It’s tornado season. I have spent the past several hours glued to CNN who is covering the live tornadoes in Oklahoma and Kansas. These things are ferocious and are causing a tremendous amount of damage.
How do people live like this? One minute you have a house. the next minute you don’t–that’s assuming you live through the storm.
I would be terrified if I saw something like this coming at me! I would expect to get hit with a tractor trailer or a farm animal. I would definitely relocate the first time I was in one of these horrible tornadoes. The reporters are speaking of it as though it were alive.
Who here has been in a tornado?
Steve’s Tornado
I have. It came off the big lake as a water spout, hit the large sand dunes, and was redirected upwards so that it jumped right over our neighborhood and visited its devastation on the other side of the town when it redescended. It happened in the middle of the night. Dad got us out of bed. We all ran for the basement as hail the size of baseballs was breaking the windows. Escaped major damage otherwise.
Where was this?
As a little boy growing up in the Midwest, I used to be terribly afraid of tornadoes, particularly at night when you couldn’t see them. I remember seeing barns that had been knocked down by tornadoes. Once I got older, I actually saw a few, both on land and at sea (the ones on water usually don’t pack the punch of the ones on land). But there’s something very sinister about how they look and how they behave.
When I moved back to Virginia after a year in California in 1981, I drove all the way across the country on back roads. As I came across Kansas, a nasty frontal system kept spinning off vortices in my rear view mirror. I felt like they chased me all day. I have photos of this in a shoe box somewhere. My biographers will have to sort it out.
No real tornadoes, thank God, but lots of little dust devils east of Reno, Nevada, whenever one was driving on unpaved roads.
I’m glad that I only worried about hurricanes. You can, at least, see them coming.
Michigan. In the mid-1950’s.
Three. The first was in the panhandle of Florida. I was maybe five miles away when it hit Fort Walton Beach in the sixties. The other two when I lived in Fairfax City, VA. I think the tornadoes were several years apart but seemed to really like Woodson High School. All three times, the atmosphere was dark, humid, oppressive and still right up until the time the tornadoes came through. I lived in Kansas for four years and saw funnel clouds but nothing touched down near us. So, based upon my experience….Kansas is safer than Virginia.
About seven or eight years ago a tornado came through the Independent Hill area of PWC. It came within a quarter mile of my house. Because the floors in my house were being sanded I was staying at my mother’s and my husband was out of town at the time. A close friend’s husband was upstairs playing his guitar at his home and said it got dark quickly and very noisy. They had some damage to their house. Other neighbors said it was so noisy they couldn’t hear their partner yelling across the room. Another couple who were working in Fairfax at the time said they returned home to hear their dogs greet them with barking they’d never heard before – as if they were trying to tell the story of what had happened.
Once I was at Wounded Knee when a tornado alert came on the car radio. The sky was an eerie emerald green but no funnels developed.
http://manassasfire.com/previous_headlines/sept2004/sept_2004_tornado.htm
The September 17, 2004 tornado is, to my knowledge, the only one to ever hit
inside the City of Manassas. It was rated F1.
I have a great picture of one that passed behind my office, in Stafford VA.
@BSinVA
That area near Woodson and along Pickett is called “Tornado Alley” by locals in that area.
I saw the leaves way up high in 2004….it was bizarre. Of course, what dumb ass is out in the front yard looking for the tornado…..
@Steve Thomas
If you email it I will post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-OqBI8yvaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d2EjeoOO9s
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/ilm/archive/07-06-01/tor.html
In 2001 we went to Myrtle beach for the 4th of July. We were staying in a hotel on one of the higher floors. The kids looked out the window and saw what my husband and I thought was a building in the distance on fire. It looked like a cloud of smoke billowing from the roof of a hotel further down the beach. Then the ‘cloud of smoke’ kind of jumped so it was no longer behind the building and we both realized immediately what it was. My first thought was to go into the interior bathroom but then I thought about how high up we were so I gathered the kids and took off down to the lobby abandoning my husband who had decided to get the video camera and film it!
I told people that I encountered that a tornado was coming down the beach and I remember their reactions were something along the lines of ‘oh isn’t that nice’. I guess they thought I was a raving lunatic or something. The kids and I made it down to the lobby to safety and huddled with a growing group of other people until it passed by. The next day we left and saw a path of destruction of downed trees and telephone poles.
It was F1 or F2 and at times was a waterspout over the ocean. BTW, the above links to videos are not what my husband filmed.
I sent it.
@Alanna
Alanna, that thing was HUGE!!!
click read more to see Steve’s tornado. Pretty impressive, Steve.
My office is in the building on the right. The picture was taken from the commuter lot across the street. I did not take the photo, as I was at my desk when the tornado passed by.
It was a good pic. Scarey. Little did you know THAT was breathing down your neck.
Link doesn’t work or I can’t find the right place.
@SteveThomas
Why go for a camera when you should be running for cover? Must be a man thing.
