Wondering about wild grapes

Monday, January 10, 2011

Wondering about tornadoes.

Barney (Old Fat Man Adventures) came way too close to a tornado yesterday. Check his story out.

This reminded me of all my tornado experiences. My very first experience was when I was a young boy in Pennsylvania. One skipped over our house and came down and damaged homes and rolled over a mobile home which came apart as it rolled, side-roof-side-bottom, all lying beside each other. I looked up in it as it passed overhead, and could see all the swirling clouds, different shades of tan, brown, and black; beautiful but very frightening.

Had other minor experiences until I moved to Texas and they came more often and more severe. When I lived north of Fort Worth, I saw more tornadoes than I ever thought I would. At a distance in the evening they can be a unique sight with lightning lighting them up. Actually, a pretty sight at a distance, it is when they get up close and personal that they get ugly.

One came past my home and put an end to my first RV (a pop up camper that was closed up) by flipping it end over end. My neighbor had just put in a new septic system and that same tornado pulled the septic tank out of the ground along with the attached piping. Well that shoots down the advice to get in a ditch (grin).

This same tornado took my storage shed apart and scattered my stuff for just over a mile down its path. Funny thing, I had just finished cooking chicken on one of those cheap three legged charcoal grills that was within a few feet of the storage shed, and it was still standing there smoking away like nothing happened.

I have told you that I have Jeep Liberty 4x4 that I tow behind my RV. Well, I had trouble getting it in the first place. The local dealer didn’t have what I wanted and was to have one brought in for us the next day. Just as we were leaving the house, the phone rang and it was the car salesman saying that the Jeep was not delivered because of death at the other dealership.

OK, no problem. A few days later he called and said to come on in, it was sitting here and the papers were ready to be signed. We went in and it was sitting in front of the showroom and it was exactly what we wanted. We went inside and sat down and went over the paperwork. I picked up a pen and signed it and then all “H” broke out. Seems a tornado was about to hit. They ushered us all into a back room away from all the plate glass windows.

That tornado took the tile roof off the neighboring hotel/motel building and dumped most of it inside that new Jeep. Busted out all the windows and crumpled it all up. Dang near completely demolished it, and I had just signed for it!!! One good thing, my pick-up was parked two spots nearer that hotel/motel but didn’t even get a scratch. And guess what, the sales guy was nice enough to tear up the agreement. Said that they would try to find another one somewhere. They did, one was being shipped to Austin and they said after it got delivered and unloaded that they would have someone ferry it over to Conroe. Third time was a charm, but since then tornadoes that have passed right by my place dumped hail on it a couple of times. Had to have the dents removed twice and the skylights and vents replaced on the RV.

Been close to many more, but I just don’t want to bore you with any more stories of them. I do suggest that the next time tornado warnings are posted, you stay as far away from me and my Jeep as possible. . .

8 comments:

  1. I slept through a tornado...I woke up and thought the train is loud and went back to sleep. I woke up a bit later to the sound of sirens. The tornado took out the back of the mobile home park where I lived..nobody died.

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  2. Frann. Yes, they do so sound like trains. I even expect to hear them whistle when crossing a road (grin). Glad you were OK, location is the most important thing in real estate and avoiding tornadoes. Just a few feet can mean damage or not.

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  3. Tornadoes!! Growing up on the farm in Mansfield, we saw our fair share of them all around us but one never did get hit till many years later. I slept through one here a few years ago. Next day I heard about it and went to look for damage , from the debris path,it had touched just west of me less than a mile, picked up and touched back down just to the east. I slept through the hole thing. That one took out a few trailers and a car repair shop.

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  4. Hey Ben, you must be a sound sleeper. They do make a lot of noise. BTW, my cousin lives in a town in Kansas that got almost wiped off the map by one. After it was over sho opened the door and looked out and her house was the only one standing in that block.

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  5. We have our share of tornados up here in Wisconsin. I've been through many, luckily unharmed. But I've had trees torn down, chimney ripped off the roof, a mobile home moved 2 feet off it's foundation and much more. A few years back the house behind and the barn in front of my sister's house were leveled but her place untouched. There are all kinds of left over damage memories around here from tornados in the past. I remember as a kid seeing the newspaper showing a photo of a drinking straw driven half way through a glass window from a tornado. AMAZING!

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  6. Ezrablu, It seems that the northern states, when they do have tornadoes, have big ones. Luckily most of ours are F1 and F2, but we have gotten some really big ones. I remember seeing on the news where brick homes dissapeared and only the slabs were left and pavement torn off the roads.

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  7. DD, nobody said getting in a ditch would *protect* you from the tornado. Getting in the ditch just gives you something to do. :-) Glad you and your truck were unharmed by that tornado. Scary stuff! Timing is everything, I suppose.

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  8. I know it 's not funny,tornadoes I mean, but I laughed so hard at the end of your post,the part about the jeep! lol,Blessings jane ,P.S .I am a follower

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