Anyone ever have a close encounter with a tornado?

[Swede]

Many years ago a tornado blew my bedroom window in,as the glass flew by it cut my middle finger. I have a "U" shaped scar as a reminder.

[salin]

1. a baby tornado

twice funnel clouds blew threw our land - once I witnessed the side winds from it as it blew by the house (and I stood frozen - in front of plate glass windows, smart eh, as it went by)... next morning about 50-100 yds from the house we found a four foot wide swath of long grass looking like they had been tramped down - branches down all over the place. Knew we had been extremely lucky.

[xmas74]

2. Yep.

Watched it land in my back field years ago.

Also had to take cover in a ditch w/ a nine month old while one was zooming toward us.

[Pithlet]

3. I watched one from a mall parking lot, once.

It wasn't close enough to do any damage where I was standing, and it was moving away. It probably still wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I saw people looking up and pointing, so I went outside to see what was going on, and then I was transfixed. When I was a kid I could hear a nearby tornado from my basement. It was a couple blocks away doing damage to some houses.

[Beausoir]

4. I witnessed one take out the Marco Island Marriott's beach palapas

and huge catamaran one night from my balcony.

We were crazy to be out there. We had the tv on in the room and saw the warning...ran to look outside and boom! Everything started flying. The whole thing happened very fast. Maybe...2 minutes.

I saw a huge funnel last summer over my lake...heading AWAY from me. That one touched down and wiped out a farm.

[derby378]

5. Had a mini-tornado form right over our car while we were driving

As soon as we saw those clouds start going in a circle right over us, we veered off into a parking lot and took refuge in the nearest building we could find.

I actually ventured out into the storm just long enough to keep a huge chunk of wood from a sign from smashing into everyone's cars. A gust of wind took it, and yours truly let go of the sign before he became a human kite.

Having said that, however, I've never actually seen a tornado with my own two eyes. Weird, ain't it?

[texas1928]

6. I have had a few.

I was under a gas station awning waiting on a heavy rain squall to pass, so that we could see past the hood of the truck. The awning started to shack. So we took off up the hill from the station and turned around where we were facing it. and the tornado spawned and ripped the awning off.

[no name no slogan]

7. I've been in two so far

When I was two years old, I was in a tent during a tornado at night. A 100 foot oak tree got blown over onto the tent. I got hit on the head by a large limb and fractured my skull from ear to crown. It's one of my earliest memories. I remember my dad holding me down while I was X-rayed at the tiny country hospital. I spent the night, and went home the next day.

A couple other people weren't so lucky. One poor guy broke his collarbone, an arm and a leg. He couldn't work for six months. My mom bruised her collarbone while she carried me to the car-- I was unconscious, and my head was hitting against her collarbone.

The second one I was in I pretty much slept through (yup, another night tornado). It went right over our neighborhood and landed about a mile away and destroyed a new house under construction.

Tornados are one of the few things that really scare me to this day.

[djeseru]

8. Just a couple of little ones.

Saw one as a girl over the Benbrook area south of Fort Worth, and another in North Austin not long after moving there in 1998. The North Austin one broke my phobia of tornados...now I just have a healthy respect instead of an unhealthy fear.

[mvd]

9. That Limerick PA tornado in the mid 90s was close

Just a couple miles away. We just got bad lightning, heavy rain, and thunder.

[mvd]

10. I can tell you something that had an even closer

encounter with that one. The Limerick Diner, which I often go to. The tornado went right by it.

[Patiod]

28. That one destroyed houses like it was in Kansas or something

[mvd]

34. It was a low F3

Definitely strong enough to cause significant damage. Unfortunately, it came at night and killed a family.

[GalleryGod]

11. Believe it or not at the 1985 U.S. Open at Flushing

Touched down....proceeded for about 300 yards..wipimg out a banquet tent and opened up the chain link fence on to outer courts like a can of sardines...truly frightening

[Nikia]

12. Only one that didn't touch down

We were in school and had a tornado warning and were crouched down in the hallway for about a half hour. After returning to class for about 15 minutes, the tornado alarm went off again. I was on the second floor. From the first floor around the office, people were yelling "The tornado is here you have to get down now!." It was the fastest I ever saw people all get on the floor.
The tornado which was reported as being sported directly above our school luckily didn't touch down or even blow the room off.

[Wapsie B]

13. Yes.

We were in the middle of a bad storm. There was a small tornado touch down in the fields near us. The town about 10 miles from us wasn't so lucky.

[Deja Q]

14. Saw a funnel cloud - twice... 1993 and 2005.

Hope to see one this year... when travelling.

I need a vacation.

[jpak]

15. I had a close encounter with a water spout once

I was on a research vessel in the eastern tropical Pacific a few years ago.

On afternoon, I was standing on the deck talking to a crew member and saw the water churning about 100 meters off the bow.

I thought - cool: a tuna bait ball...

But the churning was rotating on the surface and getting more intense by the second...'

then I thought (out loud) "water spout".

I tried to explain it to the Chilean crew guy and finally got through to him when said "Wizard of Oz da-da da-da da-daaa dum" and waved my hand around like a tornado...

He freaked, ran to the nearest hatch and dogged it down so tight I couldn't open it (leaving me on deck).

I ran around to the bow and saw the funnel dipping down over the mast - boy I wish I had a camera for that one.

Fortunately, the ship sailed out from underneath it - when it was fully developed it was probably an F-1 and maintained itself for about 20 minutes....

