Discovery channel's storm chaser Tim Samaras killed in El Reno tornado

Examiner ^ | 6/2/13 | SHEILA CARROLL

[VermiciousKnid]

BTW...what SHOULD someone do who is caught on the road when confronted by a tornado?

Regards,

[matt04]

Western MA had a EF-3 in June 2011.

[Alaska Wolf]

what SHOULD someone do who is caught on the road when confronted by a tornado?

Your choices are limited. An overpass, culvert or ditch will have to do in many instances.

[RegulatorCountry]

I've had a few close calls in my house, had to clean pink insulation out of the trees a couple of times, return a few pieces of mail, over not quite twenty years of living here. Only damage I've ever experienced occurred on a very weird night, it had been one of those too clammy, too still, foreboding greenish clouds days but nothing happened until after dark.

We don't have sirens here to alert the public, just weather radio and Emergency Broadcast System, which really went off, there were funnels being reported all around. Power went out, followed by constant lightning, then hail, then that oppressive feeling of rapidly falling barometric pressure, my ears popped. Herded the dogs into the hall bath with me, got into the tub and waited. And waited. After what felt like several minutes, long enough to start feeling sheepish that I'd overreacted, the bathroom exhaust fan started spinning up to a whine. No power, remember. Heard what I can only describe as a loud buzzing overhead, from outside. Then, a huge thud that shook the house. And it was over.

Went out with a flashlight and the entire exterior of the house was plastered with wet shredded oak leaves, large branches lying around. No damage to the house that I could see, lost that adrenaline rush and was suddenly very tired, went back inside and went to bed.

Next morning, power was restored, got up and went to take a better look at what needed to be cleaned up. Went around to the front side gate to get in the backyard due to downed, large tree branches. Got to the gate and a good twenty Starlings were dead over there, several driven into And stuck in the chain link fence. Got past that and saw what made the big thud, the biggest tree on my small acreage, a huge four-trunked oak. It missed the house by a foot.

Every tall tree in the neighborhood was downed, some wrenched out of the ground. My guess was that it was a fairly intense funnel that did not touch down. I looked into getting involved with SkyWarn after that.

[RegulatorCountry]

There are times when there is no place else to go. It’s reinforced concrete and steel, offering at least some shelter. Can there be a wind tunnel effect, if the vortex passes directly over that location? Yes. If you were stuck on open highway, had no culvert let alone an underground shelter available to you, and an F4 was bearing down on you, what are you going to do, sit in your car? Suicidal. You take your chances up under the overpass.

[mylife]

Pray

[VermiciousKnid]

Yes, I remember that storm you got.

Here’s the vid of the microburst/tornado that hit my hometown in 2010. No injuries, thank God, but TONS of damage in the neighborhood. Giant trees knocked down every which way. Made our little town look like a war zone.

It was one of the most frightening stoms I’ve ever seen.

(Language warning)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv-8p9-7tv0

Regards,

[VideoDoctor]

May he rest in peace.

The obvious and knowable thing about WEATHER and Mother Nature... it is, and always has been, UNPREDICTABLE.

[VermiciousKnid]

Oh. Well...I’ll try to avoid those situations then. We get hurricanes here on Long Island, and they are bad enough, but you can at least see them coming.

These tornadoes scare the hell out of me, coming out of nowhere like they do.

Thanks for the information.

Regards,

[VermiciousKnid]

Thank you, RC. I will remember your advice.

Regards,

[VermiciousKnid]

Thank you, mlife. I have no doubt whatsoever that that would be the very first thing I did.

Regards,

[matt04]

Wow. The tornado damage path was about 8 -10 miles from my house. We had some small branches down and a few scattered powerless in my area. Several towns not directly impacted by the storm lost power for a few days because it took out several transmission lines.

[gortklattu]

I was face down in a ditch in a driving rainstorm at night and could hear the roar of a nearby tornado.

Been there as well. It's an experience one will NEVER forget.

[VermiciousKnid]

That storm was very strange. It came upon us so suddenly and even though it only lasted about 20 minutes, it was so loud and so violent that it scared the daylights out of everyone. I remember that the sky got black as night and the winds shook the whole house. Terrible storm.

Of course, last year we got hit with Sandy. My hometown lost several trees, but it was flooding that did the most damage. Out here on Long Island (where I live now), the tree damage was devastating. Homes and cars crushed, and so many power lines down it took 2 weeks to get it back. (Inconvenient, but thankfully it was not yet VERY cold and we have a wood-burning fireplace that kept us warm and fed.)

Still...even Sandy did not seem as violent as that tornado thing that hit us in 2010. Just the memory of the SOUND of it gives me the creepies.

Glad that you didn’t suffer much damage from it.

Regards,

[Wiser now]

I haven’t seen any pictures either. I heard the Dominator lost it’s hood, and the turret hatch blow off the TIV.