Gibo

Just wondering if any one has encountered one yet? I have been in a couple close calls in the Chicago area. I was at Wriggly Field last year when it was evacuated due to a Tornado warning. But as of yet, I have never seen one. I would like to though... from a distance..

SpoogleDrummer

There's been some around here but I've never actually seen one. That doesn't stop me going in to my storm shelter when the sirens go off though.

joto

I haven't actually seen one come down, but was in Lincoln, NE last May when it got really dark and windy about 4pm and reception phoned up to say if the tornado sirens go off, head to the basement. Scary.

ironporer

During the 1965 Palm Sunday Tordadoes, we had a 6' diameter Oak (?) tree knocked down by wind, smashing into my bedroom and wrecking everything- luckily we kids were at Grandma's house 2 hours away.

As a boy scout we went to help in the aftermath of the April 3, 1974 Xenia Ohio tornado that flattened the town. It was enough to make me never even think about wanting to go through one myself. Total devastation everywhere.

In 1994 or so, I was at work in Marble Falls TX when a level 4-5 (small one) skipped over the town- touching down 5-6 times, knocking down trees and damaging a bunch of buildings. While it was a 'small' one, it reminded me that I never want to be in a real one. The winds were tremendous, rain was coming down almost horizontally and it blew off a metal roof along with large 8" I beam joists/supports right next to where I was working.


One of the criteria for our new house in Indiana (per Mrs. IP's dictate) is a basement or tornado shelter.

Jerseygirl

I've experienced a twister. For some reason I looked up and saw all sorts of things swirling around in the sky...going higher and higher. Then I heard it and didn't know which direction to run.

scrubbedexpat097

There's no place like home Dorothy. Were you wearing your pretty red shoes

Jerseygirl

Click, click...of course...if only I could find a matching handbag.

Kaffy Mintcake

I was hit directly by one in 1999. My apartment and car were totaled, and my neighbors and I were evacuated at 5am.

I was thankfully oblivious to the whole thing. At the time I was working second shift, had probably gone to bed at 1-2am or so, and the storm hit between 4-5am I believe. I remember waking up to the loudest storm I'd ever heard, thinking my neighbor upstairs had dropped something (like a large piece of furniture on the floor) and being annoyed at their rudeness. (sleep logic) I got up from bed, closed the window to block some of the noise, and went back to sleep. A couple of hours later I woke up to lots of voices outside and a fireman banging on my door to inform me of the evacuation. Spent the day with my two cats in two pillowcases in a local elementary school that was a temporary shelter, wanting a phone so badly in order to call my boyfriend to ask to be picked up.

Pretty surreal experience. I met a woman in my apartment complex (different building) whose roof was ripped off. She was lifted from her bed a couple of feet by the tornado and dropped back down. Needless to say, it was a good day to be in an interior apartment.

Gibo

Thank you everyone! Some great stores there..

MrEmjoy

Aye it was kicking off last night wasn't it!!

Thankfully no rotation near us eh!

Last year was the first time my Mrs had ever heard the sirens go off for real in Chicago and she's been here for 15 years. She was more panicked than I was and I'd never been near a tornado before let alone in a country that has them, ha.

tamms_1965

I remember that one! We were on our way home from a trip to New Orleans and stopped right over the KY border for the night before we drove the last leg of our trip. As we got into Cinci radio space, we started hearing all the bad news . . I couldn't believe it. Luckily, it didn't hit my area of town.

I was 9 during the big tornado of '74. It touched down in my hometown (30 miles outside of Cinci) but not by our house. There have been quite a few in the county.

There is a website for Ohio tornadoes http://www.tornadoproject.com/alltorns/ohtorn1.htm. I'm sure you can change the last ohtorn1.htm to any state and get the statistics. It only goes to 1995.

Hiro11

I saw some rotation in the clouds from a disintegrating tornado a couple of years ago while driving home. Greenish sky, violent rain and clouds rotating like a blender. It's an amazing sight.

Bill_S

You must have been living not far from my brother-in-law and his family. They lost a tree or two, and their church (nearby) was damaged. No damage to their house.

paul1968mcr

I'm currently lay in bed trying to catch up on some of the sleep I lost last night!!
No Tornadoes here, but a severe thunderstorm passed through about 2:30am, the weather radio had already woken me and the kids up - watched it coming amazing, out of nowhere the yard looked like the deck of one of those crab boats on deadliest catch, all spray and rain and intense winds.
All over in 5 mins!!

ironporer

I thought I was the only one who sees the sky as a greenish/yellowish tint prior to tornadoes. That as always been the point at which we hunker down in the cellar anyway. Nice to know I am not seeing things!