Prayers sent to all members in the OK city, OK area...........and to anywhere around there where the bad weather has been happening/happened.:pray:

[diesel4life]

Prayers sent to all members in the OK city, OK area...........and to anywhere around there where the bad weather has been happening/happened.:pray:

I heard an unofficial report of a school getting wiped out and all the students were still in it.....gosh I hope I heard wrong.

[Rogan]

I grew up in th south end of tornado alley. I agree with dorkweed; it definitely is not something to take lightly.

I've been in the middle of several, with two F4s obliterating my hometown, back in 1994. 3 deaths - 1/2 mile wide tornado. 80 percent of the downtown square was destroyed. 233 homes and 58 businesses were destroyed. 227 homes and two schools were also damaged. 48 people were also injured.

It went down 5th street (residential) and basically cleaned off the terra firma from 4th to 6th Streets, about 1mi in length. Nothing was left.

Then, April of last year, tornadoes ripped through Lancaster, TX, again.. One hit the Schneider Trucking terminal..

You get "used" to it, so to speak, but (for me) the fear is always high.

I've seen, as well as heard of some very strange happenings with tornadoes in my time.

[Wild and Free]

Never been in one but have seen them within a couple miles and seen some weird things they can do as well. We have had straight line wind storm "Micro Bursts" do as much damage if not more as tornadoes also. We get more than our share of hail every year as well.

[diesel4life]

Thats a wild picture Rick!

[dobienut]

So this is truly a serious question I have to any of you that live in the high risk areas. I watch on television and they show the devistation caused when one of these storms rip through and I always wonder why peple that live there don't try to build their houses out of cement and roofs that would be very hard to rip off? I know, incredible force behind these storms but wood is almost guaranteed to be destroyed , I would think heavily built cement houses would stand up much better

[Rogan]

Cost plays a huge part of that. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[ISX]

So this is truly a serious question I have to any of you that live in the high risk areas. I watch on television and they show the devistation caused when one of these storms rip through and I always wonder why peple that live there don't try to build their houses out of cement and roofs that would be very hard to rip off? I know, incredible force behind these storms but wood is almost guaranteed to be destroyed , I would think heavily built cement houses would stand up much better

Cost of doing it, chance of it happening, the logic that tornadoes are unstoppable. I mean they pick up freight trains... So you can build a billion dollar structure of steel, but as you saw in Rogans pic, they pick up semi trailers.. Lets hope your structure was designed for 100mph semi trailers to be thrown at it. Most people simply dig a hole in the ground and build a little bunker or "tornado shelter" so then the semi flys across it since its at ground level (some are some arent). It's much cheaper, much safer, etc.. But, still something people don't have money for. There is also just the fact of it actually happening. One ripped through my parents town and tore up a little bit, but I doubt people care enough to install tornado shelters because of it. We get a lot of tornado crap every year but it doesn't really do anything a lot of times so most people don't care. Then it happens once and people rebuild, and still don't care. If it was oklahoma then I think they should reconsider, but its still a financial thing. I think a lot of people have a place to go but they don't get enough warning. Tornadoes happen pretty fast.

[dobienut]

Yea I realize the force involved and I'm not thinking a cement house wont get taken out, but chances are a little better I would think of it having less damage then a wooden built structure. I assume getting insurance to rebuild in these areas must be almost next to no chance ? Possibly rebuilding 2-3 houses in your lifetime, i thought it may be more beneficial to spend the extra up front to try to help combat it

[JAG1]

At least make it a building requirement to have an underground room built under each new home or within close proximity of an existing home.It would be good a business to have prebuilt or preformed concrete box/ rooms you can bury underground. Seems like that would be a great sideline for an excavation contractor.The force to lift freight trains... man! That's not something to mess with.Prayers for those Children in the school that was hit today... sometimes these things are never understood.

[Wild and Free]

We are lucky enough to have a concrete cellar in our basement, it used to be a coal chute many years ago but the roof was capped with concrete and has a door separating it from the basement, all concrete and underground about 4 feet wide by 5-6 feet long.On our farm we had an underground root cellar by our house that was mulit purpose, was our root cellar and the pit our well and pressure tank were and was a storm shelter.

[dorkweed]

The incredible wind speeds are one thing....................the flying debris is another.The flying debris adds a dimension not included in building codes.

[ISX]

I think no matter what you do, anything above ground is nothing but a target. You can hide under it but lets hope it doesn't collapse on you or a piece of cement doesn't crack and fall on you. The only failsafe way is to get out of the line of fire by getting below the sights. Being under the ground protects all of that. Thats why they say jump in a ditch if you have nothing else. Stuff can still fall on you but the bunker should be able to take anything but a train. I would imagine there to be bunkers in Oklahoma by now that people can flock to, but there is still the warning thing. Tornadoes are just too crafty. They drop out of the sky instantly. They can predict storms that are bad enough to make one but its hard to convince people to go to the bunker every single time. Most people are convinced their basement is fine, which it is for the most part. I have no idea where a bunker is so I imagine many others are just as oblivious to any around them. People all say get in your basement so everyone just finds a basement, simple. You can look at all the pics though and see the crap above them falls on them, so now you see the problem. Mother nature will always win, stay out of it's way, simple as that.