Tornadoes

[LucyKKG]

Yeah...has there ever been a tornado in California? I'd be so scared! At least I appreciate how spoiled I am with this good weather.

Hang in there, everybody!

[BabyPiNK_FL]

As a Floridian, I'll take a hurricane any day. You know what you're up against and thankfully it's usually much ado about nothing for most areas. The biggest inconvenience is usually no hot water or A/C. Tornadoes terrify me. That looks like some seriously horrific mess. We occasionally get them here since we get some big storms and you sit and watch the tv in horror the entire time. I am used to hurricanes. You sleep through them most times.

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by LucyKKG

Yeah...has there ever been a tornado in California? I'd be so scared! At least I appreciate how spoiled I am with this good weather.

Hang in there, everybody!

Hurricanes, I can handle - like I said you at least get a couple day's notice so you can board up and buy supplies, or pack up and head for higher ground...

Tornadoes? Umm while they can be sporadic, the weather guys usually will say if we should be on the lookout.. and we have sirens to tell people to take cover immediately as soon as a funnel cloud is spotted.

California does have beautiful weather - I travel to San Fran & San Diego pretty frequently - but - they have random earthquakes, and there is usually no warning (not even a 5-minute-before siren!) for those. Eeeeep!

[LucyKKG]

Originally Posted by texas*princess

California does have beautiful weather - I travel to San Fran & San Diego pretty frequently - but - they have random earthquakes, and there is usually no warning (not even a 5-minute-before siren!) for those. Eeeeep!

Yeah, earthquakes always get brought up when people talk about CA weather, but they happen so rarely. There was a decently sized one (i.e. one you could actually feel) a few months ago. There hasn't been a huge one that caused any damage for quite some time, though. There was that big one in 1989, but besides that...I'm not sure.

On the other hand, I see what you're saying about the lack of warning. I guess seismologists can kind of see them coming, but not really.

[alum]

We have lived through various meteorological phenomenons throughout our military moves, but I do find tornadoes more horrific as compared to blizzards or hurricanes. Blizzards and hurricanes are forecasted and one can prepare ahead of time as witnessed by the lines in the supermarkets and home centers. Even though tornadoes are concentrated in the Alley, we have been very close to touchdowns in West Point, NY in 98, greater DC several times, KY (several times) and of course KS.

I don't think BRM means funny as in humorous but more as a fact of overreacting. I know that I have witnessed the same media and public panic when dealing with winter storm warnings anywhere below the Mason-Dixon line. I must confess Hurricane Isabelle threw me for a loop. GEN Alum was at NATO so the kids and I had to prep the house and property on our own. As a good military family, we managed.

[carnation]

So the friends in this county are okay but their road is devastated, with several houses destroyed and one man dead. One family who bred show dogs has lost their kennel and several of the dogs are missing. A bunch of members of a church on that road were leaving tomorrow to help in the Katrina area but will now stay home to help their own recover.

I still don't know if my school is damaged and will find out tomorrow.

ETA: so it was the elementary school that was damaged, not us; they had 2 buildings damaged.

[AGDLynn]

Around 1993 or so, (can't remember), the power went out on a Thursday night. Woke up Friday, no power, no big deal. Showered in the dark, got dressed and drove to work.

(I did notice that one of the roads I normally take had a lot of tree debris on it but I didn't think any thing of it.

Turned on the radio, all I heard was the Atl. radio station say that Walton Co. schools were closed, turned off radio shortly after that.

Decided about noon to take off work b/c my neck was very sore.

Got to the place where I saw the debris this morning.....well the "chicken poultry plant" (yea, I know it's redundant but that's what we called it, lol.) was totally gone!

That's when I found out a tornado (actually the weather service said it was a "downburst" had hit Monroe. I had to take the long way around to get home. What normally would have taken me about 5 minutes took me an hour.

My mom didn't know until Friday morning when she called my sis in law (who lived on the same street) to see why she had power (actually it was sunlight, lol). My sil said "Didn't you know that a tornado hit Monroe last night?!!"

There were lots and lots of trees down but thankfully, no one was hurt. It was amazing all those trees and very few houses!

Cute story...Media types that do a lot of research..were reporting that the top of the courthouse had blown off and landed on the top of the next building...Wrong!! As you can see in the pic, the courthose never had a spiral top!


(This picture was taken after the "tornado". There used to be two rows of large trees along the path to the steps.
http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/ga...s/waltonCH.htm

[Benzgirl]

Depending on where you live in Ca., you also might have wild fires, landslides and Santa Anas.

I'll live in Tornado alley anyday. Even though you don't get the warning of a hurricane to leave town three days in advance, if you are smart, you have escape plans and safeplaces in your basement.

BTW... glad you are ok, Carnation.

[BigRedBeta]

Don't get me wrong, I've seen plenty of the horrible damage that can be caused by tornadoes. The Nebraska Greek Community spent a whole day helping to clean up the Hallam Nebraska tornado that leveled the town in 2004. There was a serious downburst outside KC one year when I was in HS (IIRC)...I'm not denying that they can be very dangerous.

But the overreaction is funny, especially when accompanied by the nonchalance about hurricanes.

[KonfidentOne]

I live right in the middle of Tornado Alley. I couldn't tell you how many I've heard, seen, and been through. This is how common they are here:
Tornado sirens are tested EVERY saturday at noon. No exception.
Every resident knows the closest public tornado shelter, whether its the closest public school, shopping mall, or community center.
I slept through one two weeks ago. No joke. The only reason I woke up is because my neighbor in the apartment above me kept calling to see if she and her son could come downstairs to my apt. if it got too bad (because everyone knows downstairs in the middle of the house/apt is the safest place to be) The sirens were already going off and the wind and rain was deafening, but i'm used to it.
My dad and I watched the only confirmed category F5 tornado from our back yard (May 3rd, 1999. Search that date and it is the first thing that comes up in google. The single most costly tornado in US history, caused more than 1.1 billion in damages)
When I was in drivers ed and a tornado related hailstorm started, I was the one that was driving (we were in groups of 3 once we got to the actual driving) and do you think our instructor told me to stop? No. All he said was "You're doing good." My parents were furious when they found out, but I had to remind them that they should be glad i was with an instructor instead of by myself the first time I drove in a storm.

I guess they're pretty scary to people who don't see them every year, and they do cause alot of damage, but they aren't usually deadly. Luckily, weather technology has advanced to the point where people can be warned to get to a safe place in enough time to save their lives.

[Tom Earp]

Ah, middle of the country, me to!

While the devastation is not as wide as a hurrican, it is still so deadly. Not just straight winds but swirling at high speed.

Cannot remember the movie Helen Hunt was in, but it does give a good idea of what a Tornado can do.

Either way, both are very very bad!

Oh, just to let some know, Greensburg, Ks. was totally destroyed and kids from some of the Universitys are spending their spring break building 4 houses in two weeks.

Kudos to these College Students to help out!

[NutBrnHair]

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

Cannot remember the movie Helen Hunt was in, but it does give a good idea of what a Tornado can do.

Twister

I can still see those flying cows!

[ForeverRoses]

I am in total fear of tornadoes. My husband even bought me a weather radio for Christmas a couple years back- and that was the gift I was totally psyched to get-- forget flowers and jewlery! (this was right after the Evansville, IN Tornado that killed several people in a trailer park- it also distroyed several former co-workers homes).

My sister went to college near Xenia, Ohio and people around there didn't mess around about tornadoes either. As soon as the sirens went off, everyone ran for cover.