[Mccoypottery-talk] spring storms (off topic and long - sorry) WAS: (no subject)

[BarbCrews]

Mark,
Well I am still shaking a very large tornado - (they said a mile wide, but 
will find out tomorrow in the daylight,) passed less than 1/4 from our 
house about 1/2 an hour ago. We thought it was headed directly for us, but 
apparently it just missed us. this was the closest yet.
Yes, Oklahoma has more tornadoes than any state in the us... and I think 
anywhere in the country. We had that horrible one a few years ago they say 
it was the highest recorded winds on earth -- F5, that we watched on tv 
head toward us... spawning multiple tornadoes and then veering off. Last 
night it hit the same area as that one. Tonight it went right through 
Oklahoma City and they are saying major damage but since its 10 pm at 
night, we can't tell what happened yet.

Pardon me for being graphic.... but I think I want to go throw up...

bc


At 08:02 PM 5/9/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>Tom,
>
>I didn't see your first mail asking for the prayers until you'd already 
>sent the one saying that you're ok. And I'm very glad that you're ok! And 
>I'm glad that there's no damage to your property. But - when you find out 
>that there's a tornado headed for you, I don't know of anybody who worries 
>about the property at that moment. It's all about life and limb.
>
>If y'all will allow me a few minutes ----- Until today, this entire week 
>has been terrible around here weather-wise. Maybe writing will be 
>therapeutic for me.
>
>Monday morning when I woke up during a storm, the electricity was on, but 
>apparently it had gone off at some point during the night because the 
>alarm clock was "flashing." The back-up battery was dead, so I slept late. 
>I looked at my watch. It was about 7:05. I don't know if it was the wind 
>or the thunder that woke me up. It sounded horrible.
>
>I'm lazy when I want to be  ;-)  so I have a television on top of a tall 
>chest in my bedroom so that I can lay there in bed and watch it at night. 
>Without even raising up, I immediately turned it on with the remote. At 
>that moment, the weatherman was talking about the tornado warning for our 
>little town. (I then sat up). The doppler radar was on the screen with one 
>of those huge red "blobs" covering most of this county, with my immediate 
>area on the southwest side of it - the side with the big "hook." He said 
>that it hadn't been spotted on the ground yet, but told the very 
>intersection where it was on radar (south 4 blocks and west 6 blocks from 
>my house and said that it was going east-northeast - directly towards my 
>house, and less than 2 miles away).
>
>My 15 year old son was here, asleep in his room which has a rather large 
>window - facing west! (My daughter was 8 miles away at her moms' house 
>that morning for those of you who already know that I have a daughter). 
>There's no basement in this house. My room is on the east side of the 
>house, and my bedroom has an enclosed, tiled shower. (I know ... so what? 
>But it *felt* safer). There are two closets, the hall, another closet, and 
>a bedroom between my shower and the west side of the house - the direction 
>the tornado was coming from. So needless to say, that's where I wanted 
>Wesley - and myself!
>
>I ran into his room and said, only a little bit louder than usual because 
>I didn't want to scare the heck out of him, "Wesley, wake up!"  He didn't 
>open his eyes, said "ok" and rolled over, facing the wall away in the 
>other direction. (Honestly, he's a really great kid - *always* very 
>respectful, but such a deadhead in the mornings). The wind was horrible 
>and getting worse, literally by the second, so I raised my voice and 
>said,  "*NOW*!!! GET UP!"  I never yell, so that scared him. He got up and 
>ran down the hall with me toward my room, asking, "What's that siren?!" It 
>was the tornado warning. They use a very loud siren for tornado warnings 
>at a nearby fire station. I told him what was going on and what I wanted 
>him to do while we were on the way to my shower, and as I was grabbing 
>pillows from my bed.
>
>I'm so thankful that the tornado didn't touch down. It was still raining 
>hard, & thundering and lightning, but just about the time we got 
>"squatted" into the shower and got the pillows pulled down over our heads, 
>the strongest part of the wind was over.
>
>A little more than 3 hours later, there was another tornado warning for 
>our county. That one did touch down, but it was in a much more rural area 
>about 7 or 8 miles north of town. It took a barn and a few other farm 
>buildings, but nobody was hurt. That was it as far as tornados went for us 
>that day, but we had flash floods that day, the next day, AND the next! 
>(One 31 year old man from our county drowned Tuesday in his car that was 
>swept away).
>
>I'll spare you the whole story of the F4 that I witnessed with my own eyes 
>as it passed from west to east, 1 mile north of my house in 1995, except 
>to say that it killed 3 people that I knew personally. Barb - I think that 
>tornados probably occur more often in Oklahoma than in Tennessee, but if 
>they're any worse than the ones here, I *never* want to live there.
>
>Thanks for letting me "vent" !  I've had to stay "calm" about all the 
>weather this week for the kids' sakes.
>
>Mark
>
>At 06:07 PM 5/9/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>>I'm here.
>>The storm dissipated as it came into the immediate area!!!!!
>>That was a close one.
>>When I was a kid 12 or so, we had one come right down through the woods
>>below my house.
>>Ever since that close call I'm terrified of the spring storms!!!!
>>Tom
>
>
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