Alanna,
I was sitting at my desk, in that office. A commuter took the photo. When the eathquake hit a few years back, I was also sitting at my desk. I have come to the conclusion that if the earth were to be struck by a meteor, or a nuclear bomb hits the area, I will most likely be sitting at my desk when it happens.
Using your logic I’ll either be shopping like I was when the earthquake struck or just coming back from shopping which is what we had just finished doing when we got back to the hotel room.
So if I stick by the computer then we should be safe from meteors and bombs. 🙂
How did you become aware of this tornado? Did your coworkers see it or did you find out after the fact?
@Alanna
We were aware of it, as we heard it go by. Sounded like a train, but we are nowhere near any tracks. It wasn’t until I saw the photo in the paper that I realized just how close it was when it passed.
You may have seen that brouhaha about that 3D printed plastic gun. The one shot, useless plastic proof of concept that has the gov’t in a tizzie……
here’s something to put that non-problem into perspective.
http://www.shellypalmer.com/2013/05/3d-printing-is-way-scarier-than-plastic-guns/
So, what should happen?
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/05/daily-show-creator-oklahoma-tornado-was-meant-for-conservatives/
Liz Winstedd is the queen of sarcasm. Why would anyone care what she tweets. Bad taste, by my standards yes. There are no laws governing people’s bad taste. My guess is she tweeted before she realized the devastation and death toll today, but as I said, I am just guessing.
[UPDATE]
Winstead tweeted that she was basically an idiot and should have known better because she is from Minnesota. Oddly enough I get her tweets. I think she pulled her original remark. She typed first and thought second for sure.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/20/democratic-senator-goes-on-anti-gop-rant-over-climate-change-as-tornadoes-hit-oklahoma/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Where’s Preston Brooks when we need him?
Tonight’s newscasts show horrible pictures from Moore, Oklahoma.
51 people dead, 24 children missing from an elementary school.
It’s a horrible situation. Find it hard to go to sleep tonight.
Why am I so lucky?
@Cato the Elder
He should resign.
I have never seen anything like that devastation from that tornado today. I didn’t realize it had hit until this evening because I was catching up on some stuff I had DVR’ed.
Well, then there was the cicada on the hand railing out front. My granddaughter practically did a discertation on it. That occupied a lot of time today, about when that tornado struck.
@Cargosquid
Why should he resign? He expressed his opinion in perfectly normal tones. Hardly a rant.
You may disagree with some or all of his opinion. We are speaking of Congress. That will happen from time to time. {sracasm]
As the Red Cross trucks head towards Moore, OK, don’t forget that the Mormon Relief fund sends trucks out within the hour when a disaster hits.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/where-is-god-and-the-mormon-church-in-a-natural-disaster/2011/05/24/AF1zpWAH_blog.html
http://www.pbs.org/mormons/themes/humanitarian.html
I have always been impressed with LDS efforts in the face of a disaster. 100% of your donation goes to supplies. The Mormon Church absorbs all the overhead.
No, I am not Mormon. Far from it. I just believe in giving shout outs when they are deserved.
http://www.cityormoore.com/
One day life seems so normal “Old Town Farmer’s Market” and the
next day all hell breaks loose. Moore, Newtown …. small towns full of
good people changed forever by a nightmare event. Once again, time to
reflect and pray for the victims and their families.
Steve Randolph, check your email.
Every time I hear people speak of tornadoes, it is like they are speaking of some dreaded wild beast. All their adjectives, nouns and verbs give life to these storms.
Just watching, the tornado seems like it is a live being…evil being…like nature on a rampage.
The BOCS could at least start on time.
7 minutes late so far.
Corey looks like he really isn’t feeling well.
What the woman with the red hair at citizens time is really saying is: What are you bastards doing to make this tri county parkway go away? What are you doing to inform us whats happening? Where is the central information center?
Bottom line: nothing.
It isn’t up to Pete Candland to do all the heavy lifting. The entire board of supervisors should be up in arms over the county being used like a one night stand.
Corey told Ms. Conway that she has misinformation. Well straighten it out. Post it on the web site. GEEEZ There are 4 or 5 issues here.
Where is MOM? Surely not still in the corner. *I* never sent him there.
Jenine Larson brought up an excellent point. We paid for our roads. Will the state pay us back for our share of the Parkway and Dumfries Road?
I’m here trying to digest it all and working up the intestinal fortitude to say, than…. than…. than…, damn it, Thank you Wally and Maureen. There, I spit it out. I had no doubt Pete and Mike would support deferral or stripping the parkway out but I guess Wally and Maureen both have had recent epiphanies.
Which takes me to Corey and Marty. Yes Corey looked like somebody kicked his dog, he did have a long day on Saturday but apparently he didn’t learn any lessons or remember who he actually represents. I guess Buchanan’s interests in the road outweigh those who elected Corey. I also see that his ass kicking on Saturday has diminished his talent for deflection and blame shifting. Corey, newsflash, yes County support is crucial to the State’s plan for the Bi-County route, regardless who is directly paying for it. BTW, State dollars or County dollars they both originate in the same place, your constituents pockets. The time to voice issues with route is before agreeing to it you complete duplicitous fraud. Also, why stop at cowards, why not just call out state delegation hygienically challenged ‘tards who prefer large farm animals to their spouses. And he wonders why he lacked crucial support on Saturday.