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. Several

The one I remember the best is when I was 12 I was walking home from school and a tornado hit a school about 5 miles from where I was walking. I watched it form and drop down, only to learn later that it had destroyed an elementary school, just 15 minutes after dismissal.

The funny thing I will always remember is that where I stood, the weather was fine. A few clouds but no rain, no wind and no tornado. It was really creepy.

[KatyaR]

17. I've lived in Oklahoma my entire life, and I've been very lucky--

I've seen a few and been in the surrounding storms, but I've never had a close encounter. I do have a very good friend who was inside her home when it was destroyed by the F5 tornado on May 3, 1999. She's still scared to death of them to this day. And she's very lucky to be alive--I've seen the photos--there was nothing left.

[Radical Activist]

18. Twice in the last three weeks.

Not as close as your experience. My town has been hit twice in the last three weeks and both times it was very close to my house.

[joneschick]

19. we went to a friend's 40th bday parachute jump

and the county sheriff came by to tell us to take shelter. Fortunately, everyone was on the ground by then and we packed into a building with all the kids in attendance. Some of the guys went out and took pictures of the funnels going by. But they brought all the beer in first.

[bertha katzenengel]

22. Priorities!

:beer:

[bertha katzenengel]

20. La Plata, Maryland, April 28, 2002. (F5--or maybe it was d'graded to F4)

Scared the bejeebers out of us. It cut a horrible swath through La Plata -- the seat of Charles County -- leveling half the town, including homes, schools, landmarks, businesses, and killed some people. Five people? Seven? I don't remember. Five or seven too many. The killing swath was about four miles from our house as the crow flies.

But who cares. We are alive. A broken window, some holes punched in the siding, and a Tercel that looks like someone had at it with a ball-peen hammer. We sat it out in a cold sweat in the basement.

But we lived.

Edit: And a friend broke her ankle horribly while running down the stairs to her basement during a tornado in OKC. I can't remember if this was before or after April 19, 1995, the date of the bombing. Her name is on the Survivor's Wall at the National OKC Memorial.

[leftofthedial]

21. my El Dorado got creamed by a Toronado once

actually, yes. road one out in a below-ground concrete baseball dugout

that was the same year Kim K broke my heart. I told her once, "I have a you-shaped scar where my heart used to be." It didn't work. :-(

[Swede]

27. Awwww.

"You shaped scar". ;-)

[w8liftinglady]

23. multiple-worst when I brought my middle son home as newborn

hailstones the size of softballs...they suck

[entanglement]

24. They usually stay away from me

Scared or sumthin', I guess :P

[lpbk2713]

25. No tornadoes

But three hurricanes went over my house in six weeks time in'04. That was no fun at all.

[Lars39]

26. I got back from my dad's house an hour ago.

He lives in west TN. Most of the shingles are missing on his house. There are about 10 *very* large trees down around his house.
His two truck campers are trashed; one was tossed about 30 feet.
His AC unit was twisted off its base. Windows broken out on his shop.
It was totally horrifying to stand across the road and see that his house was directly in the path.
I don't think his house would have been standing if it wasn't brick. :scared:

Oh, and did I mention that he stood at his patio door and watched the whole thing instead of going to the basement? :eyes:

[EstimatedProphet]

29. I saw one forming as it went overhead when I was a kid

[AngryAmish]

30. Oak Brook, IL in the mid-80s

Was running to shelter as trees with 4-5 foot thick truncks were falling everywhere. I never heard them. They really do sound like freight trains.

[Patiod]

31. One came over the Ben Franklin bridge in Phila

and smashed up some garages in Society Hill (didn't hurt the solid brick rowhouses, though!) A friend was late to a show, and when asked why, she said a tornado had smashed in her garage. Which of course we didn't believe, since her place was right near the bridge on the river, and Philadelphia rarely gets tornadoes. But it was in the paper the next day. Damned thing had come across the bridge from Jersey like a bunch of drunk Cherry Hill boys on a Saturday night....

Also had one touch down across the street, put a tree into my apartment, and destroy a lot of rare trees at the Morris Arboreteum. Came back from a weekend at the beach, walked into the kitchen and thought "why is there a branch sticking through the ceiling?" Glad I wasn't home for that one.

Saw the sky turn green outside Detroit airport once, followed by a monsoon and some tornados nearby. VERY scary.

Got chased out of work one day outside Minneapolis "You have to leave now - we're closing the office - a tornado is coming - Pattie, we called you a cab and it's waiting outside".


Surprisingly many near encounters for an Easterner.....

[Midlodemocrat]

32. Didn't touch down, but there was a funnel cloud about two houses

away last year. That was pretty scary stuff.

My husband was in a tornado in Junior high in FL. It demolished the school. Fortunately, although there were a lot of kids hurt, no one was killed.

[Blue Diadem]

33. We watched a small one uproot trees as we were driving down

the highway. It was before the storm..wasn't raining yet and we weren't paying attention to what was going on out in the fields..that is until the cars in front of us hit their brakes. We sat there watching as it yanked up a few trees and then came across the road.

We also had a straightline wind come through..across the farm field and right beside our house. I thought it was a tornado coming..it was like a wall of black and then as it went beside the house it sucked out a window on that side..pulled plywood off the neighbors shed too.

Palm Sunday tornado hit in my Uncle's neighborhood back when I was a kid. His house was ok..just minor damage..but homes two doors down were flattened.