Which leaves Marty, telling us over and over again that 234 by Lake Jackson is not going to be six lanes means you are too lazy to read the proposal, too stupid to understand the plan or outright lying to us. Any one of the three is unacceptable Weeble Boy.
There, now I feel better about the first paragraph.
I heard Corey was such an a-hole to speakers, AGAIN! It’s probably good I wasn’t there, I would have stood up and told him to stop commenting to residents from the dais unless he was willing to get into a full fledged debate. What piggish behavior!
The BOCS needs to take it off the comp plan as a first step.
He was somewhat of an a-hole. I have seen him act a LOT worse than he did today though. Today he was just grumpy.
And talk about behavior. The LA Times is reporting that Lois Lerner, a key honcho in the IRS tax-exempt division scandal, is going to take the Fifth when she appears before Congress. This should be interesting.
The power of technology, the individual, and the media:
From Instapundit:
THE OBSOLESCENCE OF FEMA: Oklahoma Tornado: Glenn Beck and Twitter to the Rescue. “Shortly after the destructive twister tore through the town of Moore outside Oklahoma City , conservative radio personality and talking head Glenn Beck used Twitter to organize a ‘convoy of hope’ to travel to Oklahoma to provide early disaster relief. Within hours, Beck’s team had used Twitter to locate trucks and supplies, and they were on their way, arriving in the Moore area bearing food, water, and diapers.” Way ahead of FEMA.
He sent two filled semis to the disaster area. This is great and good for him for organizing this effort. He has the manpower and the wealth to make it happen.
His efforts don’t make FEMA obsolete. How far will 2 semis go in the face of a disaster this large? That shouldn’t detract from his efforts. The Mormon Relief is also headed to Oklahoma. It might already be there by now.
The various FEMA trucks will be there as will the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and a bunch of other humanitarian groups.
We should rejoice that so many people want to help rather than turning it in to competition.
I watched a water spout form at sea while on watch. It was several miles away, and never came towards the ship.
Do water spouts at sea suck up ships like what happens on land?
I think the “Sgt. Shultz” defense these officials have been taking with this and other scandals is starting to fail…lawyering up is a sure sign that there’s “there there”. Investigators will start at the bottom, subjects lawyer up, lawyers work out deals for immunity and lesser sentences in exchange for the bigger fish, so on and so on, until it hits the Cedar level…how high up? We shall see.
I am still burning over how Bush’s guy was treated.
Make no mistake, they will find a fall guy. Someone will be “Scootered.”
This will not be ‘a teachable moment.’ What SHOULD happen is the tax code ought to be reformed and simplified.
Things have changed with c4s in the past couple of decades. I feel strongly that any group who attempts to influence elections should not be c4.
If laws are unclear and murky, then application of those laws will be arbitrary and murky. Its real difficult to raise my level of concern over this issue because I don’t approve of most organizations getting the coveted c4.
@Moon-howler
I am sure they’ll get around to the Bush appointee. Agree that the tax code should be simplified (Flat or Fair?). While I think a much smaller IRS is useful, to go after real tax cheats, the agency needs massive reform.
But this has all the signs of being very bad for the administration. Folks will start rolling over soon, considering they have to pay for legal representation out-of-pocket.
I just see too much salivating for a scandal. Scandals cost money and rarely land big fish. Remember Bill Clinton.
There’s no salivating. There IS a scandal.
Lois Lerner just stated that she broke no laws…but then pleaded the 5th.
How’s that again? She gives “her side of the story” in testimony and then pleads the 5th and refuses to answer questions and walks out.
Okay then…..
Cargo, the facts aren;t even all out and you are declaring it a scandal, facts be damned.
You are proving my point.
I don’t know why Lois Lerner pleaded the 5th and neither do you.
Maybe she didn’t want to get beaten up and scootered. Imagine that.
But, you have already decided it is a scandal with ill-intent involved. Why bother with the hearings then?
We’ll have to agree to disagree, without being disagreeable on this. If the government is to be “by the people”, then it’s not too much to ask for a government that obeys the law, respects the constitution, and when asked a pointed question, doesn’t lie, and doesn’t engage in cover-ups.
I just wish the laws were clear and the questioning courteous. The grand standing always makes me sick.
The questioning this afternoon has taken on an air of civility not often witnessed when Congress is involved.
i am glad to see this. The Congresswoman hit the nail on the head about changing tax code.
If they held these hearings in my yard the cicadas would make them cry uncle and admit to everything. So ready for this to end.
How many of these groups that got extra scrutiny were denied 501c4 status?
So the possible scandal is NOT that the IRS scrutinized the political groups on the right but that they didn’t also scrutinize the political groups on the left ????
Equal application of a law or policy would be a valid defense. Alas, it does appear that this was not the case.